Coffee filter carnations

I was a little hesitant to post this, thinking that maybe these didn't really look like carnations. But then I was at the dollar store this weekend and saw some fake carnations that looked exactly like mine (only white and green), plus a few of you said that you would like a tute...so here goes!

How to make coffee filter carnations.

I don't have pics for each and every step, but I think I have enough to make it pretty clear.

To start, you are going to make an "O" shape with your fingers and thumb.

Then you are going to lay the coffee filter over the top of your "O" shaped hand and press down in the center. This will push the filter down in between your fingers and thumb.

Keep pushing until you have about 2" sticking up out of your hand. Then twist the part that is against your palm until you get something similar to this. Don't worry about it being perfectly circular, once you have a bunch of these together you won't even notice the shape of any one particular flower.

Now it's time to paint! I mixed a little bit of acrylic paint with water. You want it fairly runny so that the filter will absorb the paint, but not quite as thin as water color paint. Play around with it until you get it the way you want it. If I had to guess, I probably used about 2 parts paint to 1 part water. Dab your paint brush along the edges of the flowers, the paint will soak in a little bit. You don't want it super runny, just enough to soak in about 1/4" to 1/2" down from the edge.

Once these dry (which doesn't take very long) adhere them to your ball of choice. You could use a styrofoam ball, you would probably have to cut off most of the "tail" of the flower and then just hot glue them on. I used a ball that looked like this.

I found this at Dollar Tree. It was in the toys section. I think they were calling it a baseball practice ball. I would call it a wiffle ball, though. I thought it was perfect! I stuck the "tails" of the flowers into the holes (one per hole). If you are concerned about the flowers popping out, you could run a line of hot glue around the holes before putting the flowers in. Most of the flowers seemed secure enough to me to not even need gluing. Since I planning on putting my carnation balls into pots, I only covered half of each ball, which took about a dozen flowers.

Here it is all nice and finished.

If there is any part of this that is unclear please let me know! I'm still a bit of a novice at writing tutorials. If you make this, I would LOVE to see it! Either put a link in the comments on this post or send me a pic in an email (at the top of the blog click on Contact Me).

Personalized Wall Hanging - Tutorial

I've been wanting to put my daughter's name up on one of the walls in her room. My only problem was that I didn't want to have to buy anything to do so (I know, I'm cheap). Here is my solution:

For this project I used:
14 pieces of 6" x 6" paper
7 pieces of ribbon (I think mine were around 14" long)
Printer
Razor blade/Xacto knife

First, I printed out the letters for her name onto paper (I adjusted the paper settings in Word to 6" square pages and then made the font as big as would fit).

Then I cut out the letters with a good ol' fashioned razor blade. At times like this I wonder if I'm the only person who doesn't own a Cricut!

Here is what mine looked like:

Then I lined up the pages with cut out letters on top of coordinating pages.

I liked that the two sheets were a little offset. Then I punched holes in the top corners and put ribbon through them.

I used thumb tacks to hang them to her wall. I think I might glue little bows onto the tacks to cover them up.

Here is the view from her door.

Grand total: FREE
Can't beat that! :)

Tutorial: Shower Curtain Ring Turned Bracelet

In case you missed it when it was part of Readers Tutorial Week on Craftaholics Anonymous, here is my tutorial for Shower Curtain Ring Bracelets.


A lot of what I do is someone else's original idea that I just tweak, but every once in a while I get a stroke of genius. Like these Shower Curtain Ring Bracelets!

Materials Needed:
- one cheap plastic shower curtain ring (you don't have a dozen of these just lying around the house? check your dollar store)
- 2 coordinating ribbons (length needed will depend on the width of the ribbon and your particular ring, give yourself at least 18 inches for wrapping and 12 inches of another ribbon for the bow)
- lighter (or whatever you prefer to use to prevent fraying)
- hot glue gun (can you believe I was married for two years before I had one of my own? me either!)
- scissors

Step One:
Heat seal one end of the ribbon that you plan on wrapping around the shower curtain ring (sorry I'm just not talented enough to take a picture of myself burning the end of my ribbon and I would have enlisted the hubbs but he was ever so sweetly folding the laundry).

Step Two:
Put a glob of hot glue (not too much, since as I'm sure you all know, it will ooze as you press the ribbon on it) on the inside of your shower curtain ring (which from here on out will just be referred to as "ring") right where the thick part of the ring meets the thin part that usually goes through the holes of your shower curtain, and press the ribbon down firmly.

Step Three:
Wind your ribbon around your ring, slightly overlapping the edges. This might take a little bit of practice at first  the get it to line up just right since the ring probably narrows just a little bit.

To make winding a little bit easier you can either put a dab of hot glue every couple of "laps"...

...or put an alligator clip on the ribbon that you have already wound to hold it in place. Make sure you pull tight on the ribbon as you are winding it around the ring! This helps prevent bunching.

Step Four:
When  you get to the other end of your ring, put another dab of hot glue on the top of the ring and press the ribbon down.

Step Five:
Pull your ribbon to the bottom side of the ring and figure out where you need to cut it to cover up the last little bit of ring showing. Cut, heat seal (or fray-check...whatever, it doesn't matter), and glue the puppy down!

Step Six:
Take ribbon number 2 and tie it into a bow around the narrow part of the ring (which should be the only part showing by now). Tie the knot so that the ribbon goes the same direction as the ring (you don't want the ring and ribbon to make an X or your bow will be sideways).

Cut tails of bow to desired length and heat seal. TADAA! You've just made a super cute bracelet!

You can even change the bow to coordinate with a different outfit.

So many possibilities!

A FEW NOTES:
- These fit my 1 1/2 year old and my 5 year old niece (ok, and me but I have to open the ring to get it on and I have freakishly thin wrists) so they are great for lots of different ages.
- If you are like me and don't want to have to retie the bow every 2 minutes you can stitch it shut. Or maybe your child won't untie it. You will still be able to change the bow out. Just open the ring and slip it off. It is a little tricky to get back on, but it can be done!

Tissue Paper Candles

In case you missed this tutorial when it was on Craftaholics Anonymous, here is it for you!
Today we are making candles...ok, well not actually making candles. We are decorating candles! This is a neat little trick my mother-in-law taught me a few years ago and I have used it several times since.
Here is what you need:
- a candle (no fakes here, you need wax)
- tissue paper
- stamp
- stamp pad
- scissors
- wax paper (this is optional, but it makes the job a lot easier and gives a smother finish)
- heat embosser (sorry, you can't just use your blow dryer...trust me, I've tried)

Step One:
Ink your stamp and stamp your image onto the tissue paper (it doesn't matter which side)

Step Two:
With scissors, cut out your image making sure to cut close to the edges (this is more important if you are using a colored candle, or colored tissue paper, less important with white tissue paper on a white candle).

Step Three:
Place the cut out image where you would like it to go on your candle and wrap wax paper around it. Be sure to put the waxy side facing the candle. You can hold the wax paper in place, but if you prefer to you can tape it down.

Step Four:
Heat with your heat embosser until the tissue paper becomes transparent. You will notice it changing as you heat it (just like when heating embossing powders).

Step Five:
Admire! Yep, that's really all there is to it! Ok, well you might want to remove the wax paper :)

You can also add other fun things like jewels or ribbon.

You can also use colored candles, but like I mentioned earlier you will want to be more cautious as you cut your image out from the tissue paper since you will probably be able to see the edges of it once you are finished.

Don't like the way it turned out? You can peel it off and start over! Also, the flash accentuated the edges of the tissue paper on my picture above, it looks better in person. And since you have your heat embosser out, you might as well give your candle a little extra dimension. Just pour embossing powder onto your stamped image before cutting it out and heat it before placing it on the candle. You can heat the powder while you are heating the tissue paper to the candle, but I have found that it causes my candle to melt more than I would like and makes the wax drip.

Don't have a stamp or ink pad? No problem! You can color on the tissue paper with markers, or chalks, or watercolors. Play around with it! It's tons of fun!