Cardboard Flowers

We had received a gift card to Sears and we finally decided that what we needed was new plates.  Sears carries the Country Living brand which has some beautiful patterns.  I was tired of plain white, so this is what I chose.

When I started unpacking my new treasures, I discovered that they were separated by these cardboard pads. 

I immediately thought that they looked like flowers and decided to recycle/upcycle them, but it took me a few months to get around to the project!  In the early summer I was on a purple/green kick (I have purple carpet that I absolutely LOVE in my family room.) and I made this decoration for my mantle. 

Almost everyone who has come to my house has commented on it, so here is how I made the flowers.  I think you could do this with die cuts or any other circular shape.

You need some base shapes, two or three colors of paper, some scrap fabric and some embellishments.  You will need a glue stick or some spray on glue, hot glue gun, rough nail file, ink pad, and an Xacto knife.

You will need to glue the paper onto the base shape and then cut around it.  I use a regular old cutting board and an Xacto knife.  After I cut around the shapes I like to smooth the edges with the rough nail file.  It works like a sanding block, but is small enough to get into all the cracks and crevices!

Because I was using a lighter color paper, I chose to ink the edges for some depth.  When I use dark paper, I like to leave the edges sanded for the opposite effect.  I use these little Cat's Eye stamp pads by ColorBox because they are small, inexpensive, and work really well.

Once you get both layers done, use hot glue to secure them together. 

The middles of the flowers are where you can get really creative.  Here are a few ideas:

I used several layers of heavy felt cut in free hand circles and secured with a lone button.  I did actually stitch through all the layers because I wanted the edges to stick up a little.  It looks better in person than it does in this photo.

For the all-button look I threaded each button with some thin jute before hot gluing them onto the middle of the flower.  No actul sewing involved here.

This is the free hand circle again, but it looks totally different with different fabric.  I just love this burlap!

I used a background circle of burlap here with a paper medallion on top of it.  It takes two strips of accordioned paper to get a circle.  I hot glued everything down.

I used a hole punch and jute to connect the flowers together.  I have Advantage hooks on my mantle all the time, so it is easy to switch out banners for different seasons or events.  They are even strong enough to hold my Christmas garland up!  A few strips of burlap completed the shabby look and I just let the ends of the jute hang down.