Today I am going to share with you how to achieve beautiful roses using the awesome Cheery Lynn rose dies.

I am using Large and Medium for this project.

I suggest you try to select a paper that has a similar colour palette on both sides for this. You will choose a ‘front’ but on certain angles, the ‘back’ will show too. In some cases you may find it acceptable to have a contrasting colour/pattern on the reverse side, but I like to have them matching, like this pretty piece from Basic Grey that was in the February Full Tart. A lovely pink and red floral on one side and a plain coordinating colour on the back.

It’s a basic sandwich, and I have positioned the die so that the star shaped leaf section hangs out so it won’t cut from the paper I have chosen for my petals. That leaves more pretty paper for flowers! I will cut leaf coloured pieces later from a separate paper.

The die comes with 6 petals and 1 leaf, but I prefer to cut 8-10 petals for a fuller blossom. This is up to you.

The dies will cut right through 2 thick pieces of card easily so you can quickly cut many petals at once!

Now, determine your pattern paper  ’front’ and ‘back’  and arrange all petals but one right side up.

The final petal will form the centre bud of the rose and this will be used ‘upside down’

The die cuts a tiny hole in the centre of each petal, so pop a little brad through, with your ‘wrong’ side facing up and pinch each petal between your thumb and forefinger.

Apply a little glue to all the ‘wrong’ sides of this petal and wrap them all around the brad and each other until you have a tightly rolled bud with your selected pattern on the outside.

Pinch all the petals of every remaining  flower.

Now you start to assemble the rose around the centre bud. This time, your ‘right’ side is facing up.

Continue adding petals until you are happy with the way the flower looks. The first few petals that go on will be squeezed up quite tightly around the bud, and as you add more and more, relax the squeezing until finally your last petal added can remain completely flat.

Try to alternate the petal position each time, or wait until you are finished and then rearrange each layer until it looks good.

Cut your leaves out of different paper and join it all together by closing off the brad.

You can also make a quick and easy bud by using just the one tightly rolled petal over a brad and wrapping it with a custom cut leaf. You can see above how I have adapted the leaf that comes with the die, but shortening the leaves.

And here it is with the leaves wrapped around a bud.

 

The beauty of making your own flowers is the perfect coordination of papers and embellishments. I love that the roses are made from the same pattern paper that is on my card so it all matches so well.

Restocks of Cheery Lynn dies will be in store very soon.