Assembling the Prized Peony looks daunting. The dies look strange and may not be self explanatory. I’m here to explain how to assemble the Prized Peony Dies from the 2020-2021 Annual Stampin’ Up! Catalog.
The Prized Peony Bundle includes the Peony Dies from Stampin’ Up! The set includes 17 dies and they can look a bit intimidating at first. Once you see how to assemble them, it’s easier than you first think. I’ll show you how to assemble the Peony Dies to make a beautiful peony for cards and other projects.
The die set has 5 dies that cut out stamps included in the bundle, a scalloped boarder die, and the dies for the peony and leaves. Pictured to the right, you’ll see the four cut outs that, when assembled, make up the flower and the 6 cut outs that make up the leaves. There is also a flower center.
Peony Assembly
We’ll concentrate on the four flower dies and how to assemble them. If you look at the the flowers, you’ll see they all have a similar shape along the bottom edge. This is the area we will concentrate on when aligning the flower pieces. The slits in the middle of each cut out are also important.
When assembling the pieces, we will unite them from smallest to largest of the pieces. Take the smallest piece and place adhesive on the bottom, front of the piece.
Next, slip it between the slit in the next larger piece. Flip it over and line up the bottoms where the shapes match.
Once you’ve aligned the bottoms, press the two pieces together. Repeat this same procedure with the next larger piece.
The last piece is a bit different. Since you dont’ want any adhesive to show and the cut out is closer to the bottom of the flower, the adhesive needs to go on the back of the largest flower. I use glue dots for this. Place glue dots on either side of the big curve and a third one a bit to the left. Now you can slide your three smaller pieces into the slit in the largest flower piece. Line it up and press it down.
Finally, to place the flower center, you need to remember that we had 4 flower pieces and each had a slit in the middle. The flower center needs to go in the slit of the smallest flower piece, the first piece we worked with. To find this with the flower assembled, count the petals from the bottom. Place the flower center between the 4th and 5th petal. That should be the slit in the middle of the smallest piece.
Leaf Assembly
The dies also come with 3 leaves and 3 leaf accents. Each accent is specific to a leaf. Look at the outer edge of the whole leaves to figure out which accent goes with which leaf. Layer the accent piece on top of the appropriate shaped leaf with adhesive. Once this is done, your peony is ready to be placed on a card or other project.
Don’t be afraid of the Peony Dies. Hopefully, this blog and the attached video took some of the mystery out of how to assemble the Prized Peony Dies. It is actually pretty easy once they have been “translated” for you. The Prized Peony Bundle makes a beautiful project in any color. Try it yourself.