April Flowers Bring May Flowers…

Last year my friend Shar made this wonderful wreath and I was inspired to make one for myself. It took me a year, but I finally got around to making one!

I went crazy making all sorts of flowers. It's a diecut explosion! I mostly used Tim Holtz dies Tattered Florals and Tattered Floral Garland but also made some with Spellbinder dies. (All the dies I used are in the supply list at the bottom of the post.) Here are some closeups - there is a lot going on in this project!

Flower #1 was made using the Spellbinders Spiral Blossom One. I found a helpful video here on how to roll the flowers easily. For flower #2 I used the Tattered Pinecone Die (yes, you can make more than just pinecones!) Aren't these little roses great? Tim Holtz has a great video on his website that shows you how to make them.

The butterfly is a Heidi Swapp ghost shape backed with colored and stamped coffee filter paper. I spread the back of the shape with Glossy Accents and stuck it down on the paper (make sure it is on a non-stick mat, some of the GA soaked through). When it was dry I cut around the shape.

For flower #3, the Chrysanthemum, I cut several of the long petaled flower from the Tattered Florals die out of coffee filters. I colored them with Mustard Seed Distress stain and various inks and mists. Once they were dry, I stacked about 6 of them up and stapled through the center with the tiny attacher. Then I fluffed the petals up to form the flower.

Flower #4, the peony,  is based on one that Shelly Hickox shared on her blog. For mine, I colored the flower parts first (misting and Seedless Preserves stain). I also left part of the styrofoam ball showing after painting the top of it yellow.

A few more notes on this project. For the base I cut a ring out of foamcore board and clipped the painted and stamped clothespins around the rim. Also, did you know you can make custom mists using Distress Ink re-inkers and Perfect Pearls? Check out the video on how to do this. You can mist everything in sight, lol.

I hope you have been inspired by my May flowers wreath! It makes me happy every time I go in my front door. =) Most of the supplies I used for this can be found at Inspiration Emporium. Follow the links below and use my code JUICE to save 10% if you go shopping.