Long-lasting Bouquets: The Art of Paper Flowers

Spring and Mother's Day are just around the corner and these paper flowers make a great spring decoration or a centerpiece for your Mother's Day brunch. The great thing about these bouquets is that they last longer than live flowers and since you will probably have most of the supplies around your house, they will be cheaper too! If you don't have the supplies at home I will provide a supply list for the Dollar Tree and Amazon, so you can choose where you want to shop.

You can make paper flowers out of just about any paper you, different patterns and colors allow for variety in your bouquet.  The bouquet pictured above has a few types different paper flowers in it, some that are folded Origami and the ones we will learn how to make in this tutorial.

As I was researching online, I found many tutorials on how to make the bloom of the flowers but no one included how to attach a stem. This tutorial includes both parts of the flower, the paper bloom and a wire stem.

Amazon Supplies:

Dollar Tree Supplies:

Creating the bloom:

Step One: Choose your paper

Step Two: Cut circles of varying sizes out of your paper.

Step Three: Cut a spiral from the outside of your circle to the center leaving an area in the center for the base of the flower.

Step Four: Roll your flower from the skinny outside point to the center, starting your roll around a very small dowel or bamboo skewer.

Step Five: Once you have your paper flower rolled to the center, let the flower expand to the desired size. After you have your desired size, place a circle of hot glue on the base of the flower and press the center into the hot glue to hold it in place.

Adding a stem to your paper flowers:

Step One: Cut your desired length of crafting wire (cut them longer than you think you need so you can trim to adjust the height of your flowers as you arrange them in your vase)

Step Two: Roll one end into a tight spiral

Step Three: Bend spiral to a 90 degree angle

Step Four: Place a circle of hot glue on the base of your flower

Step Five: Press the spiral into the hot glue and then place more hot glue over the top

Step Six: Hold until dry

To arrange my paper flowers I filled a small vase with glass marbles and then inserted my wires stems into the glass marbles, moving them around until I created the desired arrangement.

For more tutorials and inspirational encouragement visit www.bethericksondeisgns.com.

Painting SuppliesPaper Crafts Supplies

Drawing Supplies

DIY: Rustic Easter Carrots

Easter is just around the corner and it means spring is coming soon! I love spring, the pastel colors, the sunshine and the warming weather. I also enjoy decorating my little home with Easter/spring decorations. Especially if I can make them economically myself! My goal this year is to have my crafts be mostly made out of supplies I already have lying around the house. Using what I already have is always better.

The rustic carrots in today’s tutorial are popular in almost every store I have visited this March. These carrots are made out of twine, burlap, or bakers string. They come in a variety of sizes, usually three to a package, because we all know that you decorate in odd numbers, right? Each time I have see a package of these fun rustic carrots in all different shades of orange I have thought to myself . . . I can make that!

This post will chronicle my attempts at recreating these carrots, what worked and what did not. Yes, even I make attempts at craft projects that fail, but those failures just give me a chance to re-think and improve my process. That way when I bring it to you, I can show you what really works.

The first attempt was a carrot made out of a newspaper base, wrapped with orange and white bakers twine, glued together with hot glue. This gave the carrot a much more free-form look as we all know carrots are not ever perfectly shaped. At the beginning it looked like my carrot was shaping up very nicely and I was thinking to myself, “Wow this is simple and going so well.” But as I advanced to the end of the carrot where the green leaves are attached, I found that creating this carrot was not going to be as easy as it looked. Getting the twine to correctly wrap around that end of the newspaper proved to be harder than it looked and I was not satisfied with my attempts or my final product. (As pictured above.)

So, the next morning as I was driving to get my step-son & take him to his bus, my brain was swirling with thoughts of these rustic carrots. How can I improve this project? What base would work better than newspaper for wrapping the twine around?  And it came to me! My next attempt will utilize an old pencil, a bamboo skewer or a piece of dowel. Whichever I can find at home. This will give for me a sturdier base and I believe it will allow me to wrap the twine more to my liking! Layering the twine or chosen material up and down the base until I like the shape of your carrot. So let’s get to the supplies you will need and the steps its takes!

Supplies

Step by step instructions:

Step one: To dye your twine orange if desired, mix orange food coloring, vinegar and warm water together until you have your desired color of orange. I used about 2 tablespoons vinegar, one cup of warm water and a few squeezes of orange food coloring. (This is not an exact science) Then I soaked my twine for about 4 hours. Remove from solution and layout on paper towels and paper bags to dry. (about 24 hours).

Step two: Cut your carrots base (pencil, dowel or bamboo skewer) to your desired length, mine were between 2 and 4 inches.

Step three: Cut a rectangle of green construction paper to desired length of greenery for the end of your carrot; cut little strips making sure to leave them attached at the bottom of your rectangle.

Step four: Hot glue your base to the greenery as shown. Roll the greenery around the base until its all wrapped around the base and glue the loose end as shown.

Step five: Tie a knot in the end of your twine, hot glue the knot to the opposite end of the base, let the glue set. When tying the knot in the bakers twine I tied three to four knots on top of one another to make sure I had a knot larger enough to cover the end of the skewer.

Step Six: Wrap the twine around the base holding any tail of twine against the base and wrapping the twine over the top of it to hold it in place. Wrap your twine the whole length of the base and up and over the bottom of your greenery.

Step seven: Wrap the whole length again from top to bottom, then continue wrapping up and down the length of the carrot layering more twine at the top and down the center until you have a carrot shape that you are pleased with.

Step eight: Hot glue the end of your twine in place and you are done.

Now you have a beautiful rustic twine carrot that you can use around your house or on a wreath to decorate for spring or Easter! You can make these fun carrots in any color that you wish!

Visit my Etsy store, www.bethannerickson.etsy.com if you would rather purchase this set of three rustic carrots.

Coming soon, Mason Jar Easter Baskets and watercolor Easter egg garland

DIY: Cookie Cutter Gift Tags

Christmas can be a very expensive time of year. There are so many things to purchase: gifts, wrapping paper, gift tags, tape, tissue paper and many other things. These thoughts take me back to my childhood and memories of how my Mom did such a great job of keeping to her budget. How did she do it? One idea stands out from the others. Its something we did all through my childhood, we made our gift tags from construction paper, a cookies cutter and a pair of scissors. I am not sure why I stopped this tradition, maybe it was time or the store bought tags just look so cute on shelf I couldn’t resist buying them.

Making your own gift tags not only saves you money, but it also adds a special touch to your Christmas gifts. It shows you took time to wrap and label your gifts for all your family and friends, and that it’s important to you to give them something special on Christmas.

The wonderful thing about cookie cutter gift tags is that most of you will already have all the supplies you need right at home. So take a look around and see if you can find what you need without spending a single dime.

Supplies:

Step One: Choose your paper and your cookie cutter

Step Two: Trace the cookie cutter shape on the paper, going around the outside of the cookie cutter. (I would do this on the backside of your paper so your pencil marks don’t show on the front. I forgot to do this when creating my sample)

Step Three: Cut out your shape

Step Four:  Write To: and From: where ever you desire on your gift tag. It can be on the front or back. Leave blank to fill in later when you are wrapping your presents or for your family to use when they wrap their presents.

Step Five: (Optional) Punch a hole in the center at the top, add twine or ribbon

See, how simple that is, really easy and they turn out beautiful. So additional ideas would be to decorate your tags even further with Christmas stickers, crayons, felt pens, glitter or ribbon. You can make this project as creative or simple as you like.

If you are not one to make your gift tags you can visit Etsy or Zazzle to purchase gift tags already made for you. You can download gift tags like these to print at home on Etsy.

I really hope you enjoy your holiday season. I will see you after Christmas!

Extra Extra! Father's Day Gift Idea

Father's day is just around the corner and today I was thinking, what ideas do I have that might help those needing a last minute gift idea for dad?

That's when it came to me! Why not use my mason jar wrap available at www.bethannerickson.etsy.com to wrap a jar of peanuts, a wine bottle, a jar of salsa or bag of coffee beans or fill a mason jar with his favorite candy. Really anything could be wrapped with one of my mason jar wraps to make into a personalized gift for Dad. There are so many ideas I could go on and on!

As I think about it, my dad has practically everything he could want. Does he really need another bbq set, car wash kit, or some trendy gift item he might never use? No! But I do know that every Dad has a snack food or a drink that he loves, that he would buy for himself. Why not make it into a Father's Day gift?

My mason jar wraps are affordable and easy to purchase and download on Etsy.

Supplies Needed:

Step one: Purchase and print the mason jar wrap

Step two: Trim the wrap to size

Step three: Wrap around the gift item and tap in place

Three very simple steps and you have the perfect gift for dad!

Visit www.bethannerickson.etsy.com to purchase one of our very versatile mason jar wraps today and create your own unique gift for dad!

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