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I adore flowers. No layout is complete with at least a few flowers. They are my go-to embellishment for giving a layout its final touches.
So imagine the irony when I was actually nervous making my own flowers. When I started scrapbooking I didn't have any fancy die cutting machine, so I stuck with using pre-made flowers. I figured that making my own shabby flowers would be complicated and I would mess them up. Oh, how I was right...but in a good way!
It's a simple but fun thing to do when you need a little something on your layout and have leftover paper scraps from the kit.
Now, for a couple of my layouts, I did use a die cutting machine:
I used a couple of paper scraps to create the paper flowers with some small brads to secure them. I like to crumble them up for some texture, and even brush the creases with Vintage Photo distress ink for some extra dimension.
For the layout below, I used some simple flowers in my stash and used one of the charms to make some whimsical centers for the flowers by taking the charm apart. On one flower I used the pompom, and on another I used a crystal.
On this following layout though, I created my own really shabby flowers by cutting rough circles out of paper scraps, and then sprayed the circles with water lightly.
I scrunched the paper in my hand to give it a really shabby feel. I then layered the scrunched papers while they were still damp and formed them into a flower shape, and set a brad in the middle to keep the two layers together. Once the layers dry, they stay in that shape very well. And there you have it...two very shabby flowers.
