Scrunchie Flower Tutorial

Scrunchie flowers are a fun an easy embellishment you can use on cards, scrapbook pages, gifts, and anything your imagination can come up with!  I like to make a bunch of these at one time so that they are ready to go when I am creating my projects. I bet when you see how easy these are you will too!

 Supplies needed:

Paper – I like to use thin kraft parcel paper from roll, but any paper will do.  Just keep in mind the thicker the paper the less layers you will be able to use.   In addition to parcel paper, this technique works really well with newsprint and book pages.

·       Circle dies or punches.

·        Water bottle

·       Embellishments – I like to use self adhesive gemstones but you can use larger decorated brads or any kind of embellishment you like.

·       Mini brads – if you use a decorated brad you can skip the mini brads.

·       Liquid glue (optional).  I like Scotch Quick Dry.

·       Heat proof dish (optional).

·       Heat tool (optional).

·       Craft pick.

Step 1:  If using thin paper, fold several times so that you can punch or cut several circles at once.  If you are using thicker paper you may wish to skip this step.

Step 2:  Die cut or punch several circles.  I used eight circles for each of my flowers but the thicker the paper the less layers you need to use.  When using patterned paper I usually use four or five layers. That said, the bigger you make your circles the more layers you can probably get away with. 

 Please excuse all of the paper dust on my well loved Cuttlebug! I am cutting several sizes of circles here as I wanted to make several sizes of flowers.  I use the same size circle for each layer of my flowers.

Step 3:  Spread the cut circles out on your work surface and spray the heck out of them with your water bottle.  You want them to be very wet. 

When you see the finished project you may think that you can skip this step, but the wetting really helps the paper to form a nicely shaped flower in the end.  Trust me, it will be worth it!

Step 4:  Drag the circles around your work surface into any puddles of water remaining to make sure they are thoroughly soaked.  Gather them up into a pile.

Step 5:  Scrunch up each circle into a tight wad.  They look almost like spit balls only less yucky, lol. 

Step 6:  You can let these wads dry on their own, if this is your preference skip to step 8. If you are impatient like me on the other hand, place all of the paper balls into your heat proof dish.  I find this is the easiest way to keep them contained while drying.

Step 7:  Use your heat tool to dry the paper wads.  If you find they tend to fly out of your dish, use a scrap piece of paper to shield the opening of the dish.  Don’t use your hand as this is a really easy way to get burned (guess how I know).

Step 8:  Carefully unfold the paper wads.  Don’t flatten them too much.

If you find the circles are still damp in the middle you may wish to put them back in the heat proof dish and use your heat gun again. 

Step 9:  Stack the circles.  Again, mine are 8 layers thick, but you may wish to experiment to find out what you like best.  Try to line up the edges as best you can, but as the circles are crinkly this can be difficult so don’t worry if it’s not perfect.

Step 10: Use your craft pick to poke a hole in the centre of your circle stack.

Step 11:  Add a mini brad, or a decorated brad if that is what you would like to use.

Step 12:  Scrunch up each layer with your finger tips.  I try to scrunch each layer separately as they tend to stick together if you don’t.

At this point you can always add a little ink or mist.  If I am making a bunch, I will often stop here so that I can decide on ink and embellishment once I am actually finishing my project.  I usually keep a big bunch of plain flowers in a plastic zipper bag in my embellishment drawer.

Step 13:  If you are using self adhesive gems, add yours to the centre of the flower.  You may wish to add a bit of glue to make sure it stays in place.

Step 14:  You may have flattened your flower a bit when adding the center so this would be a good time to ‘re-scrunch’ the petals.

All done!   

See how easy that was?  I broke the process down into a lot of steps but once you get going it really doesn't take much time.  In fact, I cut a bunch of circles in the beginning of this tutorial with the intent to save most of the flowers for a later date, but once I got them done I decided to embellish them all: 

Click here to see my finished project.  I hope you enjoy making these flowers!  :)