Guest Author - Vivienne Oestergaard
Who loves flowers? I do! When it comes to papercrafting, you can’t ever have enough flowers! You can put them on cards, on surfaces, on boxes, on scrap layouts, on your art journals all painted up, of course! Decorating these flowers are half the fun! Take some glitter and a glue pen and bam! You have amazing shine on the edges of the flower. Add in some pretty buttons or gems to the center of the plainer flowers and you’ve got an easy glitz solution! Tiny micro sized beads are perfect for touching up the petals. Even a little paint goes a long way to personalize the paper flowers.
Here’s an overview of various kinds of flowers available on the market.
Prima is the premiere of all the flower manufacturers. The amount of varieties they offer is just mind boggling. The flowers are made of various paper and textile bases and then embellished with glitter, bling, buttons, and look absolutely delicious! Their everyday paper crafting flowers come in adorable containers good enough to display, whether it be milk bottles, tins, or plastic containers!
Silk flowers are available in a variety of textures and models, including leaves. Prima also has a naturals collection which looks very realistic for those wanting that type of look. Prima’s website is for retailers only but you might want to look at the gorgeous products available. http://www.primamarketinginc.com/
Bazill makes pretty paper flowers. In plain colors, and in coordinating colors collected in tins. These flowers, you will have to layer and decorate yourself as they are plain in itself. But if that’s what you prefer to give it more of your personality, this would be a great project!
Petaloo makes embossed paper flowers in coordinated color combinations available in a package. The embossing makes a nice textural touch for your crafting. Petaloo also makes packages with different sized flowers in coordinated combinations.
Hero Arts makes patterned paper flowers in coordinated colors. Best part, they are coordinated to their papers, elements, and inks so it’s a complete set for you if you are not into coordinating your own supplies.
Isabelle’s Secret is a line I had never heard of but such an interesting way of marketing paper flowers! Packed into little containers shaped like a bra and a panty, the flowers are pretty similar to the others above.
Pink Paislee does a cute version of a flower. It’s made of a shabby, canvas fabric dyed in tea and crinkled. What a different look!
Whatever choice you make in flowers, make it your own by personalizing it. Glitter it up, scrunch it up, grunge it up, paint it, journal on it. Make it fun, make it as unique as you are!
