Polka Dot Flower

Trying something a bit different today - nice and bright to counteract the dull, wet bank holiday weather. Maybe a bit too bright!LOL! I used my no tools method to create the main part of the flower from Doodlebug Lilac Swiss Dot paper, and a couple of snowflake punches and a single hole punch for the stamens using orange paper. Freehand cut the leaves and stem from Bazzill Bling Emerald. Cuttlebugged the orange Bazzill Basics card with the Swiss Dots folder, and hand doodling on the Magenta Purple Gingham paper. Three purple buttons to finish. It doesn't seem to matter what I do, but purple always comes out more blue in my pictures. The buttons are a much closer colour match to the flower 'in the flesh'.

Here's how I made the flower:

You may like to refer to these entries if you haven't seen them before -
No Tools Flower and Tool Substitutes
As usual - click on any picture for a larger view.

Cut out 6 fat petal shapes from the Lilac Swiss Dot paper.

Curl with the character shaper tool from the pointed end to the middle on the right side.

Flip the petal over and curl from the fat end to the middle on the wrong side.

This is the side view of the shaped petal when finished. I am holding it by the pointed end. This is also the way that I shaped the two leaves on the finished card.

Punch out two small snowflakes. (I know - the eagle eyed amongst you will have spotted that my shapes are a six petaled flower, but I did them before deciding to use a snowflake for the stamens. It doesn't really matter - six arms is what you're after.) Stick three shaped petals to each as shown. Then glue one assembly on top of the other, alternating the petals. I forgot to photograph this next stage - but after you have glued the two layers together, you need to go around the flower and adjust the petals so that the left side of each petal sits on top of the next one round. You can see what I mean in the finished flower picture at the end.

Punch out two different sized snowflakes and six 1/4" circles - I used a single hole punch of the kind you can buy at a stationers. My small snowflake is an EK success one, and the other is an X-Cut punch.

Stick the six little circles to the tips of the smaller snowflake as shown.

Emboss the circles with a circular movement to curve them up in a saucer shape.

Draw an imaginary circle around the base of the snowflake spokes with the embossing tool to make them all cup upwards.

Glue this cupped shape on top of the larger snowflake, alternating the spokes, and making sure that it is nicely centred.

Glue the stamen assembly into the centre of the flower.