Coral Charm Peony Craft-A-Flower in focus | Four different looks

Hi Altenew friends and fans, I hope you are looking forward to a big bunch of flowers as the stunningly detailed Craft-A-Flower: Coral Charm Peony is the star of the show. Once I started die cutting the layers out, I wasn't able to rein myself in and I ended up with a lot more flowers than I planned, but I don't think anyone can blame me when you see how gorgeous these are.

One of the extra great things about this layering die set, although most of the Craft-A-Flower sets are incredible, is that most of the pieces are separate so you can more easily cut out different coloured cardstock pieces. 

I have used a lot of different Crafty Necessities Colored Cardstock for these flowers, and I had the presence of mind to actually take photos of the colour combinations I used. I am pleased as punch about this bit because this isn't normally something that I remember as I have a tendency to get on a roll and all of a sudden the cards are done and I go 'drat, no progress photos!

My first idea was to make a red flower, but as I  die cut the first pieces out and layered them up it wasn't quite right. I only had one option here and that was to get more colored cardstock out and die cut more pieces. 

That makes perfect sense, doesn't it? Rather than just sticking with it and making do. If you have a trick on how to stop yourself from going on a wild die cutting roll, I want to hear from you!

The first lot of flowers were made to be red, as it's December after all. It took a couple of tries to get the shades of red right, to make the flowers look organic and real. I'm very pleased to have remembered to do this as I want to be able to recreate these with ease, as well as be helpful to you guys. 

It's really quite amazing how just changing up one shade or two of a color can make such a difference, isn't there? However, options are so good to have! 

Sometimes it only takes layering the pieces in a slightly different way to change the look, even if you have the same colors. 

It definitely is worth to have a play around with colors and layers before you commit, if you have time that is. The Craft-A-Flower sets are brilliant for mass producing. Pop your favorite pod cast, YouTube creator or music playlist on and get rolling.

I have mostly made red peonies; however, one is done almost exclusively in Rubellite cardstock, with just a little bit of Puffy Heart for some of the details and the stamens. 

I will say that I think this flower would look even better with a little bit of ink blending around the edges of the petals. That would have given this all-pink flower a bit more depth but oh well, that's something to remember for next time. And I am sure there will be another time, as these Craft-A-Flower dies are incredible. 

Background wise, I had some options made with some metallic watercolors and also Metallic Shimmer Ink Spray. These sprays must be one of the quickest and easiest ways to add color AND shimmer in one go. I have used the Forest Glades Metallic Shimmer Ink Spray on a white panel, and it turned out gorgeous. I also splattered some gold water color on a few panels to see which one I liked best. Options are good to have, and whatever panels you don't use you can save for other projects. 

One of my absolute all-time favorite sentiments set from Altenew is the You Are Everything Stamp & Die Set. It is full of encouraging, loving, supportive and all-round amazing sentiments. You can't go wrong with this set, honestly. 

These cards needed a little bit of bling to compliment those gorgeous flowers, and I didn't hold back. I grabbed my bling box and went looking for Gem Sparkles and Satin Pearls to compliment the flowers on each card. 

If you are looking for one very versatile Gem Sparkle set, the Smoky Quartz one is absolutely fabulous. I ended up using this set for two of the cards, only different colors. For the pink flower card, the middle color of this set was perfect, and for one of the red flowers I used quite a few of the darkest color Gem Sparkles. 

The first card came together so easily, with that gorgeous shimmery background, a die cut sentiment from the Timeless Sentiments 3 Holiday Edition set and some Satin Gold Pearl Dots. 

Embellishment wise it was a toss-up between some Gem Sparkles and Pearl Dots, but the dots won out as they coordinated lovely with the Brushed Gold Metallic cardstock used for the sentiment. Plus, they are very elegant, while not taking much of the spotlight of the flower itself. 

The second red flower card came together very easily too; I was on a roll by now! I used one of the gold splattered backgrounds, placed some of the greenery around where I wanted the flower to perch and made space for the sentiment above the flower. This is again from the Timeless Sentiments 3 Holiday Edition, only this one is done with Glitter Cardstock in Citrine. 

The placement of the Gem Sparkles I used for this card, was a bit different from my usual placing. Here I have added most of the big ones to the leaf die cuts, to bring the focus in towards the flower. The smaller ones are sprinkled around the flower to highlight the shimmer of the card. 

The card with the Rubellite flower is the simplest of them all, but that flower really pops against the white shimmery background, so it made sense to keep it that way. 

The last two flowers, the ones that have been made with the same colors, only in slightly different order, is the most elaborate of the four cards. It has texture, it has layers, it has flowers, it has a great sentiment, and it has sparkles! 

I'm not sure I could have added much more to this card to be honest, but oh my goodness, I LOVE how this turned out! 

I really hope you have enjoyed this post and found some helpful tips here for when you go and make some of these gorgeous flowers for yourself. 

That's it from me for today but don't forget to check out the YouTube video, it is mostly in real time, including showing the glueing of the flower layers using the brilliant Keyhole System. Plus, lots of bling and jibber-jabber. 

It's the grand finale! Join our special Ultimate Inspiration Challenge to wrap up the year.

How to Play:

1. Choose ONE favorite inspiration photo from any of our 2025 challenges.

2. Create a brand-new paper-craft project inspired by the colors, composition, or texture of that photo.

3. Altenew products must be the focus of your design.

🎁 Win $30 Gift Certificates!

FOUR winners will be chosen!

• Deadline: December 31st, 2025, 11:55 pm EST.

Let's celebrate a creative year! To learn more about this challenge, check out THIS BLOG! Happy crafting!