I have some lovely secrets!

EDITED: Being a bit of a technological dinosaur, I don't know how to close comments, but effective Saturday morning May 1st at 10 am Atlantic time, no further comments can be counted towards the towards the Crafty Secrets draw, as the draw has been made, and the winner posted here. Thanks so much for playing along!

Well, today is my very first post for a new design team for me! Sandy, the owner of Crafty Secrets, has graciously allowed me to use her wonderful products as part of her design team. I am just SO thrilled! My first "official" project, which is part of her wonderful celebration blog-hop giveaway, will be posted Saturday April 26th.

Today I'm sharing a tutorial for a paper rose, which will form part of my project later this week.

I've also been creating little lace and ribbon posies in gleeful anticipation of other Victoriana Crafty Secrets projects...pic here:

So, here's a wee photo tutorial on creating these paper roses. I'm sorry, I don't do web-cam stuff (just a bit of a technological dinosaur, me), so I hope you can see the pics clearly enough to understand how I constructed them. There are dozens of wonderful video tutorials for paper flowers on you-tube; I'm sure not the first crafter to make these! (lol) I first learned to do these when Tim Holtz' grunge roses were all the rage last Christmas...LOVED them! Recently, I got together with some crafting friends, and we recreated the "Tim-rose" in paper...such FUN!

I wanted to use some of Sandy's fabulous designer papers, but as I'm so new to the team, I didn't have any...so I scanned an image from her Botanical booklet, repeated it several times, and used that as a basis for my roses.

So, here we go. First, you need to cut a six petal shape...you can use a Spellbinders Nestability die, a punch, an electronic cutter, whatever you have on hand. I used an electronic cutter, and here are the raw layers for the flowers. This pic shows just three layers, but there are actually five, which you'll see in the next photo:

If you use other dies or punches, you need to cut the layers as shown here.

Next, you need to bring one petal over another, overlapping petals and gluing together like so:

So, you can see that the six petal layer has now become a five petal layer, by simply overlapping and gluing one petal underneath another, "cupping" the paper as shown. I did the same thing with the five petal layer (which became a four petal layer), then the four petal layer (which became three petals). Now, you can use a small paintbrush or whatever you have on hand to curl each individual petal on each layer so they look like this:

Next, fit the first three layers together, gluing together. Your rose will look like this:

For the last two layers, you have a glued two-petal piece and a one petal piece. Just fold over the top of each petal of the two petal piece, and after trimming the bottom to fit inside, glue it inside the other three layers. For the last petal, just roll it together, trim to fit, and glue it inside as the last layer. It'll sort of unfurl inside. The end result will look something like the photo posted above. Here are two finished roses with dark and light glitters painted around the edges of each petal:

Here's another project I did for the Cuttlebug challenge blog with a black and white paper rose, if you're interested.

I'm so pleased you stopped by today, and just SO delighted to be a part of the tremendously talented team at Crafty Secrets!!

There's still one more surprise! Sandy has generously donated a Fifty Dollar Gift Certificate for Crafty Secrets products to be won by some lucky reader of this post. Each comment will receive one entry. I'd be so pleased if you sign up as a follower of my blog, and that'll get you another entry, but you'll need to post in the comments section that you've signed up. To see what I'm up to regularly, just click the "Follow" button on the right side of my blog.

Thanks so much for visiting. I wish you a happy, creative week, and good luck with the draw!

The winner will be drawn at random on Saturday, at the end of the Crafty Secrets blog hop.

Please be sure to stop by the Crafty Secrets blog to join in the fun giveaways from all the other designers all week long, ending with a designers' project extravaganza coming on Saturday!