Flower Power

I was making two Halloween mini-albums for my friend Lori (my first paying customer!) and I was looking for some black flowers to put on the covers. I adore the beautiful prima flowers, but they are a bit out of my price range. So I looked on utube and man, loads of videos on how to make your own flowers! I love all the ideas that were out there, but fabric and lace cost a bit now a days. I thought about fake flowers too, but they are bulky. On a trip to the Dollar Store I saw a bunch of black roses with leaves and spiders..hmmmm...lets see if I can make them work... I needed to make them flat and prettier. The first step was taking the pedals and leaves off the stem. I tossed the plastic pieces, and trimmed up 3 of the pedals to be smaller.

 

I used stickles to fancy up the edges..

 

 

I went to a couple of craft stores looking for rhinestones to put in the center of the flowers, they had  plain gems in a big pack for a reasonable price, but I wanted something a little more "jewelry" like. I found ones I really liked at Walmart in their jewelry making  section, but they were $1.50 each, so I decided to head to the fashion jewelry dept in hopes of finding a bracelet or necklace I could take apart. I was so excited when I spotted a big bracelet with huge princess square rhinestones..and it was on clearance for 5 bucks! I used my wire cutters to cut the bracelet and slide the rhinestones off. I used my glue gun and glued the petals together with some black  tulle from my stash. Finished it off with the rhinestone in the middle. Of course I forgot to take a picture of the two books I made!? But I thought the flower came  out pretty good for costing almost nothing to make!