Two-fer Tutorial! The Shelf Liner Rose and Its Cousin.

Who wants a tutorial?

You might recall, a little while ago I tested my readers with this Guess The Mystery Thing challenge...

Which was revealed to be made from release paper (the stuff you peel away) off the back of a roll of vintage faux bois shelf liner.

Finally I have a moment to show you how to make your own.  Ready?  It's easy, but involves fire.  So if you're a little kid, ask your mommy for help.  If you are a newbie crafter, don't be scared.  Let's make these pretty babies!

Cut some rough circles in descending sizes:

The cool two-fer part: the release paper circles are already cut for you, once you peel away the shelf liner.  Make two complementary flowers in one session!

Fold each circle into fourths, and grip the center securely with pliers or long tweezers.  Hold near a flame.  You can use a candle, or a gas burner if you have one.

For the shelf liner: when the edges begin to curl, the petal is done.  It doesn't take much - you want just the slightest edge-curling.  Here's how they turn out:

With the release paper, the edges will actually catch fire!  Yes, it's a little more intense.  Immediately blow out the flame, and you'll end up with a charred petal.

Rub off all the loose ash with your fingers, and the finished petal looks like so:

Whew - no more fire - the tricky part is done!  Now to assemble.

On a headpin, put anything you think will make a cute flower center.  Here I used two teensy beads and a metal flower finding.

Poke the headpin through each petal, stacking them in a pleasing arrangement.

 Optional: a leaf unit from a silk flower makes a nice addition.

Finish up with something a little bit substantial, so there's a solid backing to the piece.  Here I used a small piece of heavy felt:

I know you can find something around the house to use in place of the felt.  A scrap of recycled tin.  Another metal finding.  A plastic bottlecap.  Anything you can make a hole in is probably gonna work fine.

Make a wrapped loop with the wire of your headpin, and trim off any excess.

Note: my vintage shelf liner is so old, it lost all its stickiness.  So I left the back of some of my flowers bare.  But if you are working with some that is sticky or tacky, I suggest using a backwards petal and a larger piece of felt to cover the entire back, so the sticky doesn't annoy.  Like this:

And there you have it - your completed rose!

The amazing part: it doesn't take many petals to get a really intricate-looking flower.  The two above  have only five or six petals each.  These next ones are fancier, with eight or nine petals; the method is exactly the same.

To turn your flowers into hair ornaments, slip a bobby pin through the wire loop:

So purty!

  

To make a simple pendant, poke a hole near the edge of the felt...

Add a jump ring through the hole you just poked - and WA!  LA!  A finished pendant, all ready to string onto a chain, cord or neckwire!  .

A WOWSER of a necklace, don't you agree?

Of course, this faux bois version is only a jumping off point.  Just think of all the fancy shelf liner patterns floating around.  I bet lots of you are just like me, imagining these flowers in all kinds of funky incarnations.  Hmmm...floral granny style?  Gingham checks?  Kitschy ducks and kittens?  Ooh, I want flowers from all of those!

I do hope you found this instructive and fun.  Let me know if you give it a try, eh?  Toodles.