Week 5: Engagement Buds or Yarn Buds

Photo tutorial after the jump.

Felt Monograms

Here is one of the crafts I did for my sister's (and husband-to-be's) engagement party. I think if I were to do it again, I would make the felt leaves even smaller although, that would be even more work. *Phew!*

I cut a bunch of felt leaves and then hot glued them down to poster board. I then glued those letters down onto a larger sheet of poster board I painted grey. There is soooo much hot glue gun action some days in my house.

I then taped the back of it (yes classy right?) to a wire coat hanger. This was so that I could hang it up on a wreath wrack on the door.

Week 4: Felt Circle Flowers

Fabric flowers don't have to complicated. They don't need a lot of complicated twists and folds. Sometimes all you need are a bunch of circles to bright someone's day.

Week 3: Cone Flowers

Welcome back to Week 3 of 52 Weeks of Paper/Fabric Flowers. This week let's try some Cone Flowers. I call these Cone Flowers b/c they are made up of a bunch of tiny little cones. These were a big hit in my husband's and my wedding flowers. These gold ones here would be very elegant as single flowers in a black and gold wedding or you could make festive pink and white for a bridal shower.

What I love about these is that they work as accents. You don't have to make a ton for them to be effective. Let's say you have a live flower bouquet and you need to add an accent of a chartreuse or a pink (or whatever.) Make some of these out of card stock, hit them with appropriately colored spray paint and there you go. Done and done.

This week comes with a video! After the jump:

Glitter Paper Tutorial

 I always buy glitter when it's on sale. The result is that I have a lot of glitter just lying about. I love glitter but I hate that it gets everywhere so while I have a ton of it, I'm reticent to use it. Enter glitter paper. It's like a glitter sandwich with gel medium as the bread. This year I'm using it to make hair clips and valentines day pins.

Hurrah Cards on Store Bought Cards

Most of the thank you cards I stenciled onto trimmed, 12x12 craft paper. However, when I was cleaning out my card file I realized what I really should be doing is stenciling onto pretty store bought cards I already owned. I have a bad (good?) habit of picking up sale items in craft and stationary stores. I have more than I need. This is a great way to use them! I must remember this for upcoming holiday cards.

Twix Mummy Fingers

Ingredients:
Mini Twix
Plastic Wrap (Saran wrap)
Tape
Brown Floral Tape
Small Sponge
White Gesso
Brown Acrylic Paint
Glue
Red paper
Red Fingernail Polish


Recipe:
1. Cover wrapped Twix with plastic wrap. Just enough to hold down the edges of the Twix wrapper. Tape.

2. Wrap in brown floral tape. I wrap the ends first and then the length.

3. Use a small sponge and dab on brown paint. Dab on white gesso. Let blend a bit on the finger.

4. Cut out fingernail from red paper. Glue on end. Paint with red fingernail polish.

Halloween Card Tutorial

Ingredients:
Assortment of Inexpensive Craft Paints (I like to use metallic and glitter paints in analogous colors.)
Black Gesso
Mod Podge Gloss
Paint Brushes
Sponges
White Wrapping Paper with Design

Recipe:
Black Paper (for backgrounds)-
Take white wrapping paper (mine was white and silver #3) and paint a thin layer of black gesso (#1). Let it dry and then cover the paper in Mod Podge for sheen.


White Paper-
Take plain office paper and cover it with white paint and pearl metallic paint. After it dries, cover it in Mod Podge.

Orange Paper (#2)-
This paper is a combination of browns, oranges, golds, copper, and orange glitter paint all dabbed about haphazardly on white office paper. There is no wrong way to do this so have fun. When the paint dries, paint on a layer of Mod Podge.

Green Paper-
Use several colors of green paint. Add a little copper and green glitter paint to give it sparkle. After paint dries, paint a coat of Mod Podge.

I cut out my designs (using an XACTO knife for the skull's teeth), glued everything down with the Mod Podge onto precut cards. After the medium dried I used sharpies to draw designs on the skull.

Stencils and Stamps

I've always liked buying rubber stamps more than I like using rubber stamps. I see the designs in the store ("oh what a cute goldfish!") but when I get them home to my inks, I don't like the outcome ("How the heck am I going to use a goldfish?!") So I have all these stamps. And yes I kind of keep buying them. If you're like me, this technique is for you. Take all those stamps and use them not for the individual image but for the texture the image can make.