water distressed bloom tutorial

These Chrysanthemums are a variation of all the pretty flowers I have seen other artists create using water. For these I used my Quickutz Silhouette and the jagged edges "nesting flower" file. The pink flower on my layout is done with plain pink Bazzil cardstock. The variegated flower shown along side it in the photo above is the one I use in my step-by step instructions.
I began by creating my own patterned paper with Tattered Angels screens, shades of pink and red Glimmer Mist and a sheet of plain white card stock. It's pretty wild looking and not something I would ever use except to make these flowers.

STEP 1
CUT, PUNCH or TEAR YOUR CIRCLES

I waited for my sheet of patterned paper to completely dry before running it through my Silhouette. I learned that impatience doesn't pay if you try to cut it too soon. Even if it is just barely damp, the blade will just chew it up. This flower could easily be made by tearing your circles if you don't have a cutting machine.

For the fuller flowers I used all 8 sizes and layers from the nesting flower. For the flatter flowers I only used 4. I love the way you can vary the look of your flower just by changing the number of layers.

STEP 2
DAMPEN CIRCLES

I had a nearly empty bottle of cream colored Glimmer Mist that I filled with water to spray my paper and it delivers just the right mist with the added benefit of a little left over glimmer. You don't want to get the paper too wet or it tears and takes forever to dry.


STEP 3
BALL UP THE CIRCLES


STEP 4
GENTLY UNFOLD THE PAPER BALLS
I also like to tear 5 petals in the circle for extra ruffles. I took a photo, but it has been raining every day and some of my pictures didn't turn out.

STEP 5
POKE HOLES in the center of each circle and beginning with the smallest, INSERT BRAD and FOLD and squish the circle around the brad until each circle is folded up around the center. Secure the brad.

STEP 6
GENTLY UNFOLD your flower.

STEP 7
When the flower has completely dried, ink the edges and use your ink pad to fluff up the layers.


STEP 8
Attach flower to leaf base. This base is a flower daisy I cut with my Silhouette, dampened and crumpled just as I did the flower circles.

And here are the same flowers except smaller using patterned paper.



You can use this same method to create a vast assortment of flowers by using different flower patterns, layers, sizes, papers and folding techniques. Here are a few I made today using several different patterns.

These remind me of water lilies and also utilize a nesting flower file from Silhouette.

Roses
These roses are made with a scallop circle. The small ones above are made from the smaller scallops and use 8 of the same size. It makes for a very full flower. The smaller ones below used the larger scalloped circle shown, 2 large, 2 medium and one small. The large pink ones have just 2 circles. I added twine, a Petaloo flower and button to the center of one and left the other with just the brad showing to decorate later depending on the layout.

Sun flowers
These flowers use the flower daisy Silhouette file, which is also the file I used to create the leaf base.