Thursday 21 November 2013

All is calm!




We are preparing for our busiest time of the year, namely our two big trade shows Creative World/Frankfurt in January and Stitches/Birmingham in February so everyone at Sizzix central is super-busy which lends the title of this blog a slightly ironic twist!

November sees the release of the new range of flower dies from the uber talented Susan Tierney-Cockburn, I am also working on next years releases as we speak. It's a real challenge to pit your wits against mother nature (the ultimate designer) and try to make the flowers look just like the real thing.

This week I have used the new Poinsettia die from Susan's range which is a Thinlits set. To get the best out of Susan's collections you should check out the Tool Kit which is never too far from my grasp, it is a brilliant addition to any paper crafters arsenal. If you want to find out more about the Basic Techniques or the poinsettia Die Specific Instructions then click on the blue links.

I wanted to keep away from the classic red/green poinsettia, as much as I love it, so I decided to go with white petals and mint leaves. I die cut a selection of each, in total you would need at least 8 leaves and 16 petals. next I used the leaf tool to add a crease line down the centre of each leaf before moulding with the large ball stylus to shape the leaves and add natural looking creases. Finally, I pinched the base of each leaf between thumb and forefinger.
I took the mint green die cut calyx shape and added creases  before pinching and stirred the centre with the ball stylus. Next, I added the leaves one at a time overlapping them at random.


I shaped the white petals the as with the leaves. I applied a little PVA glue in a fine line along the edge of each leaf and dipped them in some Ice Diamond by Pinflair, you could also use micro beads or glitter, it's all down to personal preference at the end of the day! I created a base from a white calyx as before and attached the petals to create the larger of the two flowers using a mix of the larger petal sizes.


Next, attach the assembled flower into the assembled leaves and create the smaller/inner flower using an assortment of smaller petals before attaching a large adhesive pearl into the centre. 


Once completed it can be attached to a card, gift box, tag, candle, Christmas tree, hair slide etc. You can even create several to make a spectacular garland. However you choose to use the Poinsettia die set I know you'll have fun.






3 comments:

  1. Thanks,can't take too much credit for that! it's hard to mess up with these dies.

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  2. Gorgeous Poinsettia Pete. love it! Karen.x

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  3. Thanks Karen, it's a really cool die set and it could be used to create so much more than poinsettias too

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