Roses Are Blue...

Voulez-vous decoupage avec moi, ce soir?

Faux bois and woodland themes were everywhere this Christmas. Everything from ornaments to wrapping paper was showing up in woodgrain. This red woodgrain tissue paper that I found at Target was especially lovely. I bought a ton when it went on clearance, knowing I would use it for something soon. Voilà! 

I decoupaged the tissue paper onto a posterboard heart cutout that I had on hand and then stamped the letters on after it dried. I pasted another heart cutout on the back to cover the mess and have a place to write some purple prose. It was super simple - the hardest part was getting the Mod Podge out of the bottle. (Is there a phrase "Slow as Mod Podge in January"? There should be.) All the romance of carving intials into a tree without doing any damage. 

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! 

Oh thank heaven...

Guess what we have for Christmas this year? Go on, guess! Give up? Ok, I'll tell you. We have not one but TWO little girls! And guess what else? (You don't have to guess, I'll just tell you.) They are each the perfect age! Mary Jane is still a teeny tiny baby which means A.) I get to eat her up and B.) she'll wear whatever I make for her! And my sweet Iron-Willa (Little Miss NO-I-DON'T-YIKE-IT!) is finally three (!!!) which means A.) she has HAIR! and B.) for those of you not in the know, three = teeny tiny toys!  Polly Pockets, Playmobil, tea sets AND barrettes and bows...I can barely contain myself. There are buttons, barrettes, fabric, tulle, and ribbons knee deep in the studio. I'm in heaven...

So the first project was for baby Mary Jane. The tutu ties on so it is a very simple project but I think it's going to look so cute with a pair of ballerina tights...*swoons* I cannot wait to smush her into this and eat her up!

If you'd like to make your own Tie-on Baby Tutu, I have put together a quick tutorial (I hope you all appreciate that I resisted the pun there):

First you want to cut a sash out of some nice wide ribbon. It needs to be long enough to go around the waist with enough left over to tie the tutu around the waist with a big bow. I cut mine 34" long for a 14" waist so my bow would have nice long tails. Then you want to cut a rectangular length of tulle. I cut mine about 12" x 42" but you can adjust this to any length and width depending on the size of your child and how long and/or poufy you want your tutu to be. You will be folding the tulle in half lengthwise so make sure you cut it twice as wide as you want your skirt length (waist to hem) to be (for example, my finished skirt is 6" long so the raw piece was 12" wide). The waist measurement is also variable. I made mine 42" (3x as long as the waist) so it would be super fluffy.

Once you have your tulle cut you need to add a stitch down the center lengthwise. Keep a nice long tail and tighten the tension on your machine as high as it will go and make the stitches as long as you can. You can also hold onto the thread at the spool to add extra tension (but don't hold it too tightly or it will snap which is kind of a pain). The high tension and long stitches will gently gather the tulle. You'll still have to make adjustments but this gives you a nice headstart. The center stitch can be done by hand as well. Just make a nice running stitch down the center with a long piece of thread.

Once you have your stitch in place just grab a thread tail and hold it as you slide the tulle towards the center, gathering it as evenly as possible until it reaches the pre-determined waist measurement (again, mine was 14").

Now take your ribbon and fold it in half to find the center (you can also measure but this method is way faster). Add a pin or a mark to the center and then center your gathered tulle on the mark. Pin if you'd like, making sure to adjust the gathers to your liking. I only pinned the ends so I would be able to adjust the gathers as I went along.

Now stitch along the edge of the ribbon making sure to get all the tulle as you go. Move slowly, tulle is squirrely! Once you have it all stitched into place you can go back and cut all of the long thread tails.

And that's it for the skirt! Super easy, right? I had originally planned to fold the ribbon in half to hide the rough edge of the tulle but i liked the look of the wide waistband so I kept it open. You could do either. It's really a very flexible project.

For the onesie, find some matching skinny ribbon, tie a bow, stitch it on and add some Fray Block to the ends of the ribbon. Even easier!

And so cute, holy cow. I'm dying to see it on her!

Ok, moving onto hair accessories now...stay tuned.

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!

Simple Fix Part Four (or, 14 Years As a SAHM and All I Have To Show For It Is 4 Measley Tips)

But I'm not bitter.  I saved my favorite tip for last!  Another simple fix with about a thousand variations give or take a hundred or two.  So I know, whether you have kids or not, that you have missing socks at your house.  That's just the way it is.  I don't know where they go or why they disappear but I am starting to think it has something to do with gnomes...

In any case, we used to have a sock box where we would throw the singleton socks.  The box worked great to keep them corralled but it didn't help when it came to actually finding the mates.  The sock box just piled higher and higher until it would tip over and we would realize that more than half of the socks in there were in pairs...

Then in a seemingly unrelated story, I had a spare bulletin board in the studio (curse you slanted walls!) that was too nice to part with.  So I walked around the house looking for a place to hang it (curse you open floor plan!)  As soon as I walked into the laundry room, though,  I had my epiphany.  And now I share it with you:

This fix isn't really much of a tutorial, as far as tutorials go.  All you need for this one is a wall, a bulletin board, some tacks and you're in business.

However, if you want to turn it into more of a project, some ideas include painting/staining/decoupaging the frame, painting the entire board to blend in with (or stand out from) the wall, hanging a smaller board for each family member & painting them each a different color, hanging a board in each family member's closet or room instead of in the laundry room, painting different color stripes or squares to separate family members (or sock types), having a board for athletic socks and one for dress socks (or kids/adults), lining the board with pretty fabric, adding a more substantial frame to make it look like the work of art it truly is...really, there is no end to the ideas!  So have fun with this and rest well tonight knowing that you have outsmarted the gnomes.

Simple Fix Part Three: The eyes have it.

Let me give a little back story here...we travel a lot in the summer, the boys and I, and this one particular summer about 3 years ago I had the irritating habit of leaving my sunglasses at home before every road trip we made.  Now if you drive, and I know that most of you do, you will know that you cannot make a road trip without sunglasses.  So I found myself stopping at truck stops, service islands and drugstores across America to buy another cheap pair of sunglasses to get me through the drive.  By summer's end, I had 9 pairs.  I agree, it was ridiculous.  And more importantly, where was I going to put them all? 

When we were finally home for the summer, I sat in the kitchen trying to think of a way to store all of the sunglasses.  I wanted them to be easy to find, easy to access and to be near the, ahem...organizer where I dump my keys.  Which was already overflowing.  The only open space was on the wall.  So this is what I came up with. 

At this point we are down to a reasonable number of sunglasses but this system will accommodate many, many more (trust me).  And the best part is, it's out in the open so it is very easy to remember to hang up your sunglasses which in turn makes them easy to find!  Now the keys?  That's a different story.  We are still working on that system...

For this project you will need:

• a bulletin board, mirror, shelf etc. hanging in a convenient spot (see the variations if you don't have this)
• (2-3) large cup hooks (they do not require pre-drilling)
• (1) 3/8 dowel in the length needed to fit your frame ( I used a skinny one but really just about any size will do.  Just keep your diameter in mind when shopping for hooks)
• paint or stain
• Little People (or any other finial you might like)

This project is about as easy as they come.  First, paint or stain your dowel to match or coordinate with your frame.  If you add some fancy details or you are worried about scratching the paint, feel free to add a few coats of your favorite sealer. 

 

Once your paint is dry it is time to add your finials.  If you are adding Little People you can just slide them on over the ends without drilling.  I have only added mine with double-stick tape (what if I want to play with them later?) but you can use hot glue if you want them to be permanently attached.

Now grab your frame and eyeball a good distance to install your cup hooks on either end to support your dowel.  I had to deal with the wall phone so my hooks are way off center.  Keep your individual space in mind when measuring.  If you have a very long dowel and lots of sunglasses you might want to add a cup hook in the center as well to keep it from bowing.  Once you have your cup hooks in, pop your dowel on there, add your sunglasses and just like that!  You are organized.  At least, your sunglasses are...

This system, like the first and second, also has a bunch of variations.  Some that I thought about include adding regular finials to make it a little more sophisticated (or just different toys that you might be partial to), using a branch, rope, or other found item in place of the dowel, wrapping the dowel in ribbon or fabric or decoupage, hanging the dowel from ribbon loops or chain... Also, if you have no frame or shelf in a good spot, you could just use a cafe curtain rod alone or a dowel through eyelet screws in the wall or a dish towel bar...and of course this system would work for reading glasses in any other area of your home...

Ok, I think you get the idea.  Have fun with it!