Round Flower tutorial

I had posted this pink posy earlier on Scrapshare, and now I'm delighted to present my first blog tutorial! Materials need: two or three different papers (I used scrapping papers here- use what you love!), leaves (with or without wire), paper flower, brad, stamen (the white thingies with the pearly ends), glitter, glue. Circle cutter and paper piercing tools also.

Start by cutting three different size circles. Mine are 3, 2&1/2, and 2 inches.

Next, roll up the sides with your fingers (what, you didn't really think I had wings, did you?). This will be very uneven. If you don't like the rolled look, you could also tear very near the edge to give the circle some texture, or do nothing at all!

Here are all my circles rolled up.

Layer the circles, largest to smallest, and use your piercing tool (or a needle) to puncture the center.

Push the brad through the paper flower, then through all the circles. You may want to loosely fold back the brad ends to help the flower lay flat while you apply the glitter. Don't press them all the way yet.

Using whatever technique you prefer, apply glue to the rolled up portions of the circles (here I chose only to do the smallest and largest circles) and to the paper flower. Then sprinkle on your glitter! (or use Stickles)

Lastly, slightly lift a petal of the paper flower and put on a dollop of glue. Slide your stamen under the petal, and under the brad (this is why you left it a bit loose). Then tighten the brad completely. You could also do this step before you glitter, if you also want to apply the glitter to the stamen.

Depending on what type of leaf you are using, apply to the backside of the posy. On my pink posy I used a wired millinery leaf, wrapping the wires around the brad shank to hold it on. For the yellow flower, I simply used glue dots to apply the leafs (from Prima)

Voila! Use your pretty creation in your scrapbooks, collage works, home decor, and enjoy!

Fini!

I had a huge list of small projects that I really wanted to finish. Got to a number of them last week while waiting for my next big etsy inspiration. First off is my hot cocoa banner, using the pieces I shared with you a few months ago, plus other letters made by dear friends of mine.

Hot!
Cocoa! My husband thinks the garland looks like marshmallows. Guess that works out perfectly! (Although I bought it cause I thought it looked like snow!)

Then I played with some vintage paper and glitter to come up with these pretty flowers. Look for tutorials soon!

Lastly, I had purchased a small planner to carry around, but alas, having waited til mid January I was left with not many pretty options. So being already covered in glue, I painted the paper insert (it originally had coffee mugs!) and glued and sewed on some music paper, digital images, blue swiss dot and pink crepe paper to make this one of a kind piece.

Course the paint made the paper a little stiff and it won't lay flat yet. (By the way, the small words say "artsy queen".

I have a few more projects on my list, but onto that tutorial!

Crepe Love

Proving that crepe has a place anywhere.

Valentines Spun Sugar Twists

I added another Spun Sugar Twist to my shoppe- this one in a Valentine's theme. This pretty set has two stripe hand dyes (one multi-hued!) and two commercially dyed seam bindings. I twisted the two commercially dyed (red and pink) together for interest.

Here's a shot of just the red/white stripe. I love the softness of the color blending to the white.

And the red/white/pink stripe.

Blue and White

Blue and white, white and blue. So are the colors in January's theme on Artsymama's A Year of Color blog. With her permission, I've added a line in my shoppe to feature A Year of Color. I'm very excited to work with this theme- although there are some challenges ahead! (I'm really trying to start thinking of what to do when the month's theme is polka-dots!). The first thing I want to share is something I'm happy to present- Spun Sugar Twists! I wanted a way to present seam binding that is different from what I've seen. I've used a double sided piece of paper and folded it into a three partioned card. Each partition will have seam binding on it- this set only the hand-dyeds are "twisted".

I labeled each ribbon color by stapling a piece of vintage bird book text (being careful, of course, not to staple the ribbon) and a pretty blue punch with the name on it.

I also added a few inexpensive items to my shoppe just for fun, like Giggle Twinkle Wings button ticket set. These small treats will go to the "Sugar Wafers" section, although the blue and white ones are currently in the Year of Color section.

And I did put together one Sugar and Spice Tin set for Year of Color. Loads of pretty blue images for crafting here.

I'm also lucky enough to be able to participate in the swaps available to a Year of Color blog participants. Our first theme is Valentines, and that should be so much fun to prepare a box for my Swap Sister! I'll be sure to post what I'm up to soon!