Aida flowers by Jane Johnson

Today I want to show you how to make flowers from Aida fabric (cross stitch fabric). They make a lovely change from paper flowers and also give a country feel to your project!

You will need:

Aida (cross stitch) fabric
Flower dies of your choice (I've used a Peony die from Magnolia)
Cutting machine (Big Shot, Cuttlebug etc)
Distress inks
Brads
String, wool or cotton (either will work OK)


Step 1.

Cut roughly around your flower dies using scissors and then run through whichever die cutting machine you are using.

I have used two different sizes for my flower as you can see above.

Step 2.

Crumple the flowers in your hands so that the fabric softens slightly and to fray the edges of the petals.

Step 3.

Ink the centre of both of the flowers with your chosen colour - I have used crushed olive distress ink on my flowers.

Your flowers should look like this after inking.


Step 4.

Take a second colour and ink around the edges of each petal. Here I have used victorian velvet distress ink.

Your flowers will then look like the picture above.

Step 5.

Cut a square from the Aida fabric roughly 4cm and place a large brad upside down in the centre.


Step 6.

Pinch the ends of the fabric around the ends of the brad and tie with string. I have used jute string to do this as it is strong and will not break as you will need to pull quite tightly. TIP: tie a loop in the string first and pass the covered brad through it and then you can simply tighten the knot. The corners of the square will be visible when the brad is the right way up. These are going to become the centre petals of you flower. You can pull them around so that they are equal around the brad. Ink the covered brad with crushed olive distress ink and the edges of the corner pieces with victorian velvet to match the other flowers.


Step 7.

Fold each flower petal in half and make a firm crease with finger and thumb from the base to the tip. You are now ready to layer up the flower with the covered brad.


Step 8.

Here is my finished flower. You can fray the edges of the petals more if desired to give a more distressed finish.

There are many possibilities for colouring the flowers. The flower on the right has had the petals entirely inked with victorian velvet distres ink and this time I covered a flat brad for the centre and instead of using the corners for centre petals I trimmed them close to the brad.

Step 9.

Here are both flowers on this country style gift. Pop back tomorrow when I will show you how I made this gift which is ideal for someone who loves gardening!

Jane x

http://janeslovelycards.blogspot.com/