Get some great pro tips on how to use flower cutting dies to make beautiful, realistic paper flowers.

Over the years, I’ve collected lots of tips and tricks on how to use flower cutting dies to make a huge variety of flowers. These sunflowers, these rosebuds, this poinsettia – these are all examples of the paper flowers I have made for cards. I’ve shared tips on shaping the petals and adding color and today I am going to share more tips and tricks for using flower cutting dies to build and design gorgeous dimensional blooms.

Know that once you know how to shape and shade your die cut flowers, you can let your imagination guide you and you will quickly find that you can make gorgeous details so easily! The dies do the hard work – cutting the shape and scale – and then your touches just bring them to life. 

Let’s get started today on all these die cut beauties!

Card Base and Fancy Decorative Layer

• Use white cardstock to cut the A2 sized card base and Fancy Decorative Nested layer.
• Apply strips of mounting tape around the back edges of the decorative layer.
• Remove the tape backing, center the layer and attach it to the card base.

Color the Flowers

• Use white cardstock to cut the Stackable Flowers and Leaves #1, Stackable Flowers and Leaves #2, Stackable Flowers and Leaves #3, Cherry Blossoms and Flower Buds.
• Use Color Fuse Inks- Fuchsia, Lemon, Mango and Beachside to color the flowers.
• Apply the ink to the flowers using mini applicators.  Pro Tip:  The PanPastel Sofft mini applicators may look like makeup applicators but don’t be fooled.  These applicators were made specifically to use with PanPastel products.  I tried using them with my water based ink and was so thrilled with how well they worked to blend and shade the ink.

Form the Flowers

• Place the fuchsia flowers face down on the molding pad and gently roll over each petal with a large round stylus to form the petals.
• Turn the flowers face up and gently push down in the center with a medium round stylus.   
•  Place the large center flower sections face up on the molding pad and score lines on each petal using a fine detail tool.  Push down in the center of each section using a medium round stylus and attach the sections together using glossy accents. Note:  The fuchsia ink layered over the yellow created a brighter red color.  I created the yellow flower center and covered it with the fuchsia ink to match the petal tips.
• Place the blossoms, flower buds and tiny flowers face up on the molding pad.  Use a large round stylus to gently push down in the center of the aqua blossoms.  Use a small tipped stylus to push down in the center of the small flowers.

The Arrangement

• Use green cardstock to cut the Branch, Large Ivy, Greenery #1 and foliage from the Old Wooden Cart set.
• Attach the leaves and branch sections together using glossy accents and attach them to the card base using small strips of mounting tape and tiny pop dots. 
• Adhere the eight petal flowers and the aqua blossoms to the tips of the branch using glossy accents.  
• Attach the large flower in the center of the arrangement using glossy accents.
• Tuck the foliage sections under the flowers and branches to fill in the arrangement and attach to the card base using glossy accents.
• Attach the five petal flowers and tiny flowers to the foliage using glossy accents.  Pro Tip:  Use tiny pop dots in a few key spots to secure the larger flowers to the card base.
• Create additional dimension to the flowers by attaching all the round centers to the flowers using tiny pop dots.  

Check out my Flower Shaping and Coloring Video Tutorial to see how I form my flowers and apply ink using the mini applicators.

5509D Fancy Decorative Nested Die [ RBB ] 5508-03D stackable flowers/leaves #3 Die [ RBB ] 5508-02D stackable flowers/leaves #4 Die [ RBB ] 5508-01D stackable flowers/leaves die [ RBB ] 5510-02D Cheery Blossoms Die [ RBB ] Flower Buds Die Cut 5147-09D [ RBB ] 5162-02D Large Ivy [ RBB ] 5510-01D Branch Dies [ RBB ] Greenery #1 Die Cut 5162-09D [ RBB ] 5507-01D old wooden cart die [ RBB ]

The Color Catalog by Sarah Renae Clark [ SRH ] Color Fuse Set #5 [ RBB ] Color Fuse Set #1 [ RBB ] Color Fuse Set #2 [ RBB ] PanPastel Sofft Applicators 12/Pkg [ RBB ] Sizzix – Paper Sculpting Kit [ SBC | BLIC ] McGill – Paper Blossoms Collection -… [ SBC ] Amazon.com: McGill Paper Blossoms… [ AMZUS ] Scrapbook.com – Magic Mat – Standard… [ SBC ] Scrapbook.com – Magic Mat – Standard… [ SBC ] Crossover II Fabric & Paper Cutting… [ RBB ] Amazon.com : Dahle 550 Professional… [ AMZUS ] Scotch Advanced Tape Glider & Tape [ RBB ] Mini Glossy Accents, Ranger Accents [ ELH ] Amazon.com: 1000 Pieces Foam Sticky… [ AMZUS ] Amazon.com: Mini Foam Dots… [ AMZUS ] Amazon.com: Scotch 1/2-Inch by… [ AMZUS ] Teflon Bone Folder, Essentials by Ellen [ ELH ] Scor-Pal Measuring & Scoring Board 12×12 [ ELH ] Glue Dots, Mini (3/16″) [ ELH ] Amazon.com : Accent Opaque White 8.5”… [ AMZUS ]

I will say that the very best way to learn how to use flower cutting dies to make flowers that look positively pickable is to just practice. Play with your flower dies, experiment with mixing petal layers and shapes and see what you come up with! Remember, nature is never “perfect” so don’t think just because something doesn’t turn out the way you saw it in your mind’s eye, doesn’t mean it’s not going to be just beautiful.