Sunday 31 January 2016

Making Dollhouse Pansies From Paper

This is a tutorial that I have been promising for quite a while, so here it is, finally. It is a difficult one to do a tutorial on, as the components are so very tiny. So you will have to pay attention to the steps of the process. If I am unclear, please contact me....





This is the type of pansy I will try to make. It is the old-fashioned variety, which is bigger than the ones most of us are used to today. The finished pansy is approx. 1/4" (4 mm) across, which translates in Real Life to 3" (7.5 cm). However, it would be next to impossible to make them any smaller, and it is kind of "set dressing" anyways; if it is recognizable and more or less in scale, it works.







You will need: 4, 1/8" (2mm) paper circles, and 1 heart in a similar size, in your choice of colour (the wee pink things just below the leaves); a tiny green circle or star; a stem wire tipped with yellow paint; small oak leaf punch-outs; fine-tip pen or colouring pencil in a darker colour than your flower colour; and the usual like glue, needle for shaping and piercing, tweezers, shaping mat and the like. I use a brick of oasis to hold my flower parts as I "build" them.


This is where you need to pay attention to the steps, as my camera couldn't photograph them clearly, due to the tiny size. CAUTION: This is fiddly!


1. Pierce hole in green centre, thread onto tipped stem but DO NOT glue.
2. Colour tip of heart and sides of 2 circles.
3. Shape by drawing a V with a line up the middle, using the edge of a needle, on all 5 flower petal parts.
4. Glue 2 plain discs to the star or green disc, at approximately the 11 and 1 o'clock positions; another way to look at it is a pair of mouse ears, edges barely touching.
5. Glue 2 coloured discs, coloured edge in, at the 9 and 3 o'clock positions.
6. Glue heart, point in, at the 6 o'clock position.
7. Carefully push up this assemblage to just touch the coloured tip of your stem. Allow to dry. When dry, bend stem 90 degrees, just behind flower head. (There is usually enough glue residue to grab the stem, but if you wish, you can always add a tiny bit more.)
8. Vein the leaf shapes. Glue onto stems. NOTE: If you "plant" your pansies, place the leaves very close to the "ground" at the base of your pansy plant; if you are putting them into a vase, glue leaves but leave enough stem below them to sit above the edge of the container.
9. You can add a bud; just bend it down at quite a sharp angle.







Here is a photo of the finished product; as I said, it is very difficult to get these tiny flowers into decent focus with my inexpensive camera, and they would insist on swivelling around in the oasis block. Remember, the finished flower is only 1/4" or 4 mm across! I hope this gives you the idea.


Look up pansies in Google images; there is such a wonderful, incredibly wide variety of colours and colour combinations to choose from. Hopefully, this set of instructions will work for you....

4 comments:

  1. Thank you for sharing your tutorial. It is so helpful to see how others work.

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  2. Thank you Marijke. I'll probably need to borrow a couple of your punches to try these out but, after reading the instructions through I understand exactly what you said. Thanks so much! You know how much I enjoyed making flowers with you before. These should be fun! - Marilyn D., Oromocto, NB

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  3. You're very welcome, they're too fiddly for me to want to make too many of them for any mini gardens other than mine...

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  4. I only wish that your photos had more close ups because your pansies are Adorable! Thank You for sharing your techniques! :D

    elizabeth

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