First of all, in Quick Cards Made Easy, Issue162, page 66, Dorothy Wood has a quick technique called the “Dahlia Fold” . It starts with 8 die cut or punched circles and results, after three different folds, in a flower! Of course, being a British magazine, all the measurements are in centimeters but a quick conversion indicates that her flower used 2" circles (more or less). Well, I don't have any circle dies; nor do I have any 2" punches, and I don't trust my circle cutter to cut the same every time (even if I could decipher exactly how to set the radius of each cut on the durned thing!)... so I had to make a choice between 1 1/4", 1 3/8", 1 3/4" and 3" punches! The first three resulted in circles so tiny I couldn't manipulate them so I decided bigger would have to be better. My three inch punch isn't exactly a circle ... it's a scalloped circle, but I figured I could call this artistic license.
I started with a punched piece of scrap paper to try to figure out the folds. They weren't crystal clear to me but I finally came up with the right sequence.
I punched 8 scalloped circles from two-sided scrapbook paper (deep red on once side and white on the other), and proceeded to fold to get 8 "petals".
Next, arrange the petals in a flower shape. Well, my lack of precision showed and I used a LOT of Scotch tape on the back to hold the petals in place but I got there. I cut a 5 1/2" circle with my Fiskars circle cutter to back the flower (and hide the tape!). I covered the slightly messy center (reminded me of my centers when piecing many-pointed stars in quilting! Paper doesn't stretch and ease into seams when you want it to like fabric!) with a 1 1/4" circle of shimmery gold card (backed with adhesive form my Xyron sticker maker) and then added a chipboard circle with lots of glitter to the center of that. (Yes, that chipboard circle was part of a Christmas set but it worked with my color scheme and I decided to repurpose it!)
More gold paper (this a little lighter) on a white notecard, with the sentiment stamped in Archival "Jet Black". The flower attached slightly off the card (it will NEVER fit in an envelope!) and ...
Products used in the making of this card were:
- Stamps: Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi “Destination Art” (LCS047)
- Inks: Archival “Jet Black”
- Papers: Making Memories “Deep Red” (19871); Paper Studio “Gold Ore Metallic” (457770); scrap shimmer gold card; Paper Studio Value Pack Notecards “white”
- Embellishments: K & Company Adhesive Chipboard “Christmas Cheer” (566323)
- Adhesives: Xyron 500 sticker maker; Viva Las Vegas “Miracle Tape”; Scotch Brand tape
- Tools: Fiskars Circle Cutter; Marvy Uchida 3” scallop punch; Stampin’ Up! 1 1/4” circle punch