Bird punch robin ( 2 step bird punch )

So to start you need two birds one red and one brown.. robin's are naturally a little bit more rust coloured than red but red shows up well in the photo's so make sure you have one full punch of the bird in brown and one bird body in red.

i wanted the branch to look a bit more wintery so i trimmed the leaves so they looked like twigs,

using a post it note to hold your red bird slide the red card back into the bird punch, i did mine the right way up so the top of the head is up as above,  I like my robins to have big red tummies!

I used a sponge dauber with white craft ink around the edges of the birds tummy and adhere to the bird,

The wing gets added as above you may also like to use a dauber with some chocolate ink around the wing edges too,

 

and don't forget his eye.. i used the paper piercer to make an eye..

so thats how i made my robin... really simple. have fun with your punches!

Abi

Paper roses with vintage vogue.

Hi Everyone, here is the long awaited tutorial of the roses which i demonstrated at the Exeter creative stitches show,

I used the vintage vogue flower but i'm sure it would look just as good with any 6 petal flower.  

you will need a wooden skewer, glue dots and crystal effects.

First you need to stamp and cut out 5 flowers, as below...

on One flower you need to remove one petal

on the next you need to remove two petals

and on a third flower you just need to cut a slit to the centre of the flower between two of the petals,

you will have two full flowers remaining, i like to cut the centre of one of these out so the bloom sits tidily.

Next working from the smallest petal  first using the skewer roll the single petal length ways into a sausage, with the stamped image on the out side, this is the middle of your flower..

Next working with each of the cut out flowers one at a time curl each petal  away from you as above,

next working from the centre of each layer ( breaking the fibres in the paper so it's easier to work with careful not to tear the petals) bend the base of each petal around the skewer so that the layer will curl into itself as above,

When each layer has been curled from the back they should all look something like this ( it was easier to take the photo with the flower upside down)

Each layer of the flower is now ready to be stuck together using your mini glue dots curl each layer into a circle joining up the petals,

the second layer of the flower will not over lap very much as you still want to be able to see two petals, as below,

as you curl and stick the petals together you can begin to build your flower as below:

the layers will work as follows:

image cut with 4 petals creates.. flower layer with 3 petals,

image cut with 5 petals creates.. layer with 4 petals

image cut with slit into centre.. creates layer with 5 petals  and so on..

Until your flower looks something like this...

the 6 petal image which you did not cut the hole from the centre is your base layer this makes the back of the flower tidy and easier to adhere to your projects.

Once you have assembled the flower you may wish to add some crystal effects between each layer of the flower so that it stays more securely

I hope that all made sense..... any questions please let me know!

Abi