Dahlia Paper Flower on Color Block Card Base

Hi, this is Laura, and I have made a card that goes beyond what my “style” is — it truly is one of a kind and out of my comfort zone — for the cutcardstock.com design team challenge this month. I chose to do the color block challenge, and I decided that I would begin with making a  color block woven card base with a paper flower that would be in the center of the card and its focal point. 

I started on the card mat first, which looks like a checkers mat. I cut two 4 x 5.25 pieces of paper in different colors. I choose some “matching” colors to my patterned paper, which is part of a discontinued Basic Grey line. It’s important to use double-sided patterned paper for the flower although you could use single-sided paper where one layer would be white. This won’t work for all papers though as white can clash with some prints. 

Making the checkered paper mats was easy — you cut the papers in one inch wide strips — one sheet on the vertical and one on the horizontal. Then you weave them through each other using repositional tape on the ends to keep the layers down. 

I made made a few samples to see which set of card base colors looked best on the busy patterned paper that I would use  for the coordinating paper flower. 

I wove the card stock colors together — and you can see that I have used:

DCS Shimmery Textured Wedding Cake 8.5x11 inch White Card Stock

Stardream Metallic Saturn 126lb 8.5 x 11 Card Stock

DCS Discount Card Stock: Pearlized Textured Jet Stream Blue

Basis PINK 80lb Cardstock

DCS Discount Card Stock: Black Card Stock

It turns out that although my patterned paper has all of the above colors, the patterned paper that I planned to use for the card looked best on the black and white card base.

For the paper flower, I decided to so a paper Dahlia flower. Years ago, I had made these Dahlia flowers, but I needed a how-to refresher. So I hit Youtube and found Connie Stewart of Simply Simple Stamping, and she shows how  to make a paper Dahlia flower the easy way. You should check her out if you are interested in a detailed visual how-to. 

When you have finished folding the petals, you line up the eight petals (I used more than eight) and adhere them in a circle on one of the cut circles not used. You can use repositional or permanent tape or liquid glue on the circle. I use repositional tape to make sure that I could maneuver the petals better and then used Art Glitter wet adhesive when I was happy with the outcome. 

Then top flower with a rhinestone or other round embellishment. I’m a perfectionist — and that makes paper folding challenging for me, but I think the flower came out nice and it looks dramatic against the color block card base. I matted the card base onto some extra patterned paper for a nice trim.

I hope that you enjoyed this project and will try making paper Dahlias too. If you have any questions, I’d love to help — and be sure to share your paper flowers here. I’d love to see your color combinations!