Roses Are Blue...

Honeycomb Cherry Blossom Tree Tutorial

I made these cherry blossom branches a week or so back to satisfy some spring fever and do something new with the honeycomb tissue paper I had recently bought. It turned out so well that I decided to make a tutorial for anyone that is interested. 

Honeycomb tissue paper made beautiful, showy blossoms - exactly what I was looking for. I used sheets of paper that I ordered online but you could totally re-purpose a dollar-store holiday or party honeycomb decoration for this project. Just make sure that the cells of the opened paper are on the smaller size. You can check this by looking at the lines where the paper is glued when the shape is collapsed. The space between these lines should be a 1/2 inch or less to make blossoms with the effect I got. 

Materials    

Small-celled (1/2 inch or less) honeycomb tissue paper (either a sheet or a decoration to re-purpose)
Double-sided tape
Scissors
Branches (I used Rose of Sharon bush branches from my yard)

Steps

1. Prepare your honeycomb tissue paper. I cut my sheets into smaller squares, 2-3 inches across. If you use a re-purposed decoration, do the same. The lines in the collapsed paper are where the sheets of tissue are glued together to make the honeycomb effect. You want to set up your square for cutting the blossom shape with the glue lines oriented vertically.

2. Cut out your blossom shape. I used an elongated half-circle as the silhouette. You can cut any size blossom, but the most important part is to cut so there is a glue line inside the shape on both ends. This creates the celled effect. My blossoms either had one, two, or three cells and were anywhere from about a half-inch to an inch-and-a-half long. Getting your blossoms how you like them might take a little trial-and-error, so practicing on some extra paper or decoration definitely wouldn't hurt.  

3. Once your shape is cut out put a square of double-sided tape on one end.

4. Open the blossom carefully and match up the ends. Press them together so the tape sticks and creates the blossom shape. This part is a tricky because the paper can get a little floppy. You want the straight edge of the shape to be the center of the blossom and the curved to be the outside.

5. After making your blossom, set it aside and prepare your branch. Wrap a generous piece of double-sided tape around the end of your branch where you want to place the blossom.

6. Gently pull the sides of the blossom with both hands to make a small opening in the center and slide it over the taped branch like you would a doughnut. You slide doughnuts onto tree branches, right? (Tutorials are hard, folks.)

7. Cup the blossom with both hands and press gently towards the center  to adhere all the tissue layers onto the tape. 

8. Repeat! Until you have a bunch of beautiful blossoming branches. Once you get the hang of working with the paper it is fun, quick, and totally satisfying.

Working with the tissue was so awesome that I want to keep experimenting. My kids also loved playing with it so save your scraps for a rainy day if you want a fun kid-project. If you do make anything, definitely share in the comments. I think I might set up a Pinterest board just for cool honeycomb tissue uses. 

Love Scopes!

I recently blogged about making these for my kids at Letter B. I thought I'd post a tutorial here for anyone who wants to make some. They are super-easy to put together. Little ones might need a hand with the folding but other than that it's a fun Valentine's Day craft for any age.

Love 'Nocs

Materials: Two toilet paper tubes or one paper-towel roll cut in half
                     Glue and colored paper and/or paint or markers 
                     Stapler
                     Hole punch and yarn or ribbon for strap 
                     Optional: Post-it Lables, silver paint pen 

1. Decorate your tubes however you like. I used glue stick and covered them in construction paper.  I used some Post-it Lables (which are really awesome - basically post-its but the entire back is sticky) to create the lens-like stripe at the end. Then I used a silver Sharpie to outline the stripes. But you could paint them, use markers, or even leave them plain. You will be bending the tubes pretty vigorously so keep that in mind with whatever you choose.

2. Pinch the tube at one end until it's completely closed and then flatten the tube all the way down with your fingers. Then put it on a surface and crease both folds well. Tube should be completely flat.

3. Squeeze tube from flattened shape until it's a pointy oval shape. Push the top crease down until it's inverted and you get a heart shape. This takes a little time, shaping with your fingers and recreasing, but with a little patience you'll get a heart-shaped tube. 

4. Repeat with other tube.

5. Staple tubes together at both ends. If you like, punch holes at one end and tie on some yarn or ribbon for a strap.

6. Start looking for love.

Spyglass Love Scope

Follow Love 'Nocs steps 1-3 using a paper towel tube. And then take your awesome piratey love scope and follow step 6.

You Say Tomato, I Say Tiny Pincushion...

A while ago (and by "while" I mean years) I read about a couple crafters making pincushion rings from the inside pull-ring of drink containers. Immediately I wanted one and started saving pull-rings left and right. But I never got around to it at the time. I don't know, maybe the new baby had something to do with it (Willa would have been about 8 months.) But in the meantime, pretty much every time I pulled one of the rings out of a container, I would think to myself "Really need to make that pincushion ring..." So, yeah, once or twice a week for three years I had this thought. I win at procrastination.

Recently I started making a dress and found myself in need of a better pincushion and thought, IT IS TIME. I started out by needle felting a tomato. Or, more accurately, a traditional tomato pincushion. Side note: do you know why traditional pincushions are shaped like a tomato? I didn't know so I looked it up. Apparently  it used to be a custom to display a ripe tomato on the mantle of a new house for good luck. Since ripe tomatoes were often hard to come by people would use red fabric balls filled with sand. And then after a while they'd get pins stuck in them and become pincushions. The end. 

I chose needle felting because I like the way felted wool holds pins. But you could also stuff some fabric with fill or wool and glue it to the ring-pull. (There's a good tutorial here for that technique.) Needle felting is pretty easy to pick up and the supplies are simple and affordable. If you're interested in learning more check out this comprehensive tutorial I found.

I used Glue Dots (I swear I don't work for them) to affix the pull-ring but you could hot glue or probably use tacky glue too. Glue Dots worked because I was planning on felting over the plastic.

Gilding the lily a little, but it makes the ring more comfortable. If you use fabric you could glue or sew a cover over the plastic disc.

Voilà! I've been using it for a couple days now and it works great. I love the way it turned out.

Pincushion Power! 

Leafy!

Hi! It's Alana here, finally posting again! Kara and I are gearing up to do more posting and we have a couple projects to share. The first one is this wreath I put together from leaves I collected over the past few weeks.

The inspiration for this piece came from a beautiful leaf gradient I saw as part of the 10/10/10 group on Flickr. I had it in the back of my mind that a gradient would make a great wreath. When the leaves really started to change around here I picked up as many colors of maple leaves as I could find. I put them in books to press them (finally - a good use for my out-of-date Chicago Manual of Style) and then yesterday I glued them all on a form I cut out of some cardboard. It was really easy and took maybe an hour from start to finish. 

First I figured out how big I wanted the wreath to be and cut out a circle wreath form from a cardboard scrap. Once I had the form I started to plan out the gradient, layering the leaves starting with green through yellow and orange.

 

I went along trying different sizes and colors until I got the gradient I wanted.

 

Then I moved the leaves one by one off the form, snipped off the stem, and laid them out around the form in the order I wanted them.

 

I wasn't sure what kind of glue I was going to use. Hot glue would have been overkill since the leaves were pretty thin and brittle. I thought I'd probably use plain craft glue but, being the impatient type, didn't really want to wait around while it dried. So I pulled out my trusty glue dots and gave them a try. They worked perfectly.

 

If you've never used these definitely give them a try. They are magic. They're especially good for kids crafts when you don't want to deal with glue mess.

I put two or three glue dots directly on the leaf, depending on the size, and then pressed the leaf down on the cardboard, layering as I went from red through the spectrum to green.

 

Once the form was filled I was done. I took it straight to my front door and hung it up. It was light enough for me to just use some sticky tack.

We have a storm door in front, so I wasn't worried about wind, but you could easily hot glue a loop of ribbon or wire to hang it more substantially.

I'll be curious to see how it weathers. I don't expect it to last more than a season or store well. You could preserve the leaves with a couple different techniques besides just pressing for a longer-lasting wreath. I'll probably just make a new one next year. It was totally gratifying for not much work. My favorite kind of craft.

A Flower In Every Pot: The Tutorial

I'm not sure how many of you remember this craft that I linked to back in the early days of Roses Are Blue but I have had a hard time throwing caps away since I made my first cupcake.  I was looking at my bowl of caps thinking it was time for a new pin cushion so I started thinking about pins that I covet (what?  You don't covet pins?  Have you seen the button ones?!  So cute.)  Anyway, I have long had my eye on these sweet little pins so I thought, "Duh.  Flower pot." and started warming up the glue gun.  Once I finished my pot I put flower pins on my fabric store shopping list (yes, it was the only thing on the list and no, I can't be trusted to remember why I'm there) and headed out to run my errands.  When I got to the fabric store I discovered that one box of 100 pins was $7 (twice as much as online?) and I thought what any good crafter thinks, "$7 for pins!?!  Are you crazy??  I can make those!"  So I did.

And darn if they didn't turn out even cuter than I planned!  I love them.  So now I will share this tutorial with you:

First make your pot.  Any plastic bottle cap will do (2-liter, 20 ouncer etc).  You can even make varying sizes and have a little flower pot arrangement (cute!)  Measure the cap height and circumference and cut two strips of felt, one a little more narrow than the other to be the rim of the pot.

Then cut the circle of brown felt for the dirt.  You can eyeball the size but it should be about an inch larger in diameter than your bottle cap circle.  You can always trim it down later if you make it too big (um, like I did here). 

Use a needle and thread to gather your dirt circle into a little bag, fill it with stuffing and tie it off.

Get out your hot glue gun and glue the two strips of felt to each other, the more narrow one slightly overlapping the wider one to form the rim of the pot.  Then  bit by bit attach the two strips of felt to the bottle cap.  It's important to note here that the top of the cap will be the bottom of the pin cushion so pay attention to your gluing!  In the photo below I have the cap turned upside down but the strips are glued correctly.  You can also add a circle of felt to the bottom just to make it look more finished but that step is totally optional.  Ok, all of the steps are optional but you get what I mean.

Once you have your pot done it's time to fill it with your dirt.  Make sure your dirt pillow fits and make any adjustments to it before you start gluing.  Once you are satisfied, slather the bottom and lower edges of the dirt pillow with hot glue and carefully place it into the pot.

Now you are ready to plant your flowers.  Of course, if you are not cheap like me then by all means stop here, go get the flower pins and Bob's your uncle!  However, if you want to save $7, onward and upward.  I pulled out my fabric scrap basket for this part because the petals and leaves are so tiny but whatever fabric you use, iron it onto fusible interfacing to keep the flowers from fraying.  Then draw on a flower shape and a leaf shape and cut them out.

See how cute?

The last step is to poke your ball headed pins through the shapes and add a little glue if you want (if you use glue remember to add it last so you don't gum up your pins).  Voila! 

Cut out as many more flowers and leaves as you want for your pot (or as many as you can stand to make in one sitting) and then admire your handiwork.  I'd love to see photos if anyone makes one. 

Simple Fix Part 4 and a half...

Ok, so you've had your sock board up for about a month now, right?  And it is like a miracle, I know.  But I am guessing that, miracle of miracles not withstanding, there are several singleton socks up there still patiently awaiting their reunion with their mates.  Sadly, for an unfortunate few, there will be no reunion (seriously now, where do they go?!)  So for those poor lonely widows and widowers I have done one more Simple Fix to help put those socks to good use, Cherry's Comet Dog Throw (I just made that up.  What do you think?)  This project works great with athletic socks, especially the long soccer/baseball variety (of which we have singles in every color...)  Again, not much of tutorial here but they put directions on a soup can so who am I to judge?  Ok, so for this project you will need:

• a lonely singleton sock crew length or longer
• a soft baseball or heavy-ish rubber ball (a tennis ball will also work if your sock is not too long)
• a rubber band (optional)

First, put your ball in your sock all the way to the toe then and add a rubber band (or tie a knot).  Take it outside (with your dog), spin it like crazy and let go.  Bingo!  A fun game of catch without having to touch a slimey ball!

And look how happy your dog will be...

Ok, so if a dog toy is not your thing (maybe you have a cat and that's ok), feel free to browse through this list of other clever ideas.  Pure genius, I say...

Bean Bags (scroll down.  This same idea could work for a cat toy.  Just use catnip instead of beans.)

Sock Monkey (this one requires two socks but they don't have to match!)

Sock Puppets

Baby Sock Puppets (too cute!)

Grass Sock Pet

Sock Worm

Sock Babies (again requires two socks)

Singleton Sock Bunnies

Sock Bunny (again!)

Sock Bunnies, Chicks & Eggs (next Easter you'll be ready!)

Sock Snow Friend

Socktopus (har!)

There another list of great ideas here and here (LOVE the camping soap idea!)

And check it out, here's a whole book dedicated to sock crafts!

Now you can really cull that sock wall.  I'd love to hear any more ideas (or see pics) if anybody has them!

Look at the amazing flowers...

Oh, and the purse... This is my project for this month's theme over at The Purse Project.  The idea this time is to refashion an old and/or vintage purse.  (Go check it out and play along too.  You've got plenty of time!)  I have added one rule to this project (for myself) and that is that I am not allowed to buy ANYTHING in this process.  Not even the purse.  Man, I'm hardcore.

Anyway, this purse was pretty boring before with braided pleather handles and wooden rings.  I got it from a friend several months ago (thank you, JQ!) when she was cleaning out her closets.  It was still full of tissue and still had the tags on it so apparently she never used it.  The purse has a great liner and a practical design but for whatever reason *cough*it was ugly*cough* I never used it either.  So it was The Perfect Sacrifice (just in case things got out of control).  I'm happy with how it has turned out in the sense that now I know I will use it (yay for recycling!) but, I am disappointed in it's simplicity (yaawwwn, it is still really boring).  There is a ton of inspiration over at the Purse Project but this was all I could come up with.  I had BIG plans to make something really cool.  Paint, embroidery, applique, I was really going to step outside the box.  Oh well, there is still time.  Maybe I'll dig out another sacrifice.

In the meantime, a boring purse is nothing a few azaleas can't fix...

Yummy.

I love this idea!  These are mini pin cushions made from bottle caps!  There is a tutorial (among other wonderful things) here.  Aren't they cute?  I made mine to look like mini cupcakes (um, as if you couldn't see that) and I am going to use them as gift toppers for my sewing friends.

But i'm totally keeping the one with the sprinkles... sorry Alana.