Thistle Embellishment Tutorial by Julie Lavalette

Happy Easter to Everyone. It's Julie Lavalette here today hosting the blog and I can’t believe how fast this month is going in as Guest Designer. I love sharing my crafty ideas with you all and today I thought I would show you how to make a Thistle from Embellishment#1, when I first saw this die I thought it would make a perfect Thistle. Isn't it wonderful how we can all look at a die and see something different in it.

I noticed wooden breadboards in our local Bargain Shop and just thought this was begging to be altered. After giving it a Shabby paint effect I cut out the Chicken Wire Frame from white cardstock and then pressed some areas into my embossing ink and used silver embossing powder on to it to give a metallic effect. With the areas left not embossed I dragged the paper through some distress stain to give it a rusty effect.

Now for the magic of Cheery Lynn dies - to make My Thistle.

Step 1 – Paint a cocktail stick green.

Step 2 – Using Embellishment#1 and cardstock, cut out 6 large & 2 medium in purple/lillac and 1 large & 1 medium in green and emboss all pieces in the centre so the paper curls up.

Step 3 -  Glue medium green one onto base of large one and then glue both onto cocktail stick. Gradually gluing and layering on other pieces until you have 3 large left. With these ones crush at the base and glue together. Let the glue dry

Step 4 – Now we want to join the 2 pieces together. Onto the crushed piece that is not on your stick, you want to place glue at the base and a third of the way up this piece.  Now place into the centre of the stick and gather all the paper up and hold together until the glue grips. Try to be patient at this stage until your glue has thoroughly dried.

Step 5 – Start to curl your edges with tweezers on you green parts and the medium die layer of purple you had placed in. This all helps give texture.

Step 6 – You now want to ruffle the top part of your Thistle so placing a couple of fingers around the middle to support it, bend your papers back and forward.

Step 7 – Cut out green cardstock using your flourish leaf strip and glue a few leaves into place. The  B216 Wreath Strip would also look fab as leaves on this.

Well I hope you all managed to follow my tutorial and have fun making a Thistle. As you can see this die is fantastically versatile, as if you look at my small purple flowers they are made from the same die and they also look great in the centre of larger flowers.

        Cheery Lynn Dies Used :

• B181A Embellishment #1
• B178 Flourish Leaf Strip
• B311 Chrysanthemum Strip
• FRM144 Chicken Wire Frame
• B118 Pair of Ferns
• B307 Sweet Williams Strip
• DL102 - French Pastry 
• DL234 - French Pastry Tiny Doily 

Hope you all have a creative weekend and I’ll see you next week Saturday for my final Guest spot.


Julie x