Hollyhocks floral tutorial

When I did my layout featuring a photo of hollyhocks I thought nothing but hollyhocks would do for floral embellishments so I decided to make my own.  I really like how they turned out!

My supplies list for this flower:

Spellbinders Nestabilities Blossom Three - cut 2 the same size
McGill starburst punch - cut 3
Glimmer Mist - for these I used Cadillac Pink and Tattered Rose
Liquid Pearls in Bisque or Perfect Pearls in Biscotti
Glue - I use hot glue
Paintbrush

Ok let's get started.  For my large bloom I used the 2nd largest die and cut two.  For the smaller blooms I used the 3rd largest die and cut two.  Cut between the petals so that you can better manipulate the petals.

Spray the cutouts with the two colors of Glimmer Mist heavily but don't spray the colors over top of each other, rather you want to achieve a varied color effect.

Then place the end of paintbrush handle or something similar in the center of the flower and scrunch the flower around the paintbrush handle.  Then use a heat gun to semi dry the flowers.  I find it easier to open the flowers if I leave them just a tad damp.  Then using the paintbrush handle, curl the flower tips under just slightly.

Now we will paint the center of the flowers.  You can either use liquid pearls slightly watered down or Perfect Pearls.  Paint from the center of the flower towards the outside.  Also paint your starbursts so that everything is sparkly.  Hollyhocks have an iridescent glow to them, at least my fuschia colored ones did.  I used Liquid Pearls on the large bloom and Perfect Pearls on the two smaller.  The effect is nearly identical but I think I liked the Perfect Pearls just a tad more.  Dry the blooms completely after painting the center.

Now glue the bloom with the painted center onto the 2nd bloom alternating the leaf pattern.

Hollyhock blooms are bowl shaped so cup the blooms in the palm of your hand to shape them.  I sprayed a little water on the back of the blloms to aid in shaping.  Curl the petals under a little while lifting and making the bowl impression in the center.

Glue the three starbursts on top of each other alternating so that the "stamen" are not lined up and then glue the assembled starbursts in the center of the bowl impression.  Take your tweezers and lift the "stamen" from the starbursts to resemble the center of a holyhock.

And here are the finished flowers.  One note, the glimmer  mist I had was not quite as dark as I wanted so I ended up painting the petals with iridescent pearl water color paint.

If you make some of these hollyhocks, please leave me a link, I'd love to see what you did!!

Thanks for visiting!