Guest DT Shilpi Gupta: Punchcraft Sunflower Tutorial

Hello Crafters, What's up? Today I'm so glad to Welcome a crafter on our blog who is known for her Punchcraft Projects. She makes amazing and innovative Punchcraft flowers. Your mind will be blown away seeing such a beauties. Without taking much time, Let me introduce to you Shilpi Gupta from Shilps Crafts - Unique Handmade Gifts 

Over to you Shilpi 

Hello,I am Shilpi gupta. I am a software engineer by profession and a crafter by heart. I am married and have a 3 month old daughter. I started crafting 4 years back when I used to make greeting cards for near and dear ones at birthdays and anniversaries. My husband saw those greeting cards and motivated me to take it seriously and to look at it from professional's view. And then I started taking it more seriously, looking for YouTube videos tutorials, following blogs to become aware that such crafting world exists too in this world :)

I started with handmade cards then gradually progressed to flower making and scrapbooks. That day forward i never looked back.

I am so excited to be a guest designer at Rainbow Craftykari. This blog is full of inspirations, tutorials, pictorials, demos and what not. You name it and this blog has it. You will find all the basic and advanced information about the new craft products.

Though I use different kind of techniques in my crafting such as mixed media, scrapbooking, card making, flower making but I love to make different kinds of flowers more. So today I will be sharing with you all a detailed pictorial on how to make real looking sunflowers in simple steps. Girls grab your cup of coffee and sit back as this post is picture heavy.

Let’s begin:
For this we will use Heartfelt creations Classic Sunflower die.

1st step:

We will use 3 large, 3 medium and 1 small die cut outs as shown in picture to make one large size sunflower.

2nd step:

While distressing the die cut remember never apply or dab the blender directly on paper. Dab it lightly on the craft sheet near to the die cut and then in circular motion start moving the blender towards the die cut. Keep distressing the die cut in circular motion. This will ensure even spreading of ink without blotches or spots of ink.

 I have used Mustard Seed and Wild Honey Distress Inks here, we will color the cutouts/petals. Color the whole petal using mustard seed distress ink and apply wild honey distress ink just on the pointed petals of each cutout.

3rd step:

Now we will start embossing and molding the petals to make them look real. Take the smallest pointed embossing tool and make 5-6 parallel lines from outward to inward direction as shown in the picture. This will help in curling the petals on their own. I have used Leather perforating pad underneath for embossing.

We will repeat this step with all the cutouts so that all our petals are ready. And it will look something like this. As you can clearly see in the picture, petals are slightly curled towards the center and the embossing has given depth to the petals.

4th step:

We are almost done and now we just need to arrange the cutouts to make a complete sunflower. We will glue down all the cutouts in offset position one upon another. Two petals should not be overlapping each other while arranging the cutouts. For gluing we will use Aleene’s Tacky glue. Its best glue to be used in punch craft and flower making.

After arrangement of all the cutouts, this should look like the below given picture.

5th step:

And the last step is to complete the center of the flower. I have used mustard seeds for the center as it gives that perfect natural look to the sunflower. You can also use brown glitter balls.

Note: Use transparent adhesive to stick the glitter balls to the center. I have used Inkessentials glossy accent. It is strongest and transparent in nature.

And here is your completed sunflower. Isn’t it beautiful? Blooming as if just now plucked from the garden.

It is rightly said flower is not complete without a leaf. Here we will also see how to make leaves for this flower.

6th step:

We will take punch cutouts using lily punch. You can use 100- 120 gsm colored cardstock available easily in Rainbow Craftykari Store. I have used 100 gsm dark green colored cardstock. You can also use 150gsm white iris sheet and then distress it using desired color.

7th step:
We will emboss these leaves in the same way as we have embossed flower cutouts creating vertical lines.

Are these sunflowers and leaves super easy to make? So our flower and leaves are all ready to be assembled on a card. And here we have our finished card.

 I have used RTV Clear silicon glue to adhere flowers and leaves to the card base. This glue is my first choice because it gives me ample time to arrange my leaves and flowers. It takes around 30 mins to set permanent. Unlike hot glue gun which dries as soon as it comes out of the gun which makes it impossible to rearrange the flowers and leaves in case one does not find it pleasing to the eyes.

Hope you all liked the tutorial as much I do. You can leave your queries in the comments section and we shall get back to you.

List of materials used:

Heartfelt Creations Sunflower Die

Distress inks Mustard Seed and Wild Honey.

Embossing tool.

Leather perforating pad.

150 gsm iris paper

100 gsm dark green colored cardstock

Inkessentials Glossy Accent

Aleen’s tacky glue

RTV Clear silicone glue

You can find these products at www.rainbowcraftykari.in