Upcycling Leftover Bits of Paper into Handmade Flowers

My card today uses a new March release from Queen Kat Designs called Faerie Funk I by artist Deanna Davoli.  After coloring her with my trusty Copics, I glitzed her punk-dyed hair with a little Stickles.  I framed her with textured cardstock diecut with QuicKutz Cookie Cutter Frame (CC-SHAPE-045-1) and my Epic Six.  I then placed her on leftover patterned cardstock, adding some lace, pearls and handmade (by me!) flowers.  Except for her wings, she could be anyone's teenage daughter.  Love those headphones--I wonder what's on HER playlist?!

I'm on a roll with my March "going green" project.  How are you doing?  Today, I made the handmade flowers for this card.  I took a few pieces of leftover double-sided patterned papers I had saved from previous projects.  My downfall (and success) has always been that I throw nothing away!  Today this habit showcases a success story.

I punched circles from these bits of paper; some regular and some scalloped all around 1to 11/2 inches wide.  Then I brought out my brads, some wax paper and my can of spray starch.  I chose to make my flowers with five circles.  I laid out five circles at a time, and sprayed them with the starch.  While still wet, I pushed each circle onto the end of the brad, closing it when all five were together.  Turning it around, I pulled each circle up and squeezed it toward the center, keeping my fingers wet with starch. 

When all five circles were squeezed up together, I placed the "almost" flower on the wax paper and gently pulled apart each of the circles into a flower shape.  You can pull apart and squinch together until you like what you have.  Then I tackled the other sets of circles until I had wet handmade flowers.  The hardest part was waiting for them to dry (so I used the time to make this card using the QKD stamped image.

So that's my "going green" project for today, and a great way to use up all those little pieces of patterned paper that were too pretty to toss!  If you're interested in some blog candy, check back on my March 1 blog post for the details and your chance to win.  Contest ends March 17th (kinda like finding your own personal pot of crafting gold, huh?!).
And don't forget to check out all the March releases from QKD!