Day 23: Crepe Paper Flower

This is another Pinterest find.  I had printed out these picture to use while making this over at my mom’s house today, but managed to cut it off without the last two photos in the little photo tutorial.  I didn’t realize that until just now when I went to add the link.  I see that I should have added two more petals: I’ll do that for one of the later pictures.

It isn’t hard and it doesn’t take that long, but I wasn’t sure if I’d bother to make this again to top a gift.  However, looking at the photos I see what captured my eye the first time I saw it on Pinterest.  The texture of the crepe paper and the ruffle-like quality really has a beautiful, flowery appeal. The one on Pinterest is in a pale pink with gold-edged petals but I like my deeper rose pink with diamond glitter almost as much. It also really takes a plain box from simple to special.

You need crepe paper, the same stuff used for party streamers. A small circle of card-stock as a base, scissors, glue such as Aleene’s Original Tacky Glue (Elmer’s White Glue would probably work just as well), glitter and an embellishment for the center. I used Tombo mono adhesive to stick the petals to the base but the tacky glue would work for that too, it just takes some time to dry so you’ll need a little patience if you go this route.

Cut out 10 petals. Each petal has two scallops on one edge.  Pieces of crepe paper 2 inches wide, folded in half with a curve cut into one end than unfolded make each petal.  You can cut several at one time.

Put a little tacky glue on some scrap paper and a little pile of glitter.  Dip the curved edges of the petals in the glue and then in the glitter.  Let dry.  I did the last two petals with a glue pen and that worked but it is more wet than the tacky glue and crepe paper starts to fall apart when it gets wet so I think the tacky glue is better for this.

Pinch each petal at the opposite end from the curved, glitter edge.  Adhere four petals to the base.

Do another row of four petals but offset them from the first row.  Finish with the last two petals opposite each other.  Add the center embellishment, in this case a large adhesive jewel.

One roll of crepe paper will make a bunch of flowers.

Last year was a very exciting day for me: my blog with the post I wrote for Day 23 (Sunprint-Paper & Packing Tape Transfers on Decoupage Boxes) was featured on Freshly Pressed, one of 10 or so blogs that WordPress features on their site every day to “entertain, enlighten or inspire”.   Thank you again to all of you who started reading my blog a year ago because of that.  It was a big thrill and I had my biggest day ever on the 24th.

Thank you to all my readers whether you started reading because you are a member of my family, or because you saw in on Freshly Pressed a year ago or maybe you just stumbled on it and it looked kind of interesting. However you found the blog, I appreciate your interest, dedication, support and feedback.

Vellum Ornaments

I started making these beautiful vellum ornaments last Christmas.  They’re outlined in gold, filled in with felt markers, and embellished with adhesive crystals and glitter so they are rich with color and sparkle.  They are also lightweight which means even the smallest tree branch can support one and they look lovely with light coming through them.

Starform Stickers are what inspired these ornaments.  I found some of their gold outline stickers at Scrapbook Territory in Berkeley.  I picked up several different packages, not knowing what I was going to use them for, but knowing I loved how they looked.  There are tons of designs – I think the first ones I picked up were doves, koi, and poinsettias.  The designs are very detailed and peel off from a backing and press on to your project; in this case, vellum.  They give you a slightly raised line around open space which can easily be colored in – think of the lead in a stained glass window.

I use the Starform Stickers but I don’t usually use them as they came on the sheet.  I adapt them by cutting out pieces and putting them together for the designs that I either sketch myself or copy from other sources.  The vellum makes it easy to trace your design from a coloring book or from clip art you can get online.  I’ve even held a piece of white copy paper up to the computer and traced a simple design right from my computer screen.

This can be a bit  of a fussy and painstaking project.  If you are looking for something fast and easy, this is not the craft for you.  (UPDATE: For a really easy project, see the next post on Paper Heart ornaments.) If you like something that will take your focus and concentration and you have good lighting, sharp scissors, a steady hand and a few hours (and in my case, good reading glasses) you will probably enjoy this.  The end results are worth the time spent.  The simple designs take less time and are every bit as beautiful as the more elaborate ones.

Supplies:

Vellum Paper – I use 17 lb. letter weight  (Stampin’ Up)

Starform Stickers

Pencil

White Copy Paper

Black Sharpie

Colored Felt Pens

Adhesive Gems

Small, Sharp Scissors

Gold Pen

Glitter

Glue Pen

Small Hole Punch

Gold Cord

Optional:

Craft Knife, such as X-acto, with fine point

Piercing Tool

Directions:

Sketch or find a design for your ornament. I’ve found lots of designs off the internet.  I traced the Swedish Dala horse off of my computer from an image I found on Pinterest.  The peacock was traced from a picture of a beautiful, jeweled earring.

To make the design easier to see through the vellum, I like to go over the lines with a fine, black Sharpie.

Put a few X’s with pencil on the white paper.  Tape the vellum paper over the white paper and mark the X’s on the vellum so if you move the paper it will be easy to align it again.

Take a look at the various curves, curlicues, dots and lines of the sticker sheet and look at your ornament design to see what can be used without changes.  Start cutting and piecing together parts of the design from the Starform outline stickers.  I have made fairies and used butterfly wings that didn’t need much adapting.

Flower petals worked for flounces on the skirt.  Leaves worked beautifully for peacock-tail feathers with only minor alterations, and the mermaid ornament started out, naturally, as a fish sticker.

The sharp point of my scissors is what I use to pick up the stickers but you can also use the tip of a craft knife or piercing tool.  A piece of vellum works great for the bits and pieces of stickers you are cutting apart to use and the leftovers (which you may use before you’re done).

Once you’ve finished with the outline, undo the tape and turn the vellum over.

Using a gold pen, go over all the lines on the back.  This way your ornament will look beautiful when seen from any angle.

Do a rough cut around your shape, leaving at least a half inch border of plain vellum.  You want to make a hole for hanging it up but depending on the shape it isn’t always easy to tell how it will hang.  Once it is cut out, hold the vellum on the edge and see how it hangs.

Once you’ve determined where the hole should be it is nice if you can find a small bit of sticker that you can put on and then punch a hole using your small hole punch.  Some sticker sheets have various sizes of dots or small circles that work perfectly for this.  If that feels like too much fuss, simply punch the hole and (if you want) outline it with gold ink.

Now go back and cut carefully around the whole ornament. Cut close to the sticker edge but with some small detail areas it is best to leave a little of the plain vellum around it for structural integrity.

Get out your colored markers and color the design.  I put color on both sides of the vellum, sometimes using two colors on opposite sides to create a third color.

Embellish your ornament with stick on jewels and if desired, glitter.  A glue pen is a great way to put glue exactly where you need it before adding glitter.  Let it dry.

Thread a piece of gold cord through the hole and tie into a loop for hanging on a tree or in a window. For a finishing touch I like to put a very tiny tag made from scrap paper folded over the cord.  I put my initials and the year the item was created.

Thanks you for taking time in this busy season to visit and read my post.

Easter Egg Tree

I’ve been remiss in presenting any Easter craft projects.  I tried to make up for that with a last minute egg-decorating project but only managed to do all the things that you shouldn’t do.  Smudgy finger prints, gluey fingers with bits of paper stuck to them, etc.  So I will take some time to do it properly and save those helpful tips for next year.  For this Easter I present to you: photos from our family Easter Egg collection.

I don’t know when we started blowing eggs and decorating them – often with felt-tipped markers.  I know we used to have an egg I did for the bicentennial when I was 16 years old, so at least 35 years.  That egg has gone the way of others over the year – dropped  and broken or cracked beyond repair.

We used to find a good branch and put it into a flower pot to display them.   The blown eggs were carefully hung from the twigs of the branch which was fine until the pot tipped over and fragile eggs crashed to the table.  For quite a few years a branch was hung from the wrought iron chandelier.  The current method is a pair of ornament trees hung with eggs – one on the dining table and one on the piano.

Many different decorating techniques are represented: decoupage, mosaic, very shaky wax-resist Pysanky-style eggs, watercolor, pen and ink, and more.  We are lucky enough to have some eggs crafted by my Grandma Cooper (the pretty green with white flowers and white with blue flowers are hers). Other friends and family members have added to the collection, including some commercial eggs and I try and do a new one or two most years.

This is one of my 2011 eggs: blue and gold paper, gold ink, watercolor felt pen, adhesive gems, a button and a gold cord for hanging.  It is pictured in a birds nest I found years ago.

Below are the other eggs I finished this morning, packed and ready to go to my parents house.

Here are some sites I’ve visited with information about various egg decorating techniques.

Learn Pysanky

Wayne Schmidt’s Pysanky

Mosaic Easter Eggs (Save egg shells from peeled, dyed eggs for an egg-shell mosaic on a blown egg)

Paper-Napkin Decoupage Easter Eggs (Martha Stewart)

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Easter!