Peonies are my absolute favorite flower and I look forward to peony season in my garden every year. 

Those fluffy flower were grown by my dad’s mother, my Oma Lola. She was known for her stunning  spring gardens full of peonies and lilac. She passed away when I was only two months old from ovarian cancer, so growing them makes me feel connected to her. 

When I saw the Spellbinder’s double and single peony die last year, I just had to have it. But I just haven’t had time to use it until now. There are literally not enough hours in the day for crafting. Anyway, enough about my issues of there not being 40 hours in a day.

I decided to model this peony after my Coral Charm peony in my garden. The blooms start out pink and once it’s fully open, it fades to coral and then as the bloom ages further, it fades to peach and then yellow. It’s literally like watching a slow motion sunset in my garden. 

Creating a blend is so much easier on projects like this when you start with cardstock in some of the hues you are trying to achieve. So I chose a peach and a coral from my floral A2 smooth cardstock pad and cut out several of each size petal, using the darker shade toward the center and the lighter shade for the outer petals. Adding in blending to go between the two shades of orange can then be done with just 1 or 2 shades of ink. I then used some shaping tools to add dimension to the petals. I also cut the flower center out several times from a light yellow from the warms A2 smooth cardstock pad and shaped these as well. 

I then added a bit of Distress Ink in crackling campfire to the edges of all the petals and dried the ink with a quick shot of my heat tool. I then layered Distress Oxide in antique linen over the top, pouncing the ink on with my domed foam blender. Don't do the oxide ink too heavy handed or you'll completely cover up all of your crackling campfire ink. I dried this with my heat tool just so the ink wouldn’t smudge. I glued all the flower petals and centers together with collage medium, creating one large bloom and one bud.

I then cut some leaves out of a lighter green from the florals pad. I pounced the tips of each leaf with Distress Oxide in antique linen and hit it with my heat tool to set. I then used the shaping tools to give the leaves dimension. I glued one leaf to the back of the petals on the larger peony, just to push one set of leaves further out from the base of the flower. 

I cut out a tag from the navy cardstock from the peppermint A2 pad. I added a small dollop of heavy body gel to the bottom of the peonies and glued them to the tag. Using collage medium, I added additional leaves around the blooms. 

For finishing touches, I added some matte gold pearls to the tag. I also added a little crinkle ribbon to the top of the tag. I made a bow of some peach colored velvet trim from Tim Holtz and sewed it on to the crinkle ribbon with a few stitches. And that’s it! It looks just like the peonies in my garden and will be perfect to add to an Easter basket of goodies. Until next time, happy crafting!

Adrienne

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