Sneak Peeks of Tropical Travelogue, Craft Inspiration & Tutorial!

 Hello G45ers,

A very happy Friday to you all! Welcome to our blog and thanks for joining us for more crafting bliss! There's a lot of fun in store today! We've got gorgeous craft inpiration from the amazing Tara Orr. We're also unveiling even more images from our new Tropical Travelogue collection that we're sure you're going to love. The entire collection of Tropical Travelogue will be available to view on Monday on our Products page on our website. Every gorgeous paper will be on display along with all of the coordinating chipboard die-cuts, cling stamps and stickers. This amazing new collection will be arriving in stores in late November. We simply cannot wait to see what you will all dream up with this lavish new collection. With that in mind, we have some winners to announce for this week's blog prize. We asked you to leave us a Facebook or blog comment all this week for your chance to win the entire collection of Tropical Travelogue. We got so many amazing comments and we want to thank each and every one of you who shared your inspiring words with us this week. Our two winners, chosen at random from our blog and Facebook page are...

-Elena Panagushina

-Eniko's Playhouse

Congratulations to our winners! Elena and Eniko, please email us with your shipping information at info@g45papers.com to claim your prize. And many thanks again to everyone who commented this week. We will have another fabulous blog contest on Monday and we hope you will all participate! It's going to be great!

Here we have more beautiful images from Tropical Travelogue. Behold the gorgeous island-inspired beauty of this marvelous new collection!

"Tropical Travelogue"

"Paradise Postage"

"Exotic Destination"

And now get ready for even more inspiration as Tara Orr brings you this amazing altered tea box that contains stunning Steampunk Debutante coasters! It's so beautiful and clever! Plus there's even a great tutorial by Tara that shows you how to create some beautiful multi-dimensional roses with the Graphic 45 Metal Flower Staples! It's all so beautiful and fun! Take it away, Tara!

"I really wanted to do something a bit out of my shabby chic comfort zone - something a little more grungy/masculine.  I had purchased a wooden tea box from my local thrift store (ahhh the thrift store again!) and knew I wanted to alter it with something metal!  The Steampunk Debutante papers were perfect as were the metal doorplates, hinges and buttons from Graphic 45's Metal Staples collection.  I couldn't resist adding some flowers to the project but felt they looked out of place with so much metal. Solution - create shabby chic roses from the metal flowers!" -Tara Orr

"The Metal Flowers from Graphic 45's Staples collection are wonderful to work with.  While some people prefer to use them 'as is' (more of a 2D bloom), I prefer my flowers to have a little more meat on the bones! I decided to layer several flowers together and discovered that they were quite easy to transform into more dimensional roses. Below I have included a step by step tutorial for you to make your own metal flowers." -Tara Orr

Step 1: To make your shabby, metal roses you will need Tacky Glue, needlenose pliers, acrylic paint (optional) and Graphic 45 Metal Flowers

Step 2: Each rose requires 3 Graphic 45 metal flowers

Step 3: Begin by taking one of the petals and bending it tightly 

Step 4: Bend your petal upwards towards the centre of your flower

Step 5: Take another petal, opposite the one you just bent and bend it in the same way

Step 6: Continue bending each of your flower petals - each slightly less than the other so that they fit snugly around one another 

Step 7: Almost done! Notice how each petal is wrapped around the other?

Step 8: Once each of the petals have been bend and folded upwards, use your pliers to squish the flower tightly together

Step 9: To finish, take the outermost tips of each petal and bend each slightly downwards.  You have now completed the centre of your rose

Step 10: Take another flower and bend each of the petals just slightly

Step 11: Apply a generous amount of tacky glue to the centre of your flower

Step 12: Next, place your centre flower on top of your 2nd flower layer. 

Step 13: Begin folding each of the new petals towards the centre of your rose - you can actually do this by hand

Step 14: Each petal wraps itself around the other - hugging the centre flower

Step 15: All your petals are now folded upwards.  Once again, use your pliers to squish the entire flower together tightly

Step 16: Take the outermost tips of your second flower and slightly bend each one downwards as you did to the first flower.  You have now completed the second layer of your rose.  If you like - you can keep your rose like this. A little smaller but it most definitely looks like a rose at this point.

Step 17: Continue with the above steps 10 - 16 for your last flower and you will have the completed shabby metal rose.

Step 18: Allow the glue to dry completely.  Should you wish to adhere to your projects, a generous amount of tacky glue does the job wonderfully

Step 19: As a final step, you may chose to paint the outer tips of your rose a cream colour for that shabby chic look.  Again, this is an optional step if you like the rose the way it is.

Supplies:

Graphic 45 Papers:
Steampunk Debutante Collection: Time Warp, Tags, Nouveau Artistry, Steampunk Debutante, Eclectic Emporium

Graphic 45 Staples:

Metal Flowers

 Metal Hinges

Metal Buttons

Ornate Metal Door Knob

Geometric Metal Door Plate

Metal Tags

Stickers, No. 1 Sheet

Tombo: Permanent Adhesive Roller

Decoart: Acrylic Paint in Buttercream

Aleene's: Tacky Glue

Ranger: Distress Ink in Vintage Photo

Big thanks to all of our readers today and thank you to Tara Orr for her fantastic crafts! We hope you all have a fantastic weekend! If you have any Halloween festivities planned for this weekend we wish you a fun and safe celebration. Some of us here at Graphic 45 have big plans for Halloween and we're really excited to party down in our crafty costumes. Plus there's a lot of candy to eat! It's very exciting stuff!

Happy Halloween Partying and Papercrafting,

Team Graphic 45

 

Comments

[Zandra]

Your roses are fabulous! I love, love, love this new paper collection! It is my favorite of all the collections~can't wait to get it.

[Robin Shakoor]

What a fabulous rose tutorial Tara! This week's sneaks have been absolutely beautiful!

[Addie Wyatt]

The roses Tara are just so pretty .. thx for the tutorial :)
Graphic 45 you have simply out done yourself with this collection .. so colourful and the designs are just divine ... thx for another collection of outstanding papers .. :)

[Marcia D]

LOVE the travelogue collection! and those roses are beautiful!

[Ephémère13]

Wow! beautiful flowers tutorial...this is very pretty! Travelogue is super kit!

[Judy Webb]

The imagies and colors are spectular as usual!!

[Katt]

What a gorgeous project, Love it!!! Great tutorial, can't wait to get those metal flowers and give it a try :)

[Barbara Johnson]

Another packed fabulous post!! Love the postage stamp page!! Even the back is gorgeous!! The metal rose tutorial is great!! Love the shabby chic tips. and the tea box coasters are amazing!! Perfect safe spot for my witches brew tonight!!! HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! Party hardy!!! I'd love to see your costumes crafty ladies!!

[cat lacigale]

thanks you for the tutorial of the flowers ! And Thank you for these marvelous papers !!!

[SusanK]

Thanks so much for a wonderful tutorial! I just got a package of these and am anxious to try this for myself!

[Judy]

With each new reveal I am getting more excited about the Travelogue collection!

[Anne McIntosh]

The thrift store and the dollar store are my favorite places for altering basics. This tutorial on the roses is outstanding! I'm definitely going to give it a try. Thanks again for inspiration!

[Victoria Sturdevant]

Beautiful paper and a great tutorial!!

[Christina]

Gorgeous papers and fantastic tutorial! I'm going to have to try this out. Thanks! And congratulations to the winners!

[Maxine Hodges]

Running to get my metal flowers! Beautiful flower! Love the Tropical Travelogue!!!!!!!

[sherry]

Love the paper, the postage stamps are wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing the metal flower tutorial, they are gorgeous!

[KimberlyRae]

Amazing work! Girl, you've got Talent!!

[Chelsey V]

Wow that is amazing! I LOVE those flowers. Gonna have to try that out for sure.

[Pendra]

Wow, amazing flowers... thanks for the wonderful tutorial!

[natasha g.p.]

I'm so glad that you showed us. I wouldn't have thought to bend the petals.

[sharon gullikson]

Oh my gosh, I NEED some of those flowers. They are amazing.

[b. poteraj]

Jeepers creepers, I love the metal flowers. I'm going to think of what I can do with them.

[Dee in N.H.]

Wow and more wow!!!! Loving these papers and the tea box and those flowers just left me speechless! Way awesome!

[Kara]

The new papers continue to amaze! Don't know how I'll be able to wait until next month when they come out !!

[Pam]

The roses are fabulous! Thanks s o much for the tutorial. I have to make some!

[Patti J.]

Wow, gorgeous! Thanks for sharing the fabulous tutorial!

[Renee VanEpps]

This really makes me want those metal flowers! Great job Tara!

[Eniko's Playhouse]

Great tutorial! I had no idea tacky glue would do the trick...thank you!

[Bartemous Black]

Love these!

[ava]

Great tutorial Tara!!!
mucho gracias

[Linda Slattery]

Tara, Thanks for the great tutorial. I have been wanting to buy the metal flowers, but have been unsure of just how to use them on my projects. Thanks again, and great pics. Linda S. in NE

[Kathy Shuppert]

love your papers.....I used to hoard them but now......I enjoy everything made with them.

thank you

Kathy S...........

[Beth Griffith]

Love the paper weaving ---

[Beth Griffith]

Wow - anything can be altered - what great inspiration!!!

[Kjøkken Kjøkkeninnredning]

Wow, I am blown away. Very cool flowers.