As I was drifting off to sleep last night, I had visions of medallion flowers dancing in my head.  This is not surprising since medallions and medallion style flowers are popular and are starting to fill up the shelves at scrapbooking stores.

Anyway, I had an idea to make my own.  Unfortunately, I had to go to sleep, wake up, go to work...then I was able to make it!!!!  Yay!  I am sure I am not alone!  I have been thinking about it all day.  So, without further ado, here is my version of the medallion style flower. 

Step 1

Using a set of nesting punches or a circle cutting system, cut/punch 2 large circles.  Mine were a little over three inches.  I used the Creative Memories cutting system because that just happens to be what I own.  I also have a set of circle punches, but my biggest one was one and a half inches.  I wanted a big flower, so I used my cutting system.  You can also use your Cricut, if you want. Find a circle on a cartridge and cut it out anywhere from 2-3 inches.

Step 2

Cut or punch out two slightly smaller circles.  I used my cutting system again.

Step 3

I then punched a hole in the middle of all four circles.  Again, you can use your cutting system or punches.  I punched a hole in the middle of mine to help me with the next step (Step 4).

Step 4

Having the hole in the middle lets me know where I need to make my cuts.  I then fringe-cut it all the way around.  I occasionally cut one petal completely off, leaving a little gap for aesthetics.

Step 5

After I fringed the larger circles and the smaller circles, I crumple them up in my hand.  This helps to give them a better 3-d look and they will stand up a little bit better on your layout.

Step 6

I unravel all of the circles and will next start layering them.  I start with a larger circle and put 3-d foam tape on two sides of the middle.

Step 7

I add the next layer, the larger circle and then I glue the two smaller circles on top.

Step 8

After I layered it how I want, with all four circles glued together now, I wll add a chipboard embellishment to the top. 

Step 9

The last thing I do is finish the back.  I liked to punch a circle and glue it to the back.  It helps the flower adhere better to a layout or chipboard album.

Ta-da!  I have been waiting all day to do this!

Post a picture of your flower using this tutorial!  Let me see what you did!

Thanks for looking!

Andrea

This is a follow up of my previous post regarding getting the most out of your scraps.  Another way that I like to reduce waste is to use negatives.  If you have never heard of the term, a negative is the image left after your punch, for example:

The piece to the right that is left, those butterfly outlines are called "negatives".  I have always thought that negatives are beautiful and artsy in their own way and I try to use them in layouts.  In the layout below, I punched butterflies for another project and had the negative strips left.  I layered them behind my pictures for a little bit of "something-something".

This was a quick and easy layout.  I curled up the edges, stapled them, inked the edges, layered the negatives underneath the cardstock and matted photos, added a journaling spot, some butterflies on top and voila!  If you read my previous blog post, I will point out to you that the squares were punched from patterned scrap paper immediately after I was done wih that particular layout, so the squares were handy to be used.  The butterflies were also already punched out and I used those as well.  This was a very quick and easy layout since I already had everything punched an on hand.  Just another quick trick for easy layouts.

Here is a layout where I used the flower negative:

Oh, one more thing. I did a sketch of this layout for you.  I am not Ms. Professional Photoshop or anything, so please forgive the rudimentary look...but, you get this gist.

You can use any punch.  You can also use Cricut negatives instead of a punch.  Sometimes I cut out a succession of die cuts on the Cricut and have those negatives. 

Happy Friday!

Andrea

I admit, I am a very 'green' scrapper.  I like to use every bit of the paper I cut up, whether on a page as an embellishment, as a mat, as tags, etc.  I use paper all the way down to the smallest piece.  I hate throwing paper away, especially pretty paper.  Don't get me wrong, I don't hug trees and sing kumbayah, but I do like to be conservative and reduce, reuse and recycle when I can.  Scrapbooking is no exception.

In the past, I used to save every scrap, even when it was ridiculously small, in an envelope.  However, it seemed that I would sometimes not pull out the small pieces and not use them very often.  I banished this poor paper to vellum envelope purgatory....never to be seen or heard from again.  So, I devised two ways to reduce that paper stack.  1) Use all of my paper scraps on the current layout (make mats, flowers, pinwheels, tags, etc.); 2) If I cannot use all of the paper, turn it into something else immediately.  The key word is: immediately.  I know, I know, this sounds so much harder than just tossing a piece of paper in the trash can or storing it.  But, I want to show you my paper scraps:

In the top pict, that is all the big scraps I have.  In the bottom one, you see a few small paper scraps and a lot of 4x6 mats.  Reason being, when I am finished with a project.  Anything over six inches goes into the Cricut pile (I have a 6x12 Cricut Create-top pic) to be used later on a project the cardstock scraps under six inches go in the drawer above and the patterned paper gets converted into an embellishment immediately.  The small scraps are immediately punched or stamped and sorted.  Here are some examples.  You see my hand a lot in the pictures.  I was trying to give you some perspective on how big the scrap is.

This was a long strip.  I use these a lot for borders, but I needed the butterfly "negative" for a project.  In my next post, I will show you what I do with punch negatives.  I store the punched butterflies for a future project. 

The above is a small piece of paper that I am likely not going to pull out and use again.  But it is a pretty cardstock with glittery flowers.  Too pretty to throw away.  This is what I do, I use the two below punches to convert this scrap into something that I can just grab and use for a future layout.  Notice that the only piece of paper left is the very small scrap I am pointing to.  I put this in the paper recycle bin and store the punch outs for future layouts.  The squares I use to layer underneath a journaling spot or on a tag.

Here is another idea:

And another idea:

Again, very little is thrown away.  The second negative, the grey butterfly, I will use to make a tag.  That will be in my second blog post about using negatives.  Lastly, some other things I do with paper scraps are to stamp and then punch them.  I have several small stamps that I do not use very often on layouts, so this is a good way to utilize those little stamps.  It is also a good way to sneak a little stamped embellie onto your layout or tag.  Also, since I participate in a lot of swaps, I have an unending supply of embellishments to pull from. 

At this point, you may be saying, where do I store all of this?  I am glad you asked!  I save every small container that comes through my house.  I am very much an advocate for reuse, recycle and upcycling.  So, I have an unlimited supply of altoid tins, embellishment packaging, small containers I get from consultants (like the little Stampin' Up trinket packaging) and that is what I store all of these little scraps in.  Also, I keep clear bags handy.  If I do not want to put them away so soon, I will put them in a clear bag and hang them on my magnetic board.  Don't forget to throw those small pieces into the recycling bin. 

I hope this has inspired you to upcycle and recycle, as well as given you some ideas on how to manage that avalanche of paper scraps.