Pinkish Pleated Flower Tutorial

I'm back with another flower tutorial as promised. I made this LO for my mom for Mother's Day, of her mom back in the day. I'm entering it into quite a few challenges:heritage photo,distressed, and May Flowers at Scrapbook.com, embossing challenge at Funtoolas, scrap for help, pick your bouquet at Flying Unicorn, and the Paper Mixing Bowl.

Here was the recipe I used from the Paper Mixing Bowl.

Utensils:
*rub-ons/stamps-I stamped the chain link looking fence on the paper on the left. I also stamped and embossed the smaller flowers.
*Flowers-I made 3 different styles of flowers, and added 2 silk ones.So I guess I get brownie points.
*Paint or mist-I used paint and mist on the cardboard background, and an antique bronze glaze for the pearls and some of the flower centers.
*buttons-I used a couple of my Grandma's buttons on here.
*Weaving-I wove embroidery floss on the mini card that I made, which is tucked under the photo on the right.

Directions:
I used the inspirational word mother and made a mini folded card. Here's the inside of it.

For Funtoola's http://funtoolas.ning.com/forum/topics/may-embossing-challenge I embossed the small flowers and key.

The old envelope under the key was a requirement for Scrap for help, and I printed it from a list on their blog.http://scrapforhelp.blogspot.ca/ You also had to use something recycled, so  I used the cardboard and a brown shopping bag behind the photo, and for some of the small embossed flowers.

Now for the tutorial! Here's a close-up of the large flower I'll be making.

Supplies:
Cricut-Plantin Schoolbook cartridge
white cardstock
blending tool
Distressed ink pads (victorian velvet, aged mahogany, tea dye, and frayed burlap)
Scissors
glue
brad for the center

First cut your flowers with your cricut onto white cardstock at 4", 3", 2 1/2", 2", 1 1/2", and 1".

Then use your scissors to cut the ends of the petals so they're more natural and not so straight.

Using your blending tool, apply distress ink onto the flowers using tea dye, victorian velvet, and aged mahogany.

Using the largest flower, spray with water and fold in half. The water will react with the ink, blending the colors together.

Now just fold your petals like an accordian, back and forth. You might have to spray your petals again if they're not wet enough, but don't get them too wet cause they can tear or rip.

Carefully open up your flower. It should look something like this.

Then use your blending tool to apply frayed burlap distress ink onto the pleats that you just created.

Next shape your flower curling your petals out and down like this.

Now take the next 2 smaller sized flowers, and repeat the steps above, up until shaping the flower. This time you want to curl your petals up and  inwards like this.

Make the next 2 smaller sized flowers exactly like the large one, curling your petals out and down.

The smallest flower gets curled inwards. Glue all the layers together starting with the largest flower on the bottom. Add a brad through the center to finish it off.

You can make so many different variations of this just by changing the colors, and playing with your inks. I know I'll be trying it!