Well, it’s already time for another YNS Fun SUSIE Q-TIP post from me, Susan (susiestampalot).   I came up with the idea for this month’s post right after and on the same day I posted last month’s tip/tutorial and I just couldn’t wait to put this together and show ya’ll what I came up with for this month! (making sure it worked in real life as I had imagined it in my head first of course!)   I have always loved how Jen, in one of her blog posts, had used the wings from the Dress Up Fhiona die set to make a flower.  It inspired this creation.  Can you guess what dies I used from Your Next Stamp in a non-traditional way and what I made with them? 

If you guessed the Balloon Trio Dies to make that gorgeous flower, you are RIGHT!!  You win, so go have a cookie and come back so I can show ya’ll what I did…

Ok, so are you ready?  Wipe the crumbs off your face and let’s roll…

Here’s what you’ll need, plus some adhesive.  I used my ATG gun.  The circle punches I used on the white were the 1 3/8″ for the base of the flower, and a 1″ for the flower center.  The quilling tool won’t be used to quill, but to just bend the petals around the stick part, so it could be a pen or something similar if you wish and the button can be substituted for any type of flower center ya’ll want to use.  A big ol’ piece of bling would be fun!

NOTE that you only use the longer oval and oblong balloon dies.  The circular balloon gets to sit this one out.

First, using the balloon dies, cut out 8 of each of the two balloon shapes (for a total of 16) and cut the tails off.  If you would like more dimension to your new “petals”, slightly bend all of them around the stick part of your quilling tool on the opposite end from where the tail was.  I bent mine up a little, but down is ok too, for a different look.

Punch out a large circle with your circle punch (I used 1 3/8″).  Using it as a base, adhere 4 of the long oval “petals” to the center of the circle at the 12, 3, 6, and 9 o’clock positions. 

For the second layer, adhere the other 4 long oval petals on top of the first layer, in between each of the already adhered petals from the first layer.  (It kind of makes an “X”.)

Using the smaller, oblong balloons, start a third layer, again in the 12, 3, 6, and 9 o’clock positions.  The smaller petals should be adhered so that it is more of an “inside”, shorter layer and their ends shouldn’t be “even” with the ends of the previous 2 layers.  It’s ok if you need to overlap them in the center a bit to make this happen. 

Then adhere the last 4 petals in the same way as you did on the second layer, creating a sort of “X” with the 4th layer of petals.  Punch a circle (I used the 1″ punch) from whatever colored cardstock to highlight your flower center.  Attach the flower center of choice.  (Button with twine here.)

Now comes the REALLY FUN part–using your new handmade flower embellishment that no one will realize you made with BALLOON DIES on a project!

I chose to create a cute gift box using a Milk Carton file I downloaded and cut out with my Cricut.  I cut a couple of 1×12″ strips of yellow DP, wrapped them from the bottom to the top and adhered them with Scor-Tape to create a band and flag-ended the top.  I stamped the sentiment using the Happiness set.  The leaves were stamped with the brand new Sunflower set by Ann Ellis and then cut out.