Easy Paper Rose Tutorial

For the past few months I've been busy making paper roses.  They are super simple to make and as usual, I kind of got hooked!    

If you want to make some of these pretty paper roses, here is what you need:

• Paper punch in a flower shape similar to this one:

• Cardstock
• Skewer
• Glue gun
• Small detail scissors (optional) for distressing edges of flower shapes

 More pretty paper roses:

Basically, you just take the punch and punch 5 flower shapes. Then take the skewer and curl each of the petals, glue them together in layers and build the rose.   The first flower shape, you bend each of the petals into a U shape. The second flower shape, you bend one edge of each petal inward. The rest of the shapes you bend the side of each petal under.  Then you glue each layer to form the rose. 

For the rest of the tutorial plus illustrated photos see my Handmade Paper Rose Tutorial on HubPages!

Blinged Out Contact Case

Just got finished blinging out a couple of contact cases and just wanted to share them. Did you know contact cases can be used to store seed beads and other small craft supplies in? You don't have to use them just for contacts! Honestly, give me some bling and I'll cover anything :)

 

 I loved doing the first one so much... I just had to do another.

Have a few extra contact cases around the house? Blinging a contact case is super easy... just get some rhinestones and a good glue, something like E6000 and start gluing them on.  If you are interested in a more detailed tutorial plus more ideas about ways you can use a contact case, see my tutorial HERE.

Thanks so much for dropping by!

Coffee Filter Snowflakes Tutorial

A while back, I was given a pack of old coffee filters from my husband's grandmother. We already had plenty of coffee filters and since I didn't know how old they actually were, I figured I just put them up and use them for some kind of craft, like flowers or something.  So recently, I got them out and decided to make some snowflakes with them and they turned out super cute!  I cut out several different shapes.

 scalloped snowflakes

spiky edges

 

 I hung some from the chandelier in the dining room.

Look at this cute snowflake garland!

This is a very easy and cheap winter craft and perfect for kids too.  To make the snowflakes just fold a coffee filter in half, then half again, then half again.... and then again. You will be left with a little wedge. Cut around the sides of the wedge to form the shape of your snowflake and then unfold and see your beautiful snowflake appear.  If you want to add color to them, watercolors would work great or you could add some glitter or spray shimmer mist on them.  

Here is a link to my tutorial that is a little more detailed:

Coffee Filter Snowflakes Tutorial

Happy Crafting :)

Easy Fabric Flowers from Old T-shirts

Fabric flowers from old t-shirts

 Do you have any pieces of old clothing that you need to get rid of but they really aren't even fit for Goodwill?  Here's what you do: Cut them up and make some of these gorgeous fabric flowers with them... I did this with a few t-shirts recently and I'm HOOKED!  I wish I had some more old clothes.. I would love to try to make these out of all kinds of different materials.. because I'm sure each flower would look different when you use different types of material. 

Here is a few different things you can use to make these.. old or damaged:

• shirts
•  jeans
• slacks
•  dress shirts
• sheets or pillowcases
• towels
• handkerchiefs
• fabric remnants
• curtains
• shower curtains
• fabric remnants

  The technique to make each one is the same but there are things you can do to vary the look of them. These particular ones were made with just a regular straight edged strip of material that was about 1.5 inches wide by about a yard (my t-shirts are large). I did a running stitch down one edge, gathered the strip and and then rolled them together,  just like if you were making cinnamon rolls.  Once rolled, I glued each one to a felt circle and viola!

rolled fabric flowers from old t-shirts

The width and length of each strip will determine the size. I wouldn't recommend using a strip that is over 2 inches wide because then it just looks kind of floppy..The length of the strip will determine the size. The longer, the larger your flower will be. You can use multiple shorter strips to make one longer strip.

 Here is another photo of some more made the same way.......

These were made the exact same way but I cut a scalloped edge on each one, sewed, gathered and rolled.

If you take the strip and instead of on one edge cutting scallops, cut horizontal strips all the way down, and then stitch and roll....you will come out with something like this:

I like this one because it kind of looks like a  little pom pom.. to make it even more realistic you can do the same thing but cut pointed edges on each strip.  I think it would come out looking sort of like a dahlia or other flowers that look similar to that.

So you can definitely come up with all kinds of different looks depending on how you decide to do one edge of the strip before doing the stitch.  I love playing around and seeing what I can come up with.

Of course, the best thing I love about these is that they were virtually free to make.. so next time you get ready to throw out that old ripped shirt, keep it and make some pretty flowers!!

I hope you enjoyed this post.. if you are interested in a more detailed tutorial along with lots of ideas about what you can do with your finished flowers, see my tutorial here. 

Thank you so much for dropping by!

Shopping Bag Ghost Tutorial - Guest Post

Look at these cute shopping bag ghosts that my friend Sunny made... and she was nice enough to share the tutorial!

Shopping bag ghost tutorial:

I was inspired to make a Halloween wreath using a wire hanger and cut up plastic tablecloths and trash bags (turned out much more fabulous than that sounds)...and I got to thinking...what else could I make with these free/low-cost everyday items?

I played around with twisting the wire hanger and got a ghost shape. At first, I wrapped toilet paper around (you could also use white streamers) and cut out black construction paper for the eyes and mouth and "Boo!". Simple and cute. But would it last long as an outdoor decoration? Maybe not. So I thought about using a white trash bag but...what about a plastic grocery bag! I had tons of those and the sheerness of it might make for an interesting ghost. Plus - it's upcycling (instead of using a new kitchen trash bag, I could use up some of the many grocery bags we accumulate every month - sorry Earth!).

First, I simply cut off the part with the store name, leaving only solid white plastic. Using two bags, I wrapped and strategically taped until I was satisfied with the ghostliness of it. Then I used double-stick tape to put scraps of black trash bag (leftover from the wreath) to form the eyes and mouth. You could probably also just use a black Sharpie and get the same effect. And there you go - from grocery bag to ghost in less than 10 minutes! And the great thing about using a wire hanger is that it comes ready made with a hook for hanging!

Hope you try it and Happy Halloween!!

Sunny

 and look at this one made with wire hanger and toilet paper:

 If you get a chance, please visit my friend Sunny on HubPages :)

also, if you get a chance drop by and see my Halloween wreath tutorial using a wire hanger!

Thank you so much for dropping by! 

Jamie

Paper Rose with Scalloped Edges Tutorial

rolled roses

scalloped edge rolled roses

I love the cute spiral cut paper roses...I just got back into making them again.   Here is the tutorial I shared a couple years ago after I first started making but recently I have been making them using a different technique- instead of cutting just a plain spiral, I used some scalloped scissors to cut the spiral and they turned out super cute!  I keep on making them and I have no idea what I will use them for LOL! But.. I'll use them for something, I am sure :)

I wanted to do a little post just to show how CUTE and EASY these are... I made all of these out of colored card stock. This particular cardstock worked great because it wasn't too thick.

Easy Paper Rose Tutorial

Start out with a 6x6 inch square and cut it into a circle. 

Then get the scalloped scissors and starting on the edge start to cut a spiral into the circle, cutting around and towards the middle.  I try to leave about an inch between the edges when I'm cutting.  I taper the end and this will leave a scalloped circle cut out in the middle. I then cut off the tapered outside edge.  It should end up looking something like this.

Then I start rolling it tightly toward the middle.  Keep going until you get to the end and then let it uncurl just a little bit... you don't want it to uncurl too much.

Now, take the glue gun and put a glob of glue on the circle (that was left after cutting the spiral) and then take the flower and stick it right down into the glob of glue.   Make sure the end of the spiral is glued down to the side of the flower and trim up the bottom circle if you need to. 


You should now have a pretty scalloped rose!



I hope you enjoyed the tutorial... These flowers are a bit on the smaller size.. If you want larger ones, try starting out with a square that is 8x8 or even 12x12.  Always try and cut your spiral evenly, all the way to the middle.  Also, if you use regular scissors and cut just a plain spiral and then cut large scallops all around it like this:

cut wide scallops

Then you end up with this look:

Thank you for dropping by and please stay tuned for more cute stuff to come :)

Jamie

Easy Crepe Paper Carnations Tutorial

crepe paper carnations

I was going through some boxes in my closet and found a few packages of streamers I had forgotten about.   I decided to get them out and see what I could do with them.  I'm always working with paper and fabric strips trying to make flowers so I thought these streamers may make a cute flower. I ended up putting a stitch down the edge, gathering them and rolling them up. They turned out really cute, just like carnations!  I also made some rolled flowers or cabbage roses, I think they call them, which turned out really cute too.  I decided to do a tutorial on how to make each of these.  There is a link to it at the end of this post.

Here are some more photos:

Here is some photos of the crepe paper rolled flowers aka cabbage flowers:

crepe paper cabbage flowers or rolled flowers

crepe paper rolled flowers

a couple of stacked rolled flowers

close up of 2 crepe paper rolled flowers stacked- this adds dimension

Crepe Paper Flowers Tutorial