Showing posts with label paper. Show all posts
Showing posts with label paper. Show all posts

Friday, April 9, 2010

Curled Paper Peonies

Hey there everybody, I'm back from my superb vacation...I had so much fun, except for the unwanted tan! Since my last post was so lengthy, this time I'm gonna keep it simple. 
So here goes, I made these beauties yesterday- Curled Paper Peonies..Don't they seem fun? 

These can used to pep up almost anything - a greeting card, a closet door, or as in my case, my workspace..my computer at work is going to be adorned by them tomorrow!

These are very simple and fun to make, as they require no extensive work, and are almost frugal, as all you will need to make these is paper and glue. Glitter of course is compulsory for me, too!
 To make Curled Paper Peonies, You will need:

Paper:  Several types of paper were used. I painted cardstock paper with shades of pink glittering acrylic paints, as evident in the flowers above. I also spread some plain paper and magazine pages under some bottles I wanted to spray paint in silver color. You can see that in the pic below:

This helps in recycling otherwise unused paper, and also saves on glimmer mist or sparkle paint! I know, clever :)

Glue, Skewer or toothpick (for curling), Scissors, and glitter are needed too..Lets get started now:

You will basically need to cut three or four 9-petal flowers for making one peony. Templates are available everywhere on the internet for these. You can choose the size of flowers and their number according to the desired fullness. I found three flower shapes satisfactory for one full peony.

I cut these 9-petal flower shapes from out of cardstock paper, mag pages, plain paint-splattered pages, and some gift papers as well. I know, you're thinking what next!

Next, place three alike flower shapes on a plain surface. Do not bother with the first flower. Cut one petal from the second flower, and two petals jointly from the third flower, as in the pictures below (I included two pictures so you're more clear about it).:

Now glue two petals together so that they overlap. Note that for the second and third flower, this overlap should be done for the petals across the gap where you had cut petals previously (you still there, after this line??). 

Now hold the skewer or toothpick in a hand and curl each petal of the flowers outwards as shown here. Just a gentle curl will do the trick, no pressures required.

The first flower with no cut petals forms the base, the second flower with one cut petal get glued over the first, and the third flower with two petals cut needs to be glued topmost. Now scrunch the flowers together ever so lightly, like this:
Now for the cut petals - Curl them with the help of skewer as well, and place on the top of the stack of curled flowers. Glue in place. And we're done, Voila!!!
There you go, your flower is ready! Now attach it to a vase, or a gift..People will always admire their simple beauty.
Linked to these fab parties..come, join me there!

Monday, March 1, 2010

Butterfly and Glass Gem Mobile - I'm in love with it!

I've been busy since a few days, making....THIS! Click on the picture to get a better view, as these pics do not do justify the beauty of this mobile. But then I think any project involving butterflies is a beauty! 

Butterflies fascinate me..I'm obsessed with them. Makes me wonder why I never posted any projects related to butterflies, but here I am anyways with an alluring mobile with butterfly and glass gems. One can find butterfly mobiles all over the blogland, but I wanted to make a difference by adding some glass gems or pebbles which shine and shimmer prettily, thus creating a nice ambience.

Here is how its done! You will need:

You can do it with just one hoop if all you desire is a single tier mobile, or two hoops for making it double- tiered. I intended to make a two- tiered mobile, but was too lazy ran out of time so made a single tier. That looks good too!
 I cut all the butterflies in 4 different wall papers all by myself (took me 2 days to cut over a 100 flutters!). You can choose coordinated colors, but I went totally berserk and chose a wild combination of red, white, pink and blue, and colorful glass pebbles. I found a fabulous butterflies template HERE! Thanks Lolly!
Lets get started! Place your hoop on a flat surface and mark the distance at which you would like the strands of the mobile to be. Should not be too far or near ideally. Mine had around 25 strands.
Do not worry about the visibility of the marks, we shall cover them later.
Now take your yarn ball and cut the individual strands. Decide the length of the mobile according to where it will be hanged. Leave an extra allowance of 5 inches on each strand length. My mobile was 25 inches long, so I cut 25 30 inch strands (Huge, yes!).

Now start working on individual strands. Note that glass gems are heavy, and should be ideally glued onto something wider, as we don't want a pebble falling suddenly onto a child, do we? So for a long-lasting glue bond for the glass pebble, follow these steps to make a 'seat' for the pebble where you could glue it:
Make a simple knot onto the yarn strand at the distance of 4 inches from one of the ends.

Make these knots all over the strand at a regular interval of say, 5 inches. The more the use of pebbles, the prettier you mobile will turn!
Now put a dab of tacky glue or hot glue over the 'seat' and press the pebble onto it. There, let dry and it is permanently stuck. Here's how the strand looks like after this step:

Do this to all the 25 strands. Now for the butterflies! Glue the flutters in between the pebbles. See to it that the distances are more or less equal.

Needs some patience, I know, but the result is worth it! Repeat the above for all the strands. Here were some of the finished strands. Let dry.

Now temporarily hang your embroidery hoop from a hanger or suspend it from wires like me. Take the strands and tie them one after the other onto the marked place on the hoop.

Nearly there! Use a coordinated satin ribbon to cover the ugly hoop and the knots. I used pieces of red and pink ribbons. Simply glue one end of the ribbon onto the frame and keep on rolling and wrapping around. Keep gluing at regular intervals. 

Now the final act! Insert 4 equally wide and long ribbons and tie them together to form a hoop to hang. Now hang it from your chosen spot with a hook or chandelier. Our dining room looked like it needed some dash of color so I hung it from our pretty chandelier.


I love to gaze at it while the lights are on!


LOVE this!!





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Its So Very Creative @ Its So Very Cherie
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DIY Day @ ASPTL
 Made-it-Monday  @ The Persimmon Perch 

Make it Yours @ My Backyard Eden
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Whatever Goes Wednesday @Someday Crafts
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