Recycling waste

Making flowers with sponge 

How to make Glomeruli in wreaths

How to make Glomeruli in wreaths

Cutting paper art

works of art and design:

Fabric rosette tutorial video

Fabric rosette tutorial

No Sew Fleece Chrysanthemum Flower Tutorial/ how to / DIY

You can make a beautiful flower without sewing a single stitch.

• Fleece scraps
• 12 inches of ribbon
• clip
• crystal jewel (optional)
• glue gun (optional)

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1 - Cut out pattern 

Print up the pattern (you can get assembly instructions here)
Cut out pattern pieces. 

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2 - Begin to Build the flower

CD-ROM Rosettes

CD-ROM Rosettes

Remember about this time last year when I went on my Frayed Rosettes bender? Well, the snip/tear/roll urge has hit me one again, but this time I wanted to do something even larger, grander, and...ummm...less labor intensive (hey, my house is on the market..a lot of my energy is spent swiffering dog hair and firing up LED tealights for showings). Anyway, I came up with something fun, fast and completely giftable (my mom is in town and she says so...the prototypes are already in her suitcase, so that is a good sign)!




All you need to make these big, beautiful rosettes are 1) an old, scratched up CD, 2) about 1/4 yard of fabric and 3) a hot glue gun.




For the demo, I used gorgeous, hot-off-the-press pink Maeve from Jennifer's Queen Street line. To start out with a nice even torn edge, you will need to snip an inch or so above the cut edge, then grasp either side of the snip and tear (for more details on snipping and tearing, download the Frayed Rosettes tutorial).




Once you have this edge, you can start tearing off the components for your rosette.




Make your initial snip about 1/2" from your torn edge and rip.




This will give you a thin, stringy piece.




Then snip and rip about 2" from the edge. Repeat.

At this point you should have one stringy skinny piece and two wider pieces.




Squirt a drop of glue near the center of the CD, and stick the end of the stringy piece into place as shown above. Normally, I would give you hot gluing action shots, but my glue gun is a hot mess! So I'm substituting with arrows...they indicate where the hot glue should be applied.




Bring the stringy piece through the hole so you have exactly seven wraps (no more, no less).




Flip the CD over to the other side and glue the stringy piece into place and trim. You should have exactly seven wraps on that side too.




Tie the end of one of the wider strips into a loose knot.




Tuck the tail into the knot, and add a drop of glue to hold it in place.




Glue the knot to the center ring of the CD.




Now for the fun part! Weave the strip between the wraps (go over the first one, go under the next one, etc, etc).



For best results, keep the material loose and fluffy for those first wraps, then gradually tighten up as you get further from the center. This will give a more authentic domed rosette shape.




Try to keep the wraps evenly spaced as you go along.




When the first strip runs out, tuck the end under the adjacent "petal" and glue.




Pinch the end of the second strip, and glue it into place right next to the end of the first strip.




Weave this strip in and out until you get to the end. Tuck and glue the end into place. Arrange the outer edge petals so that they cover up any glimpses of the shiny CD. Glue wherever you see fit.





If you want to cover up the back, simply trace around another CD on felt. Cut the felt circle out, and glue it to the back of the CD.


That is really all there is to it...experiment with solids, prints...or even other materials.




Here is a tulle rosette (I used 180" of the 6" wide tulle that comes on a roll, but I doubled it up to make the process go faster).




I also tried it with shiny wired ribbon (90% off bargain post-Christmas at JoAnn's last year), and it will make a beautiful bow alternative!

I'm plotting all kinds of things to do with these big, fun rosettes...make brooches, stick 'em on walls, use them as ornaments...etc!

Craft Tutorial: Embroidery Hoop Wreath

I was originally going to make one wreath using a big embroidery hoop, but using my existing over-the-door wreath hanger, it would have blocked the peephole. Over the weekend I found two smaller embroidery hoops at the thrift store for 25 cents each (or maybe even less) and thought instead I’d make two wreaths to position around the peephole. There’s two of everything around here anyways, right?

How To Make Embroidery Hoop Wreaths

Materials:

Ruffle Your Hair

Ruffle Your Hair {and giveaway}

In case you haven't noticed, I love making headbands.

I made a bunch of these fun ruffled headbands for the Beehive Bazaar.

Today I am showing you how to make some for yourself!

Supplies:

A plastic headband

Strip of fabric that measures 1.5 by 10 inches

Needle and thread or a sewing machine

Hot Glue Gun

Make an oversize flower brooch

by samantha

Make an oversize flower brooch from unlikely materials

Oversize flower brooches are popping up on runways and at retailers like EmersonMade. You can try out the trend inexpensively with this easy DIY. The project uses an unlikely jewelry making material - a sheet of The Original Shammy. The Shammy flower features a nice autumn color, is sturdy yet soft, won't fray and holds many times its own weight in water.

DIY : colorful wire clothes hanger

We're still in summer mode here, though for K. today is the last day of his summer vacation, unfortunately. This year's summer vacation has been very relaxing - Carpe Diem (seize the day) has been our motto. We've been doing plenty of things but only because we wanted to. And today I really wanted to do something crafty! So I did. It took me a while before I came up with something, though. I made a big mess as I kept pulling things out. But then eventually pieces fell into place when I found a wire clothes hanger

The result of my crafty afternoon is this enhanced, colorful wire clothes hanger... with a short description in 16 photographs. Again, it's an easy craft you could have your kids do or help you with on a rainy afternoon.


What you'll need:

- wire coat hanger (the ones you get at the dry cleaner's)
- bias tape, ribbon, or a piece of fabric
- a piece of (masking) tape
- white glue
- optional: ribbon, rivet punch + rivets




Steps:

1. If you don't have ribbon or bias tape at hand, make your own (pic. 4 & 5) by cutting a long strip from a piece of fabric. Don't bother about cutting in bias, we want the ribbon to fray! Yes, fray! Although I had only a small piece of fabric, I cut one long strip from it. This is how: start cutting a strip lengthwise from one side to the other, BUT WITHOUT CUTTING THROUGH TO THE VERY END! Repeat, alternating sides as shown in the diagram below.



2. Attach the ribbon to the wire coat hanger as shown in pic. 6 and wind the ribbon around a couple of times to hide the tape.

3. Next, start twisting the ribbon around the wire all the way around. Don't be afraid of the fabric fraying - we like the effect! To make sure the ribbon is everywhere tightly twisted around the wire, check once in a while and twist the ribbon between your fingers as you work your way back to where you stopped.

4. At the bottom of the hook twist the ribbon around both wires and work your way up the hook (pic. 9 & 10).

5. Cut off the ribbon leaving a 1 inch end. Put on some white glue and next continue twisting the ribbon, smearing the glue in and over the fabric and such way that the tip is completely covered and there are no loose ends left (pic. 11-13).

6. Optional: Decorate with a tag. I used stamps for this and the motto of our summer "Carpe diem". Make one for every family member and have their names on it, or if you plan for a summer party make one for every guest. The possibilities obviously are endless. Use the rivet punch to attach a rivet and tie to the hanger with a piece of ribbon. All done!

DIY Fabric Rosettes and More!

Have you been like me and just loved on those adorable fabric roses and wanted to make some of your own? Well today wait no longer! I have no idea if this is the correct way but it worked for me and so I will pass it on to you. FYI ...you will need these lil darlings for our next project too~

DIY Gift Ideas #2 :: Say it with (fabric) flowers...

When I saw these fabric flowers in the latest issue of Marie-Claire Idées, I couldn't put down my magazine fast enough to get started. I made a whole bunch of them the same evening and while I was doing so I was thinking of the many different ways I could use them. In the original project they were used to decorate a seat cover.

Origami Butterfly

It may fly afway...

3 D Rose

Fold, Fold, BAM! Its pretty

Fab-u-lous Fall Candle

My mom is hysterical - She loves all things sparkly, all things fab-u-lous. She wears sparkly clothes, loves sparkly jewelry and decorates her home with the same affection for sparkle and flare. (But note, she is NOT a girly-girl. My lack of a girly-girl gene was passed down from my mother...)

That makes our styles very different - and tonight - my mom came to help get Bug to and from dance and with her she brought supplies and a vision for thisFab-u-lous Fall Candle.

Make flowers from ribbon and silk

Make flowers from ribbon and silk

Making Christmas tree from beads

Making Christmas tree from beads

Cutting Snowflake

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Cutting paper

Pom-Pom Tutorial

This is a tutorial for making pom-poms using your
fingers. This one is a small, two-finger pom-pom
(about 1" in diameter) but you can make bigger ones
by using more fingers. As far as yarn choice, thinner
and softer yarn will make a more pleasing pom-pom.