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<< Previous   of   Next >> Jonetta Rose Coffin  (click to enlarge) A craft book on paper flowers provides punch-out patterns to work with. Jonetta Rose Coffin  (click to enlarge) These paper flowers were made with materials from the craft book. Jonetta Rose Coffin  (click to enlarge) This flower was made with the crafter's own paper, using punched out pages for patterns.   ADVERTISEMENT   CONTACT THE HERALD Melanie Munk, Features Editor munk@heraldnet.com   Published: Sunday, May 11, 2008 Until the real ones grow, make paper flowers By Jonetta Rose Coffin Special to The Herald We've had the April showers, now bring on the May flowers. While waiting for the real things, which, like our own, may be a bit late in your neck of the woods, why not brighten up your day with some pretty paper posies? We made a great find at Craft Mart in Marysville the other day: a book of pre-cut cardstock flowers by K & Company. The book contains enough punch-out pieces (578, according to the cover) to make dozens of colorful flowers, such as the ones shown in our photo (the two large ones on the right and the two smaller ones in the middle). All you do is choose the pieces you want to use -- you can create your own color combinations and styles -- glue or staple them together and embellish with glitter glue, buttons or whatever. A couple of notes: If you are a crafter who needs lots of instructions, you'll probably be a bit intimidated by the lack of same in the book. You kind of have to wing it, but it's pretty simple in this case. Also, the book suggests gluing as the best way to attach the pieces, but we tried sewing and stapling as well, only because we were worried about how secure the glued pieces would be. Sewing is a lot more trouble than it's worth, as you almost have to use buttons (note the centers of the small flowers), or the thread will tear through the cardstock, and in the end it doesn't feel too secure. Stapling works well if your stapler is long enough to reach the center of the flower. We have a standard size stapler and it was fine for one of the largest flowers. That said, the quick-dry tacky glue we used did work just fine and has held together well. The book costs $15, plus or minus a couple dollars depending on where it's purchased. And there's a bonus: You can use the punched out sheets as patterns for more flowers made from paper of your own choosing. We included a punched out page with our photo of the book so you can see what it looks like. If you check out our flower photo again, you'll see that the white sparkly and red flocked flowers were made using the book patterns and decorative papers found in the scrapbooking section at most craft stores. You can also try using different papers such as origami squares, gift wrap, colored or printed tissue and, for a fun twist, newspaper. Use the flowers to decorate packages, a party table or any place that needs a touch of springtime. For a lark, we made another flower without using a pattern -- you know, the good old fashioned method of just folding a piece of paper in half and cutting out a few petals (see the gold/brown flower on the far left in our photo). We cut several layers of different size and shape petals, stacked them up and added a button in the center. You can do the same thing and see where your imagination leads you. Oh, we almost forgot, when making the flowers (whether in the book or on your own), fold the petals down the middle to give them some dimension. With lighter-weight paper, like our gold/brown sample, try curling the ends using your finger (like when working with curling ribbon), but be gentle so as not to tear them. K & Company also offers punch-out books for making a variety of gift boxes and holiday ornaments, which cost about the same, $15. We've tried both the ornaments and boxes and they are fun to make, unusual and quite attractive. As with the flowers, you can use the punched out pages as patterns to make more boxes using paper or cardstock of your choice. The only caveat we have is a stronger version of the one we gave above about instructions. While the flowers aren't hard to figure out, the ornaments and boxes are a bit trickier, so if you have trouble without good written instructions, you'll really need to slow down and do some studying of the pieces and layouts before jumping in. Contact Jonetta Coffin at jonnirose@netzero.net or C/O Herald Features, P.O. Box 930, Everett, WA 98206.

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