TUTORIAL! How To Make Poinsettia's From Spellbinders Bitty Blossom Die

Hello Again!!

Last Month I posted a Christmas Countdown Easel Card that featured some gorgeous Poinsettia flowers.

Now Poinsettias to me just SCREAM Christmas!! and while there are die sets out there that you can buy to make these beauties, I'm not one to buy dies that your only going to drag out once a year at Christmas time!! So after having a quick look into how these companies create there Poinsettia's I came up with a way to create them using a die I, and I'm sure many other people, have already got!! The popular Spellbinders Shapeabilities "Bitty Blossoms" Dies...

 Now most of us have this die because it makes 3 GORGEOUS different sized roses as well as their own leaves! and at around $30 it's quite good value to get you started on making your own flowers. It was my first flower die.

So why not utilise a die we already own, to make NEW FLOWERS!! :)

 Now before I start this is the first Tutorial I have that I have attempted to use Video in some parts!! I'll apologise now for their quality!! I'm yet to buy a camera/mobile stand and so one my lovely 14yo son was holding the camera for me :) and the second I'm holding it in one hand while crafting in the other!!! Not an easy feat!! i will definitely have something else set up for future videos... :) Here we go!!

TUTORIAL! How To Make Poinsettia's From A Spellbinder Bitty Blossom Die

Tools Needed:
A word about tools!!!
There are the general tools that you'll need for any paper craft!!

• Sharp small scissors, if your doing fine work, then you'll need needle point scissors.
• Fast drying glue! if you have a point glue in a pen, this can work well!! As long as you don't buy the brand I had... which failed miserably in the end!! :/

However for paper flower making there are specific tools that are generally required to "shape" your flower to make it look more realistic.
These would include:

• Ball Stylus (medium/large ball and a small ball)
• Dense Rubber Mat 
• Veining tool, which looks like a bent slightly flattened toothpick!! (not shown below)

 The good news!! You don't have to go running out and buying this stuff JUST to make these flowers!! If your going to be making LOTS of flowers I'd suggest buying a set!!  If your interested, the set I'm looking at getting VERY SOON is available HERE!!
If you do not have these items I have made do previously with

• Empty ball point pen (no ink left!!, so that when you roll it it leaves a dent but no ink)
• Mouse mat
• End of a ball point pen!!  you know.. the smooth slightly rounded end!! or anything else in your house that has a smooth rounded end!! maybe a makeup brush!! or a texta, 

You'll also need for this project

• a Die cutting machine!! I'm using the Spellbinder Grand Calibur.
• 5 Petaled flower punch
•  Maroon or Red cardstock
• Green Cardstock
• Some Red beads (I have a picture later)
• Hot glue gun (comes in handy

Optional

• Distressed Ink - Tea Dye, or Vintage Photo
• Blending tool

Now we FINALLY start!! LOL..
We'll be using the 3 Leaf dies out of your Bitty Blossom die set!!

1. Punch 4 red/maroon flowers, and two green

2. This is the most time consuming part, but I have found the issue common in the Poinsettia sets you buy! You will need to cut 5 red sets of leaves (the three leaves you have) and 3 green. As you can imagine, running your dies through your machine 8 times in total to cut, and 8 times to emboss is annoying... but well worth the results!!! This amount will make 2 full bloom poinsettia.

3. Once die cut. Take your scissors and cut the double leaves into singular leaves.

4. At this point, using a blending tool and your distressed ink, ink around the edges of all of the leaves, red and green. On the green leaves, gently rub the blending tool over the tops and bottoms of the leaves, this will bring out the embossing more. (THIS IS OPTIONAL!!! but I do find it adds depth to your flowers)

 5. Group all leaves according to size.

 6. Sorry I have somehow missed a picture!! but taking your 5 petal flower punch, you place some glue on the end of each petal tip and glue your leaves in place!... As you can see in the picture below I have glued the two the red flowers on the right quite close to the center, with each leaf overlap each other a bit. Try not to get glue ALL over the leaf when doing this. Just keep the glue concentrated on the punched flower petal. this way your overlapped leaves will not all stick together!
The red flowers on the right are set further out from the center, only glued to the tip of the punched flower petals. This is ALSO how you will do the 2 green flowers. *Note, the two green flowers will not be made of of the same leaf sizes, but a mixture, just put together a combo of leaves that "look right" I believe I did the top leaf, and to bottom leaves, as pointed larger leaves on one, and filled in with smaller with the remaining, whereas the other i used the larger rounder in those positions*

 7. Taking your small ball tool  (OR empty ball point pen) Trace the ball along the main lines of the leaves top. I did this onto of my cutting mat to give a bit harder surface to work on, but still a little give.

 8. Then taking the leave in your hand, press your fingernail of your dominate hand INTO the groove you have made, and bend the leaf AROUND your nail with your other hand/fingers.  Your leaf should NOT be just folded in half, but should fold along a wavy line, as you move your fingernail up the vein you have created folding the leaf around your Nail.

 This should LEAVE you with 4 red flowers and two green flowers with bent leaves.. LOL I made a funny!!! :)

9. To shape these flowers further place a flower onto your mat, and with a medium sized ball tool press into the center of the flower, moving your tool in a circular motion, this circular motion breaks up the fibres in the paper and allows the paper to curl, giving you a cup shape!
It will be easier to do your spread out flowers than your smaller ones. with the smaller ones, make the circular motions smaller, and if the cup shape does not form as well, you can force the shape by pressing the ball tool into the middle of the flower, while gently pressing the leaves upwards towards the center. This is where it was important to not go crazy on the glue, because if the leaves are all glued to EACH OTHER, they will not want to move independent of each other.

 10. THE FUN PART!!! ASSEMBLY!!!! Now I found there were two distinct shapes by this stage, a FAT shorter leaf, and a SKINNIER long leaf, so I decided to group these into a FAT flower and a SKINNY flower!!

11. Taking one of the green bases place a dot of glue in the center of your flower. *Note!! Use better glue then me!! My flowers later fell apart and I had to re-glue them all!!! Later found my glue pen can be used for "temporary" or "permanent" bond.. must have had it on temporary setting!! WFT!! :/ *

12. Taking the larger of the two red flower, place it into the middle of your green base flower, off setting the leaves!! Hold down with your Ball ball or Biro end until glue has set.

13. Repeat gluing and place the smaller red flower in the center, Once again off setting the leaves.

14. Hold down the flower in the middle with your tool until glue dries..

 Repeat Steps 11-14 with Second flower.

 15. *These are the beads mentioned above. I bought them from my local $2 shop!!*
Taking your scissors, cut the 6 beads off of there nylon.

 16. Using a hot glue gun, (or other fast setting glue) place a dob of glue on the end of each bead and set in the middle of the flower, waiting for each of cool and set before going to the next!
Now hopefully, your lovely flowers look something like this!!! They are now ready to be used on cards. I used my hot glue gun to stick mine to my Easel card. After the FUN I had with my glue falling apart I wasn't risking anything!!! LOL

These instruction make 2 full blooms, but you can adjust the steps, by only making two centers, one in green and one in red, to make a smaller flower to complete a posy for your cards. Add a few more beads, under the posy, to look like berries!!

Well I hope you have enjoyed the tutorial. If anything doesn't make sense or if you have any questions, please feel free to leave me a message and I'll get back to you!!

Happy crafting!!

Xo