Susan’s Garden Club Die Collection

Hello everyone! How are you?

Have you ever fancied making realistic flowers? – Susan Thierney- Cockburn has been creating flower dies for some while now and she can help you with some clever dies that make it so easy!

She’s recently released a collection with Tonic Studios and so to celebrate how gorgeous the dies are…and to give you the chance to grab some yourself at a special price because it’s #wednes-die, we’re having a mini blog hop!

I did something reasonably quick- as I’ve not had much time recently. I went for a Christmas tag, as I’ll get plenty of use from a pretty tag!

The dies I’ve used are from one set; the Helleborus (Lenten and Christmas Rose) Die set.

This post is a little photo heavy, so if you don’t want some tips and extra details, scroll to the bottom where you’ll find the blog hop list and details of an exciting giveaway.

I decided to dig out my Foamiran sheets as this was a perfect opportunity to try them out with Susan’s dies. Yes, Christmas Roses are usually white, but I took some creative liberty! You can see the parts used to make the flowers if you want to use all of them. Next; onto the shaping!

This felt mat is what I use for pressing fabric ( it’s awesome for that) but happens to be equally fab for shaping. You just need a decent ball tool and one that’s not too small. Rub it along the cardstock centres ( I used card for the middle as I needed more structure) and then roll up and glue.

You might wonder what’s going on in that picture! Well, the Christmas rose has a lovely crown with almost furry bits on it. I didn’t have anything like Flowersoft ( which would have been perfect) so I went for a textural look by using Nuvo gold embossing powder! I simply added some glue and dipped them in the powder. There’s a hint of glitter too!

Next up…forming the flowers and leaves!

Ideally I’d have brushed Aquaflow pens (there’s an amazing deal on them at the moment…). I’ve done that on a previous ‘Susan’s’ project to great effect- but Foamiran won’t soak the colour in, so my Nuvo Alcohol markers were the next best thing. Just by flicking the pen onto the petals gives a depth. Next- I had to get my iron out (& find it first!!) to easily shape the petals. You can roll them and thin the edges using a ball tool- but I went for the quicker option.

Holding the petals with my tweezers and placing it very near the iron, but not quite touching it will cause the Foamiran to curl. Do it on the opposite side for a different direction, or do it on the edges. If you pinch or manipulate it straight after it’s warmed ( but not whilst near the iron!!) you can get some great natural looking petals. Playing is lots of fun!

In the spirit of full disclosure- you can see what happens when you try to add Nuvo Gilding Flakes before the black ink splatters were dry 🙄 ! Here’s after the cover up with a strip of cardstock…

You can see some of the dimension and the gold plus a little peek of the gold sequins. I simply trimmed some black card strips and added to a white tag at an angle.

You can see the different effects here with just using parts of the inner dies, and using just the 5 petals or adding more to make a 7 petal flower. I’ll be adding a whole bunch of petals in spring colours to make larger fuller flowers. Once you get cracking, it’s really very absorbing and you’ll love it!

One last look at the flowers. Do have a look at the dies in the whole range– you’ll want to start collecting them!

Now, onto the Giveaway….

GIVEAWAY:

Win a flower making tool bundles! (Embossing tools, Adhesives, Accents, Paper and scissors). For your chance to win, leave a comment along the hop. One winner will be chosen from the comments section on the blog hop participants so do comment along the hope. Blog hop winner will be announced Dec 9th on the Tonic Blog.

Next up from me to visit is the really lovely Christine Smith– she’s certainly worth a visit for some more inspiration!

Here’s the full list in case you get lost

Tonic Studios

Louise Sims

Victoria Dalziel

Keren Baker —–You are here!—-

Christine Smith

Galina Filippenko

Jen Kray

Bibi Cameron

 

Thanks for joining me. I’d love to know which are your favourite flower dies in the range!

Keren xx

 

PS- fun fact…the Christmas rose name comes from the Greek words which mean deadly food. It’s a warning that the flower is also deadly…..a bit like me 😉😂.

x