Book Roses

A lot of people have asked about the book roses on my twitter page, and it seems like there are a lotta crafy book-loving folks out there, so I thought I'd do a quick post about them.

I can't take any credit for them, but stumbled across them on Pinterest (yes, I'm one of those. Is there a 12-step program yet??).  The design and awesome step-by-step directions are from 100layercake.com and are available here. 

I'm moderately crafty, but am by no means an artist, and I thought they were pretty simple to make, not to mention dirt cheap (the only things you need are wire, glue gun and glue, paper, and watercolors if you want).  I think the only trick is to use the right kind of paper. It has to be stiff enough to hold a curl, so regular computer paper doesn't work so well. For mine, I used a recycled academic journal (a university library might be able to help you out with an old copy), and I added a little bit of burnt-sienna/scarlet watercolor around the edges to give it that vintage-y red tint.  A word of warning--while they aren't hard, they take FOREVER, especially if you paint the edges.


If anyone else makes them I'd love to see the finished product!

---