Inspiration in Black and White - Tutorial: Making a Mussie Tussie

Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazine issued a Christmas call in the middle of summer.  What a delight!  I had such fun with my creation.  Here are some photos of my submission and a "how-to" tutorial:

 Whether you call it a mussie tussie (mussy tussy), a nosegay, or a posie, a cone full of flowers is easy to make.


SUPPLIES FOR CONE:  1 sheet of 12x12 or 13x12 inch, heavy duty (makes 2 cones), scrapbooking paper - two sided, hot glue & gun or tacky glue, rubber stamps & permanent ink, glitter, glitter glue, ribbon, and lace (for edging), metal tip from a cake decorating set, and whatever tiny flowers, beads, buttons, or bangles you want to add to embellish the cone.
              
SUPPLIES FOR FLOWERS:  Sheets of paper for flower petals (at least 2 different designs in same color group), a flower hole punch (Mine is about 2 inches across with a scalloped edge), a regular hole punch (I prefer one that punches small holes), scissors, a stalk of small silk flowers (to deconstruct and use in your flower), colored ink or chalk pads to add color to petal edges, beads, buttons, shells, or other items to use as the center of your flower, florist wire and tape, toile circles (I used white, pre-cut circles from the wedding section of Joanne Fabrics.) and whatever ribbon, feathers, etc. you are inspired to add.

HOW TO MAKE THE MUSSIE TUSSIE CONE:

(1) Divide a sheet of  heavy, double-sided, 13x13 inch diagonally to create 2 triangles.

(2) Using one triangle, loosely pinch the center of the long side.  This will be the tip of the cone.  Keeping that in mind, roll together each of the two smaller angles of the triangle until they match up in back at the larger angle.

(3) By taking a good look at your cone, you will have an idea about which of the paper surfaces will be exposed once your cone is finished.

(4) Open up the paper cone.  Lay it flat and use your creative skills to add layers of color and/or texture to the paper areas that will be visible once you re-roll your cone.  In my black & white creation, I began with paper that was already tinted off-white with images of roses (from GeminiAngelArt's collection).  Using "Stays On" permanent ink, I rubberstamped the paper in black with various flourish designs I picked up at Michael's.  Additional hand drawn flourishes of white, iridescent glitter glue gave the paper sparkle!

(5) With your hot glue gun or tacky glue handy, re-roll the cone, quickly adding glue to the outside edge to hold it tightly in place. Hold cone in place until you are sure the glue has set.
       

You can see from this view of the back, I added off-white, eyelet edging along the top, outside edge of the cone.  Next, starting in the front, I topped this with small, black, grosgrain ribbon, forming a loop in the back and securing it with an old hat pin.  Glued on vintage buttons help close the paper seam.  Tiny white flowers added extra frills to the back and front. The lower part of the cone is wrapped with black mesh from a produce garlic bag and secured with a black grosgrain bow and another hat pin.

HOW TO MAKE PAPER FLOWERS:

(1) Using a flower hole punch and your flower paper, punch out 2-3 times the number of flowers you want to make. 

At first, I used really old paper from a vintage book.  Unfortunately, many of the petals I punched out were too brittle to use in my flowers.  Next, I scanned some vintage pages of text and music, printed double sided copies and punched those instead.  Also FYI, I prefer to use an odd number of flowers in my bouquets.  Somehow, it balances better.

(2)  Use a regular or tiny hole punch to make one hole in the center of each layer of paper "flower." 

(3) Use scissors, make small cuts from the outside edge toward the center of each "flower" creating petals.  Fold each petal in half (lengthwise) to add dimension.  Use a colored ink or chalk pad to tinge the edges of each petal with color.

(4) From a stem of store-bought silk flowers, pull off the number of flowers you need. Remove any plastic or centers.  Note that there is already a center hole in each petal.

(5) Select a bead, button, or other item as the center of your flower.  Cut an 8 inch length of florist wire and string it half way through the bead, twisting both wires down to secure them.

(6) Stick the beaded wire into the center of one of your silk flowers, then add 2 or 3 of your paper flower layers. Be sure not to flatten the paper petals too much, so your flowers stay full and 3-dimensional.

(7) Holding the paper flower layers tight against the bead, use florist tape around the wire to secure your flower in place.  This tape stickes to itself, so once you get the first wrap on, the rest is easy.  Wrap the tape several times, tightly against the paper petal, then wrap it in a spiral down and around the wire to create a stem for your flower.  You can use old scissors to cut off any excess wire or tape. (Cutting wire with good scissors will ruin them!)  Repeat this for each flower.  You can make your flowers identical or you can make each one as unique as you please!

(8) Finally, gather your flowers together in a bouquet.  Insert any extras among them (feathers, ribbons leaves, etc) until your bouquet is arranged the way that pleases you most.  (An easy way to add ribbons is to knot them onto a length of florist wire, fold the wire over and tape together with florist tape, creating a stem that is easy to insert into your bouquet.) 

(9) When your bouquet is finished, bundle all the stems together with more florist tape.  Cut a hole into one or more circles of toile and insert the bundle in the hole.  More florist tape will secure the toile around your bouquet.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

Insert your bouquet into the cone, gluing it in place with hot glue or tacky glue.  (If using tacky glue, give the glue time to dry before moving the mussie tussie.)

On the tip of my cone, I used E6000 to glue on the metal tip of a cake decorator set.  Inside the metal tip is a bead holding the tassels that dangle below the cone.  My tassels include a shell and a couple of pearl beads attached to a pearl chain.  I used more E6000 to add ribbon and a flower to the top edge of the metal tip.

Here is the finished product: