Book Flowers - Picture Tutorial

I have made a few book flowers in the past and thought I would try a few more. This time I used more layering and like the effect a bit more since it made the flowers fuller. I also decided to make some graduated sizes of the flowers. The book pages I used were from an old book that I got at my local library. NO, NO, NO I did not destruct public property. My library has a little table set up where you can get take books for free...usually books that aren't popular or too old for them to keep on the shelf. I had to explain that to my daughter before she had a heart attack and thought I tore up someone's book they were reading.

Supplies Used:
Old book pages
3/4" prong paper fasteners
2 3/8" Scallop Circle Punch
2" Scallop Circle Punch
1 3/4" Scallop Circle Punch
1 1/4" Scallop Circle Punch
3/4" Circle Punch

I punched 3 of each size to make the large flowers. For the medium size flower I left off the 2 3/8" scallop circle and then for the smallest I just used the 1 3/4", 1 1/4" and the small circle. I used the same steps of assembly for all sizes of the flowers.

Here is a picture of the layers stacked so you can see how full it is. I tried to align them to the center as much as possible.

For the very center I didn't stack the circles up evenly, instead I layered them unevenly so I could get a little extra fluff. A 1" circle punch might have saved me from having to do this but what's done is done.

Since there were 15 layers of paper I thought I better pull out the big guns and used my Big Bite to punch the holes for the paper fasteners. On a few of the flowers I didn't hit quite in the center but that wasn't a problem as I found you can just turn the layers to even it out once it is put together.

Once you get the paper fastener in place then just start squishing the layers to the center as shown in the picture. I did each layer individually so I wouldn't have the same crumple pattern on my layers and the flower would look more full and natural. 






After all layers are squished to the middle then just start pulling the layers down away from the center. You can give the flowers different looks by leaving the layers closer together and pulling layers further apart.








And TADA this is the end result. I think it resembels a caranation flower. I am not sure I would use these on layouts as I try to keep my embellishements a little thinner as to fit the layout in books but I will use them on projects like mini-albums or shadow box layouts. Actually I might even try a few on some gift bags come to think of it. I think that would be quite nice!





The cool thing is that you can embellish these pretty much anyway you want. On this one I inked the edges with some chalk in and then added a Candi for the center. The ones I made before I used a very decorative brad and sprayed with Glimmer mist. So ya see, it's all in how creative you want to get!