Making Paper Roses - more details

 

I did a little more experimenting with my file for the paper roses today.  I wanted to try enlarge the cut to make some really large flowers.  I found that it was easier to assemble large flowers but it is still tricky to get the petals to line up correctly to give a natural flower look.  I tend to have problems with hot glue guns so I used Scor-Tape as my adhesive and it worked great!

If you missed the post about my inspiration for these flowers and the DCWV version that started the whole project, you can read it HERE.

I used a shape from Accent Essentials as the base to give me the spiral and then added circles and ovals to create the petals.  Here is the preview of the final shape.  It is similar to the template you can download from the DCWV blog but not exactly the same shape.  I may try some other shapes to form the petals...

You can see how I fit things together in this screen shot.

I made this shape in two larger sizes to make some BIG roses.  Here they are when I first removed them from the mat - they are totally flat.

I used a chopstick to curl each of the petals so the flower would have some shape.

Here is a closer view of the curled petals.

I assembled the center by turning the petals around the center and securing every so often with Scor-Tape.  I could have stopped here but I decided to add the outer layer.

This resulted in a rose about six or seven inches in diameter.

If you keep the petals more vertical the flower will be a bit smaller.

As you twist and turn around the flower, you sometimes need to make a fold or pleat to get the petals to fall correctly.

I need to practice some more to keep my petals from getting into rows - the flowers look more natural if the petals are staggered and not overlapping directly.

The first flowers I made were much smaller.  They all were made from the same spiral shapes - I just resized the file for each cut.

This photo gives you an idea of the relative sizes of the flowers.  You can adapt the size and shape of the petals to create exactly the flower you would like.  Paper choices are important - these are all test cuts on extra paper I had on hand  - I will choose the papers more carefully to get the look I'd like my final flowers to have.  I think the larger flowers could use a more defined center and might be better done in two coordinating papers.


I still need to convert the file for Gypsy users and test it.  I'll try to post both the Design Studio and the Gypsy versions sometime on Friday.  I started to have some pain in my left shoulder today and it is bothering me a lot - I don't know if it has anything to do with the procedure they did on my back but I need to rest and see how I feel in the morning. 

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