Monday, February 4, 2008

Dahlia fold tutorial

Last Monday's technique challenge was the dahlia fold. The original card was posted by my friend Shadow Mill on SCS. She is the genius who created the tag punch starburst. If you don't remember it, take a look here. Anyway, once I saw that she had posted the dahlia fold, I had to give it a try. For the challenge on SCS, they posted a link to a website for directions. Here's my version.
1. Punch a circle. (Mine are 1 3/8".) Fold it in half horizontally and vertically.
2. Fold up the 2 bottom edges of the circle. Use the horizontal and vertical folds to mark the start and end points of your fold lines. After it's folded, it will look like the circle underneath.
3. Flip the circle over. Fold the two bottom edges in to the center fold line.
4. This is what the finished piece looks like. Add a little adhesive to the inside to hold the piece closed.
Eight of these will make a full flower.

I punched a circle and covered it with adhesive. This became the base to hold my pieces in place.
This is what the finished flower looks like.

TIP: Use a double-sided paper with a lot of contrast between the 2 sides.

For my card, I wanted to keep the card itself fairly simple so the flower would be the star. The card base is Groovy Guava, and I swiped it with my Groovy Guava spot in both directions. The River Rock dotted paper is 1 3/4" wide, and I matted it on a 2" piece of Ruby Red. I added 3/4" twill tape across the center. After attaching the flower, I used a piece of linen thread to tie around the twill tape. I stamped the sentiment on a 3/8" wide strip of Naturals White cardstock and used the word window punch to round off each end. I used more linen thread to tie the sentiment to the piece of linen thread on the twill tape. I also adhered the "tag" so it would hang nicely.

Supplies (all SU): Stamps: Boho Backgrounds; Paper: Ginger Blossom DSP, Groovy Guava, Ruby Red; Ink: Groovy Guava, Ruby Red; Accessories: word window punch, 1 3/8" circle punch, twill tape, linen thread

10 comments:

Ellen Pruett (aka Chipper) said...

You did a great job of explaining the dahlia folds. Beautiful card too!

Stampin Mindy said...

Very pretty soon as I get some DSP I'm going to try this.

Anonymous said...

great "tutorial"
wonderful job with the double sided paper!!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the tutorial. I need to try it!

Nicole said...

Very cool! I have seen these, but haven't gotten around to looking for directions. Thank's for posting these!

LynnMT0906 said...

Phew...I found you. I didn't bookmark this awesome tutorial. Thank you so much!

StampwithBernie said...

Thanks for the tutorial--it was great!

Stampermom said...

I love your blog and I can't wait to try the Dahlia. Love it!

Pat S. said...

This is absolutely fantastic! So much easier to follow than the pdf version posted on that web site. Thank you so much for your time and effort to put this together, and especially for sharing!!!

Mamasooz said...

Your tutorial is awesome -- simple and easy to understand -- thanks for sharing it, I really appreciate it!