So many different colors, shapes, and sizes… Each beautiful in their own way. Happy Mother’s Day!
Tag Archives: flowers
Weekly Photo Challenge: The Beauty of Mother Earth
Paper Flowers
I finally got a chance to get back to some Pinterest-inspired projects. Today I decided to tackle making decorative paper flowers. The link on Pinterest made it look very simple. Items needed – magazine pages in various colors, shredding scissors, bamboo skewers, tape, floral tape. First challenge – no shredding scissors and couldn’t find them anywhere in Nuremberg (not exactly a crafty place I’ve learned). So I improvised and used a short pair of scissors and made the many cuts by hand. I also did not have bamboo skewers and could not find them in the market, so I used paper straws instead. The process of rolling the cut paper around the straws proved to be challenging. I had many failures and I’ve posted a few below. Once I finally got the hang of it, I think they turned out pretty nice. Now I have a decorative piece for the bedroom and one for the living area. These would make a lovely centerpiece for a bridal or baby shower – or simply a nice way to add a little color in your life!
Original Pin
Gathering the magazine pages
Folding and cutting the paper
Failed attempts
Success
Flowers for the bedroom
Flowers for the living area
Embroidered Fiber Art
While on Pinterest a few weeks ago, I came across a pin that was really inspiring. The idea for a project has been sitting in the back of my mind for a while. Now that I am more settled into my apartment, I took some time to get creative once again. I have an alcove in my main hallway that was begging for some color in the form of art. I decided to try my hand at felt and embroidery to make some framed fiber art. I am very happy to see the finished project hanging in the hallway – added that bit of color that was missing.
The original inspiration pin
Sketching ideas for my approach
Gathering felt colors
Painting frames – base silver color covered by dark brown
Start of the gerber daisy
Start of the poppies
Start of the allium
The finished projects hanging in the alcove
Flowers from Egg cartons (a la Anthropologie window display)
I saw this original Pin on Pinterest and fell in love. I thought these would be lovely cascading down in front of a window. They could be used as tie-backs on curtains, positioned along the curtain rod, or draped on the corners of a four-poster bed. You control the colors (sort of) – at least you control the tone of the colors. The saturation is completely up to the interaction of food coloring with the egg carton material. This would be a lovely project with friends or children. As you will see, a single egg carton doesn’t go very far. So patience or a team effort would really help this project along.
Original pin – from an Anthropolgie store window
Basically you start with egg cartons and remove the lids.
You need to cut them apart to create “cups”.
The outer shape of the cup is completely up to you. I followed the blog link from the original Pin, but you could easily keep the edges squared off like the Anthrolopogie window display.
The next step is to dye them. I used food coloring with water. I wanted a more saturated look, so I used a higher amount of food coloring. The color combinations are up to you. I would suggest prepping all the flower cups first and then dying all at one time so that you keep color consistency. I also recommend wearing gloves to prevent dyed skin.
I dried them on a paper towel with wax paper underneath to avoid any transfer to the counter surface. While the flowers are still wet, you can add food coloring direct to the flower and allow it to saturate and spread out. You can also “paint” the food coloring on as well.
After the flowers are completely dry, you can start to string them. The spacing and placement is completely up to you. I used a green raffia covered wire to string the flowers. I twisted the wire around a pencil to create a spiral to hold the flowers in place. You could easily use twine, yarn, real sticks. Be as creative as you’d like.
I created 3 strands of varying lengths using the 12 cups from a single egg carton. To get the effect I would like, it seems I’ll needs at least another 4 egg cartons. You can add leaves as well using the leftover material from cutting apart the egg cartons. So many possibilities, yet so little time!
Flirting with Creativity 