My friend, Barb, came to visit me from Michigan to show me how to make foamiran flowers. Below are all of the directions and tools to replicate our flower.

Barb has her own blog and shares a lot of beautiful flowers there.

Barb’s blog: Barb’s Cards, My Way
Link: https://barbscardsmyway.blogspot.com

In the USA, we’ve only been able to find foamiran at the following store and you can find some beautiful flower dies there as well.

Whimsy Stamps: https://whimsystamps.com/
foamiran from Whimsy Stamps: https://tinyurl.com/y6yvmbcm

I bought my foamiran on Aliexpress and here’s a link to the store that sells it at very reasonable prices.

foamiran from Aliexpress link: https://tinyurl.com/yyhl5opc

The foamiran flower we made used a very similar die to this one. https://tinyurl.com/y2lj855d

We had a set of four dies and we cut two of each die in a lavender foamiran. I colored mine with Gelatos and Barb colored hers with Memento Dew Drop inks. She used a weight that her husband had made her to hold the flower when she was working with it.

You’ll need a large foam sponge that you’d get at a hardware store in the paint department used for grouting. I typed in “large sponge” on any hardware site and you should easily find one. Link: https://tinyurl.com/y8e2ut8c
The black sponge Barb used is for when you are using paper, and you want to shape it. I found only a large size at Joanns and here’s the link: https://tinyurl.com/y3juhmwe
If you are only using foamiran, you would only need the sponge used with grouting that you’d find at a hardware store. (The link is above.)

Small metal stylus set: link: https://tinyurl.com/y4cxj9bz
wood stylus set: link: https://tinyurl.com/y4dauuzx

Prills or Tiny Glass beads link: https://tinyurl.com/y2l2jun8 at Aliexpress or prills from
Joann link: https://www.joann.com/search?q=prills

If you can find a craft iron, or travel iron without the non-stick face that mine has, you’ll have better luck holding the foamiran to it. It should make the foam curl if the iron is working correctly. You’ll need to use wooden skewers that you buy at any grocery store (used for making kabobs). Here’s a link to a brand you can buy at Target for $1.00 (you can find them at the Dollar Tree as well.) https://tinyurl.com/y68qybsp
After you have colored your foamiran, you’ll hold the piece to the iron (put the iron on a non-steam setting). It should be low, like for silk…don’t put it on a hot setting, or you’ll melt your foamiran.
Next fold your petals to create dimension. I folded my set of petals in half, then folded each individual petal and then curled it in my hand to make it seem more natural. If you don’t like how it turned out, put it on the iron again, and it will flatten out and then you can fold it again.
You’ll then put the foam on your sponge and using a stylus, place the stylus at the outer edge of the flower petal and pull the stylus toward you. If you want the petal to stretch so it’s wider, put the stylus in the petal and rub it from side to side. After you’ve gotten the dimension you want, put a dot of hot glue in the center of one set of petals and lay another set on top but offset them, so they are not laying directly on top of each other. Lay it back on your sponge, and push into the center with your finger or with the stylus to make the flower more cup shaped. Then put a dot of hot glue inside and add another layer, again off setting it so the petals are not directly on top of each other. Once all of your petals are glued together, put a bigger dollop of hot glue in the center and cover it with your prills or tiny glass beads. In the end, we didn’t add one of the smallest layers to our flowers, but we could have, to add more dimension. You can add leaves to the bottom, but we chose not to do so….
P.S. I was joking about selling flowers on Etsy, as I would never sell my flowers, but would gladly add them to a card and give them as a gift….

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