DIY

Cupcake Liner Paper Flower

Posted on Tuesday, May 21st, 2013 at 4:40 pm.

Written by Kathryn

Do you have 5 minutes to spare? If so, you can make a beautiful paper flower. All you need is a piece of yarn, scissors, and a few cupcake liners…. oh and my tutorial, which I have adapted from an amazing book, Paper Made by Kayte Terry.

Start by taking a stack of 3-6 cupcake liners. Make two small slits in the bottom of the liners.

Next, take a piece of yarn and thread it through the two slits as shown below.

Separate the liners, layer by layer. Give each layer a slight twist to make the flower full.

Tie the ends of the yarn into a knot. You can cut the excess yarn off, or if you plan on wrapping a gift, keep the yarn long. For a gift that I recently wrapped, I took the yarn and wrapped it around the gift multiple times.

You might notice that instead of wrapping paper, I used butcher paper, which had been splattered with yellow paint from an earlier craft project. Reduce, reuse, recycle is my motto. Plus, I like the juxtaposition of the harsh butcher paper, the yellow paint splotches, and the delicate paper flower attached with yarn.

A Message for Mother’s Day

Posted on Sunday, April 28th, 2013 at 1:10 pm.

Written by Kathryn

If you are like me, you have a hard time figuring out what to get you mother, mother-in-law, grandmother, etc. for Mother’s Day. I’m not sure why mom’s are so hard to shop for, but they just are. Well I hate to break it to you, but Mother’s Day is just around the corner, so it is time to start thinking about what to get that special woman. If you are completely at a loss as to what to buy, you are in luck. I came up with a fun, homemade gift idea that I think any Mom would be happy to receive–a picture of you holding up a personalized message.

I choose to use bunting to display my message, but you could adapt this project using poster board, a chalkboard, really whatever you want. If you do want to use bunting, I’ve included a tutorial below. It was quite simple and it hardly required any special materials. The flags are made out of index cards. The only other materials used were sharpies, string, and double sided sticky tape.

I began by taking an index card lengthwise and folding the narrower ends into triangles (see below).

Then I folded the card in half to create the flag shape.

I took two Sharpies and made a simple stripe design along the bottom of the flag. Then I carefully spelled out my message with one letter on each flag. Joey helped with this step, because he has a better eye for good lettering.

The final step was to take a long strand of string and place it in the inside crease of the flag. To attach each flag to the string, I put a few strips of double sided tape between the inside edges of the flag.

Then it was picture time. The photo below is my favorite.

For a perfect gift, all you would need to do is print the photo and frame it.

Simple, heartfelt, and homemade. What more could a mom want?

Paper Flower Tutorial

Posted on Sunday, April 21st, 2013 at 5:10 pm.

Written by Kathryn

I love getting fresh flowers, but I always feel a little sad when they begin to wilt. That is why I like paper flowers–they never die.

One of the best paper flower tutorials I’ve seen is from Jones Design Company. If you have any interest in creating your own paper flower bouquet, I would definitely suggest checking out. It is a fairly simple process, but because I am terribly lazy, I modified the tutorial to make it even easier. I left out a few of the steps, but the end result is still beautiful. I’ve included my modified tutorial below, just in case anyone has a penchant for laziness like I do.

I began by cutting an uneven circle out of construction paper. Then I cut the circle into a sloppy spiral.

Next, I rolled the spiral inwards, creating a tight rosette.

I released the rosette, letting the flower unfurl into a nice bloom.

Then I put a dab of hot glue on the inner piece of the spiral and pressed the flower down.

Next, I rolled a sheet of green construction paper into a sturdy stem.

I made two small cuts on one end of the stem and hot glued it to the bottom of my flower.

I repeated these steps until I had created eight flowers. To create my flower arrangement, I gathered all of the flowers and a few dried stems from another flower arrangement that I have. I used twine to tie the flowers into a tight bunch. For a vase, I cleaned out an empty olive jar and wrapped it in yarn and twine.

It’s definitely not perfect, but I don’t mind.

Paper-Flower-3

I’m just pleased that these flowers are not going to wilt.

A Colorful Chair Makeover

Posted on Monday, April 15th, 2013 at 4:53 pm.

Written by Kathryn

I used to hate the color yellow, but lately I have changed my tune. Maybe it’s because I’m looking forward to summer or maybe my preferences have just naturally evolved. Whatever the reason, I am loving yellow! I even painted a perfectly lovely gray chair bright yellow. The photo below shows the chair before its makeover.

…and here is the after!

It took a lot of time to finish, but I love the result. It’s so bright and fun! The chair is metal, so I did some research on how to paint metal. I learned that spray paint is the best method, but house paint can be used in a crunch. Since I live in a condo with no balcony, and I don’t fancy inhaling spray paint fumes, I opted for the latter method. Before I did any painting, I started by sanding the chair.

Then I did even more sanding! By the time I was done, I was exhausted.

When I was done sanding, I used a wet rag to wipe off the dust. Then I started the painting process. Even though the paint I used included primer, I still had to do multiple coats. I let the paint dry between each coat.