A Dozen {Cardstock} Roses for My Valentine

My husband is an artist.  Fortunately for me, no one would appreciate a dozen handmade roses more than him.  I'm so lucky to have such a talented and supportive guy who encourages me to be creative!  So with this in mind, I created him a dozen Valentine roses. 

I made the roses based on my Long Stemmed Rose Tutorial tutorial.  Thanks to all my customers who bought this tutorial and made it so successful!  I am always trying to show my customers how versatile these tutorials are.  For all of you who bought the Long Stemmed Rose Tutorial, here is another way to use it.

Cut Garden Green card stock into two 4" x 11" pieces and two 1-1/2" x 11" pieces.  Score the 3" x 11" pieces down the centre.  Cut a rough organic shape along one edge of the two larger pieces.  Fold down the score of the two larger pieces.  Sponge down the fold and along the edges of all four pieces with Real Red ink.  You may need to adjust the height of these pieces to fit the dimension of your glass container.  I used a vase which is 4.5" (h) x 8"(l) x 2.5"(w).

Turn the two larger pieces over, place them onto the foam mat from the Mat Pack,  and using your bone folder make light scores to represent veins along the two larger pieces.  Then rub your bone folder lightly along the leaf in a couple of  areas to give the leaf just a little shape and slight dimension, so it is not so flat. 

Fold the larger two pices in half.  Drag a Garden Green ink pad in a diagonal pattern along each side of the piece.  Then using the corner of a Read Red ink pad, "draw" a few bold veins in a diagonal pattern along each side of the leaf.  

Glue each of the small pieces to the large piece so that the entire inside surface of your glass vase will be covered as shown above.  One of the sets will wrap around the front and sides, and the other will wrap around the back and sides.  Place floral foam, cut to fit,  inside the vase. (Optional - not shown:  glue down some dried moss onto of the foam).

Make one dozen roses from the Long Stemmed Rose Tutorial out of Real Red cardstock.   The roses in the tutorial are full blown roses with multiple layers.  To make these roses, which are smaller, and resemble tighter roses just leaving the bud stage, simply make the roses as per the tutorial but only with 5 layers instead of the usual number in the tutorial.   Remember to give the petals in the last row a little variation so that all the roses do not look exactly the same.   Cut the stems to 3".   Push the dozen roses down into the floral foam.  

Now you can replicate this gorgeous arrangement for your Valentine!  Wouldn't it also make a stunning wedding centerpiece?  Ohhhh! I can think of tons of ways to use this tutorial! :)