Wire and Felt Flowers Tutorial

Hello friends! Today I have a tutorial to share with you using Eileen Hull's new Twist & Style Tool by Sizzix.

 

I like to try out tools and this one is lots of fun. You can use it to twist wire, cords, floss, fibers and more. 

I made some very simple, but durable, felt and wire flowers, which you can do quickly for yourself or as a gift to someone. They look great together in a vase, but I almost prefer just the one flower on its own in a glass jar. I also made a serviette ring using the same technique.

Start by die cutting flowers in any colour felt that you'd like. I used wool felt, which makes the flowers more durable than if you use ordinary felt. Any of Eileen's flower dies will work great. I used the Heart & Soul Flower and the Pansy Flower. But the Romance Flower, for example, would also look great.

I used mainly copper wire for my flowers. I am not sure what gauge it is, since my roll of wire didn't have that info. I've had this wire for a really long time. If the wire is too thick it might be hard to twist (also depending on how hard the wire is). I also used some silver coloured wire. 

The Twist & Style tool consists of two parts, a handle and a holder. The latter has a suction cup underneath and you want to make sure that you place it on a smooth surface. I used my floor since my desk wasn't smooth enough. 

Cut a piece of wire and fold it. Place the folded end over the peg on the suction cup part and tuck the two loose ends into the handle. Turn the handle to twist the wire. You can find a video where Eileen shows you how to use the Twist & Style Tool here. 

Here's a close-up of the ends being tucked into the handle. Use the screw to make sure they are stuck.

The handle itself looks like this. It is very easy to twist the wire. The tool comes with instructions.

I cut off a part of a twisted wire to use for the flower. Pierce holes through the fabric and thread the wire through the holes. Bend it underneath the flower and thread the stem onto the folded wire. That is, the loop part of the stem which had been placed around the peg on the suction cup holder of the tool.

Thread the wire through a button. I used buttons from the Cotton Candy jar by May Flaum/28 Lilac Lane. Use pliers to shape the wire. Buttons from the same jar were used on yesterday's Wilderness layout.

I made some different shapes, with twisted wires in varying lengths.

Here's a look at the silver coloured wire.

Cut another piece of twisted wire and shape into leaves, fold the wire around the stem and press with pliers to make sure that they are stuck.

I also mixed silver-plated and copper wire. This particular stem has two pieces of wire folded over and twisted, so it is thicker than the others.

You could make the flowers all the same, or mix shapes and colours as I did.

The serviette ring was made in the same way, using two folded pieces of wire for the ring part, so that it would be sturdy enough. I only made one to show you as an example, but it would be easy to make them for a whole table.

You can place the flowers in any type of vase or jar, as long as the top is not too narrow for the leaves. Instead of using a vase, try twisting the stems to attach them to something, or stick one into a flower pot.

I like the way the twisted stems look through the jar. This particular jar is one of Tim Holtz Mini Mason jars.

I placed the other flowers into some vintage jars that I found at a second-hand market.

You can of course make the flowers from other materials, such as printed paper, old book paper, leather, grungepaper, matte board, or really any kind of surface that you can die cut with a Bigz die, which are a lot of different surfaces.

Some of the flowers are two layers, some three and some (like this one) have four layers of wool felt. I liked this glittery button.

They look great on their own too, and you can easily make many to give as a little gift at a party or maybe a wedding.

Here you can see all the flowers together in the one jar. 

I was having a look for serviettes in the kitchen and only found either Christmas or superhero serviettes. There are a lot of pretty serviettes stored in the basement, but I didn't have time to go get them, so spider-man it is. 

Thank you so much for stopping by today and don't miss all the inspiration posted this month by the Eileen Hull Inspiration Team on the Twist & Style Tool. 

Happy crafting!!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

Sizzix Accessory - Twist & Style Craft Tool	Sizzix Bigz Die - Flower, Heart & Soul	Sizzix Bigz Die - Flower, Pansy	Simon Says Stamp Wool Felt OCEAN WAVES	Simon Says Stamp Wool Felt White
28 Lilac Lane COTTON CANDY	Tim Holtz MINI MASON JARS	Big Shot Machine	Sizzix BIG SHOT MACHINE Gray And White	Cutting Pads, Standard, 1 Pair (Grape)
Sizzix MINT Standard Cutting Pads	Sizzix Multipurpose Platform, Extended

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Wilderness Layout

Hello all! We've had a good last week of the summer holiday and this morning school started. It's a little sad that summer is over, but I am hoping we'll still get some more warm days. I am also looking forward to autumn, and love to watch the seasons change. Since it is Monday, there is a new Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge, and our theme is Go Fish.

Don't forget that there is still some time to join the Summer Vacation Kid's challenge (you can see Anton's spooky contribution here).

When thinking about the challenge, I happened to find the photo below on my desk and decided to do a scrapbooking layout.

This photo was taken about five years ago at a really beautiful spot on the South African south coast, and I journaled about the beach and that particular trip on the back of the layout. It made me miss South Africa quite a bit. The lovely papers are from Prima's French Riviera paper pad, and I had fun adding lots of embellishments to this page. 

The patterned paper was given some colour with Prima's water soluble oil pastels, using a white pastel, for a white-washed look and two shades of blue for colour. Water was added to the oil pastels to make them look like watercolour paint. I also coloured a piece of watercolour paper with various crayons, added water and then used that paper to die cut shapes, such as the words here. The background was stamped with Tammy Tutterow's Spellbinders Dear Ruby stamp.

I used some of the stickers from the French Riviera pad, and also die cut Delicious Monster leaves with Tim Holtz Tropical Sizzix set, which I also used on last week's Tropical Beach tag. The leaves were also given colour with the oil pastels. The buttons and pearls come from May Flaum's 28 Lilac Lane Cotton Candy jar. 

The banner flags and letters are some of the stickers included in the paper pad, folded over a piece of twine. 

Patterned papers and strips of burlap were layered behind the main panel, with the edges being distressed. I also die cut some seahorses and grass from the paper I had coloured with the pastels. The grass comes from Tim Holtz new Garden Greens Thinlits set, which contain a lot of useful leaf and branch designs.

Shells were cut from the patterned paper and coloured slightly with the pastels. I layered the photo on top of some cheese cloth.

I had a piece of acetate in my scrap folder which had been stamped with the Simon Says Stamp Falling Snow stamp, and Stazon Cotton White. Stamped acetate adds an instant layer to a layout. Here you can also see some more of the stickers, a die cut heart and buttons.

The paper pad also had some images of fish, which I cut out.

The title letters are also stickers from the paper pad. This is the actual name of the area where the photo was taken. It is such a great name for a place.

Here you can see the effect of the layers again.

More buttons, shells and leaves. I really liked the sizes and variation of the buttons in the Cotton Candy bottle.

I hope you will join us in our Go Fish challenge. As every week, you have a chance to win a $50 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp. You have until Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in.

If you want to, follow Simon Says Stamp on Instagram, they post great stuff daily. 

Do you use Instagram ? If so please add #sssmchallenge so we can see your entries there too.

Thank you so much for stopping by today!

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

Prima Flowers A4 Paper Pad FRENCH RIVIERA	Tim Holtz Sizzix MINI SAND & SEA	Tim Holtz Sizzix ADVENTURE WORDS SCRIPT	Tim Holtz Sizzix FRIENDSHIP WORDS SCRIPT	Tim Holtz Sizzix GARDEN GREENS
Tim Holtz Sizzix TINY SHAPES	Spellbinders Tammy Tutterow DEAR RUBY	Simon Says Cling Rubber Stamp FALLING SNOW	Prima Flowers ARTIST QUALITY OIL PASTEL CRAYONS	28 Lilac Lane COTTON CANDY
Hemptique THICK NATURAL Hemp Cord Twine	Prima Flowers 8.5 X 11 WATERCOLOR PAPER	Tim Holtz TEXTURED SURFACES	Tsukineko Stazon COTTON WHITE	Ranger Archival Ink Pad JET BLACK
Ranger Inkssentials Non Stick CRAFT SHEET	3M Scotch PINK ATG ADVANCED TAPE GLIDER 1/4	Tim Holtz Tonic PAPER DISTRESSER	Tim Holtz Tonic Craft SCISSORS	Ranger Inkssentials GLOSSY ACCENTS
Sizzix BIG SHOT MACHINE Gray And White	Tim Holtz Sizzix BASE TRAY	Sizzix MAGNETIC PLATFORM	Sizzix MINT Standard Cutting Pads	Tim Holtz TINY ATTACHER Stapler
Tim Holtz DISTRESS SPRAYER Ranger

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