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Somewhere along the way, I realized that I love almost all
things crafty (though don’t ask me to paint a picture, or draw, I’m terrible at
that). This revelation was a shock to
most people who knew me, especially my mother who, while extremely
(reluctantly) talented in her own right, never enjoyed much crafting
herself. I still remember when I asked
her to make invitations for my 8th birthday party and she drew what
I thought was the most beautiful horse ever. She claims to this day that the horse was
hideous, but I remember it as being amazing.
Where am I going with this?
Well, with work being what it is lately, I haven’t gotten to do much of
my own crafting. However, there is one person who will always be more important
than work… Milla. The main reason for
this is that she is ever so appreciative of what I do. After just a few of her
decorations went up, she exclaimed, “I love it mommy! I love everything you make for me!” This promptly led me to furiously take on
more projects for more affirmations.
This was the first year that I was going to do away with the
St. Patrick’s Day theme because I figured she was old enough to tell us what
kind of party she wanted. However, after
hearing that she wanted a Princess, Barbie, Ballerina party
I decided that I would still incorporate some of the massive amounts of St.
Patrick’s Day decorations that I have accumulated on account of having a St.
Patty’s Day baby!
Here’s what I did… and I’ll start with the easiest!
Polka-dot cups
I thought of this one on my own and I’m kind of proud of
it. All I did was use my Silhouette
Cameo to create hundreds of different-sized circles on a sheet of sticker label
paper (like this) and randomly stuck them on the cups. But you could also use a circle punch or
vinyl! It classed up the cheap-o-cups
and made them super cute!
Floating Ballerinas
Next was tackling the ballerinas; not literally of
course. I found a free outline of a
ballerina and then also a snowflake outline with a large center and used my
Silhouette Cameo to cut several out. To
assemble them, all I had to do was place the snowflake over her body and it
rested on her tutu! Then I took fishing
line and hung them from the ceiling.
Tissue Paper Tassels
I have seen these everywhere on Pinterest and
always wanted to make them so I used this
tutorial, but made it my own by using the Martha
Stewart Fringe Scissors (cuts down greatly on hand cramping since you can create
more fringe each time you cut).
Coffee Filter Flowers
Now we’re moving on to the more time-intensive
projects. I had seen these
everywhere and wound up referencing a tutorial
but you know me, I had to find some shortcuts for it. So first, I took a ton of coffee filters (I
purchased a pack of 400 or so from Costco); and then I dyed them in my kitchen
sink with several drops of red food coloring. Obviously, the more drops, the
deeper the color. Then, I put them out
to dry (just like the tutorial told me to do) and waited days until I
realized that if I separated them, they’d dry more quickly. Shortly thereafter, my house was littered
with pink, damp circles.
The next steps were to fold them in quarters and staple at
the bottom. Then I shaped what would
become the “petals” and varied how I did them.
I used my Martha Stewart Fringe Scissors on some and they looked like
Chrysanthemums; then I used regular scissors and made waves which resembled Peonies
and then I made zigzag cuts which looked like Dahlias.
The next step was to open them up and “fluff” them. Basically, carefully, pull apart the tissue petals. Here comes my shortcut… the tutorial advised
using floral wire to keep it all together, but I just used another staple. Faster and easier, just my style.
To hang then, the stapes definitely came in handy. I wanted to hang them vertically from the
ceiling, so I took a needle and threaded it with the fishing line and ran it
under the front of the staple so that I could still move the flowers if need
be, but they would also stay where I wanted them.
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| One of the Chrysanthemums |
The process itself is pretty
easy; but the sheer number that I made was not.
First, I advise you to buy tulle on the roll. This will save you from having to wrestle the
tulle and cut it into strips. If you are
cheap thrifty like me, you will buy tulle by the yard at the fabric
store and cut strips while cursing your frugalness.
I then took a piece of
cardboard about the size of a playing card and wrapped the tulle around until I
got to the end of the strip. It doesn’t
have to be berfect, at all, it just all needs to be relatively taught. Then I very,
very, very carefully slid the card out (I wasn’t successful everytime and
had to rewrap the tulle many times) and then I took fishing line (I should buy
stock in it after this post) and tigtly tied a knot right in the middle. Then I took my scissors and cut each side out
and “fluffed” them. Here’s a little tutorial
I referenced.
To string them together, I
did the fishing line trick that I mentioned above and just sewed right through
the middle of the pompom and then hung them from the ceiling!
So that’s that. Did I also mention that I made that banner
and the mini-pendant lamp? Yeah. I may have gotten a little out of control.
