Mini-Bouquets

Today I made this card:

I used some very pretty patterned paper given to me by a friend, and cut the window using a Spellbinders Nestability die, the edges of which I decorated with Fruit Punch Stickles. I inked the edges of the pale pink paper behind the window with Spun Sugar Distress Ink, and adhered a mini-bouquet of tiny flowers made from florist ribbon into the window.

I made these mini-bouquets yesterday:

I was trying to follow the instructions of the man at the craft show on Thursday but what he made look so easy really wasn't easy for me!! In the end I found my own way of doing it, rolling florist tape with the shredded florist ribbon to make it stick together a bit better, and dispensing with the barbecue stick up the middle altogether, as this left a big hole which made the ribbon roll unstable. After completing the roll, I continued wrapping the florist tape around the base of the flower, and continued twisting it downwards to create the stem. When they were done, I squashed the petals flat to open up the little flowers.

When all the flowers were complete, I bound them together with more florist tape, and incorporated a wax paper triple leaf behind each bouquet - I have had these for ages and don't like them very much for most things, but as a background to these mini-bouquets they work very well, as they are flat and stiff. I tied a thin ribbon round each one, and then they were ready to apply to cards.

I'm beginning to wish I'd bought that man's flower making kit and DVD after all! They were a real fiddle to make, and it took me a very long time to perfect any sort of technique that worked, and in the process I wasted a great deal of ribbon! That didn't matter too much as the ribbon is very cheap, but it was a bit frustrating.

Next time I'm in town I shall buy some more from our local florist. Florist ribbon is great for lots of things - it shreds well, and it is very good for doing iris folding with - if you choose 2 shades of the same colour (e.g. paler and darker blue), you get a lovely effect as the two colours relate to each other. (Time I did some more iris folding - haven't done any for ages!)