Special Week - Valentine's Day - Roses are red

 It's a long time since I have made a foamiran flower that was not going to be used on a papercraft project but what could be more perfect for Valentines day than a single red rose. Made with petals cut from 0.6mm red foamiran  with added colour to the petal edges using a metallic red gelato (thankyou to Lady E for the tip when at the last retreat). Each petal was cut by hand using 3 different graduating sizes - you can use a petal shaped die such as  Lady E design flower 3 or one of the plastic stencils such as stencil 03  or   stencil 05 as these all have graduating sizes making it easy to get the right proportions. You will need 8 of the smallest, 10 or the middle and 12 of the largest petal shape. Each petal was shaped using the heat from a travel iron and maniputlation with fingers

The flower was then constructed around a small styrofoam  flower center. I secured a piece of florist wire into the styrofoam before adding three of the smallest petals to cover the styrofoam pice then 5 more around that. Then added a layer of the middle sized petals curling over the edge of some of the petals before adding another 5 middle sized petals applying glue to the lower half of the flower only and curling over the edge of all of these petals. I then added a layer of 5 and then a layer of 7 of the largest petals.

I added a calyx using dark green foamiran cut  out with a   5 petal die such as Lady 4 leaves 002  (you can free hand cut but I find trying to cut five petals evenly free hand almost impossible). I added some red soft pastel randomly to the edges before shaping using heat. The calcyx was then pushed onto the florist wire and secured to the flower using hot glue.

If you look at the base of a proper rose they have a bulbous area - to recreate this I took a 2cm styrofoam flower center  and divided it into two pieces with a just past the half way mark. The larger piece was then covered by cutting a circular piece of foamiran that would reach over the sides of the bigger piece of the cut center and then adhering this with hot glue. You will get a nicer finish if you take the foamiran over the cut edge of the sytrofoam pleating it in to get a smooth finish.. The flower stem was then pushed through the center of the cut edge and adhered to the center of the calylx. The stem of the flower was then covered with green  florist tape.

I created the leaves by cutting squares of dark green foamiran which were placed on a  leaf mould and then the iron placed over the top to heat the foamiran to make it supple. The iron was removed and the foamiran squashed with my fingers into the mould picking up the vein details. The leaf shape was then free hand cut and tiny slits made in the edges before gently reheating just the edge of the leaves to create the serrated effect that is typical of rose leaves. Floral wires were then attatched to the leaves using nail glue before three leaves were joined together to create a leaf spray which was then attatched to my rose.

Whilst there may seem to be a lot of steps with a little practice you can achieve a realistic flower so why not have a try as they have the advantage of not fading or drooping like the real ones do.