Distressed Telephone Book Book Flowers Tutorial by Suepup

Want to learn how to make these beautiful flowers from your old telephone book pages?  Charlotte Jenkins has done a tutorial to show you how!

Supplies Needed;       Telephone Pages                   Ink Pad
      White Glue                              Metal Rim Tags
      Water                                       Scissors
      2 Mixing Dishes                      Pencil/Pen
      Acrylic Paint                            Paint Brush
      Paint Mists                              Hot Glue

Step 1:  Rip out at least four pages from a telephone book.
Step 2:  In a small mixing bowl, add water to the white glue and brush the thinned glue on the entire telephone book pages. Add one single telephone book page on top of the first piece covered with glue.  Now smooth out the sandwiched telephone book pages with your hands.  Do not worry about the pages being completely smooth; the ripples help create a distressed and three-dimesional quality to the flowers.  Allow glue to dry before moving to the next step.

Step 3:  In the second mixing dish, thin the paint with a few drops of water to make it somewhat translucent.  Now brush the paint onto the entire front and back of the glued sheets.  You will want to use two different colors of paint, one dark color and one light color of the same color.  The two different colors will give the petals contrast and dimension.  Allow the paint  to completely dry.  I can't stand to wait, so I use a hair drier to speed up the process. 

Step 4 : Using the same color of paint, this time using undiluted paint, cover the metal rim tags entirely with paint. Allow the tags to dry completely before moving to the next step. The tags will be the base of your flower. 

Step 5: Start tearing the dried telephone page into strips, you will want to leave the torn edges raw and uneven.
For larger outer flowers, tear the strips in 1-1/2'" or larger, for smaller inner flowers tear into stips 3/4"-1/2". 

 

Step 6: Cut or tear the strips into barrel shaped rectangles.  I prefer tearing over cutting, I like the unique distressed look of the torn petals. Now begin twisting 1 of the torn ends of the barrel shaped rectangles.

Step 7:  Make sure you tightly twist the ends at least 2-3 times to make a point.  This is your petal.  For a large flower you will need approximately 8-10 petals. You will need about 5-6 for the seond layer and 3-4 petals for your top layer.  Dry brush paint or ink with a contrasting color onto the the untwisted torn end of the petal to add some depth to the flower.  If you want leaves, tear leaf shapes from the telephone book and slightly twist  1 of the ends like a stem. (The leaves are basically done exactly how you twisted the petals) Just paint green.

Step 8: Cover the painted metal rim tag with hot glue, Now start with the largest petals and glue the twisted ends around the outer circle edge of the tag. Continue to apply the petals in a circle gradually reducing the size of the petals as you work your way around into the middle of the circle.

 

Step 9: Now continue to add further dimension to your flower by inking the edges of the petal tips with a contrasting ink.  To finish off your flower add a trinket, brad, rhinestone or bead to the center of your flower.