Flowers from punches

This is not exactly recycling, more re-purposing, as the Americans would call it.

I've been dabbling with making flowers, after all the gorgeous things I've seen recently: I know most of you will know all these tips, but just in case..... Flowers are so expensive to buy and most of us have punches or dies that you can use to turn into flowers with a bit of work. Here are a few I've come up with:



The top right one is a large flower punch, about 1.75" across: the top left is the same punched item but with the ends of the petals cut across using fancy-edge scissors - in this case, Victorian. Bottom right is a flower made with seven punched-out folk hearts (ordinary hearts will work just as well, but I only have the folk heart punch). Bottom left is a flower made with eight pieces cut from a scallop punched piece of paper: mine is a circle, but you can do the same with a square or rectangular one - just cut it into triangles.

And this is what you could make:



At the back is the scalloped flower, then the standard 5-petal punched one, then a 5-petal cut with the Victorian scissors and finished with just a small 5-petal punched flower. All punched from an old book and then dobbed and dabbed with different ink pads. Curl the edges of the petals round an old knitting needle to give a more 3-D effect.

If you don't have the right punches, draw round something circular and then cut it out with any old fancy-edge scissors. Either use it as it is, or cut from the edge into the middle to make separate petals, then pile the layers like I did. Put a brad through the middle, or a button or similar if you don't have a suitable small punch for the tiny middle flower.

If any of you have any other ideas on this, please add them to the thread.

Lynda

These are brilliant Lynda, i'm off up to my loft now!

I need to make some flowers with the text on them.
Really fallen for those.

Great tips Lynda, Thanks.

This is excellent, Lynda.

(moved it to Hints & Tips)

Brilliant thank you so much for this, I so hope the girls have a little sleep tomorrow to have a go at these, I have kept the free Advertiser newspaper for these sort of thing xx

Thank you Lynda great ideas and another good tip from Emma to use a newspaper. gonna try these tomorrow.

gorgeous lynda, wow. I did once see a flower punched out and then the petals put back through a corner punch to changed the petals...didn't work forme though LOL.

Will try this though. thanks x

Had another idea: star punches. Tiny one to make flower centres. Big one to make flowers - you could ater the ends of the petals there too. Or use just one "leg" of the star to alter the end of another type of petal by making a notch in the middle. And on the triangle theme: even if you don't have any punches, you could cut out triangles and then cut across the top of each petal with fancy-edge scissors - or, if you don't have the scissors, just cut across with a wavy line or a curved line with a notch in the middle.

Glad you're enjoying these: can't take all the credit, though. Saw a demo on YouTube, an Aussie girl, using fancy label die-cuts and cutting them into triangles with the fancy bit at the end of what became the petals. Made me think I could use the scalloped circle punch instead and it went from there.

Like Emma's idea to use a newspaper if you haven't got an old book - but check with your local charity shop: they're bound to get books in that are falling apart and they can't sell so they'll probably give you one.

Using a corner punch to alter the petals is a good idea, Karin: it won't work for me either, as I only have one corner punch and it's a large one, so won't really make much difference to the end of a smallish piece of paper.

Keep the ideas coming, girls: we all love making something for nothing!

Lynda