Desktop Picture Holder

Hello everyone! I am sorry that I haven't been around lately. The longer that I stayed away from my blog, the easier it was to stay away from my blog, if you know what I mean. At this point, I am not sure how often I will be posting as I haven't been working on any new projects. I would like to thank you all for your comments and emails over the past several months. I literally have thousands of emails of all kinds to sort through and it is going to take me a while. I haven't been spending much time at all on the computer and I'm afraid it is going to be that way for a long while to come.

I am in the midst of cleaning and sorting through all of my craft stuff. A large portion of it has already been donated. The one thing that I cannot wrap my mind around is how much fabric I have accumulated over the years. Finding storage for it has become a real problem. I hope to live long enough to use it all and I certainly will give it my best try. For now and possibly forever, I am on a self imposed fabric buying diet.

All kinds of foolishness has been going on in my life but I won't bore you with the details. My family is intact and functioning well just in case you were wondering. In between it all, I have been working hard on getting my entire house in order, digging through decades of stuff, brutally tossing, organizing, and just trying to create a well functioning home once again.

The following is the original project that I put together for the I Am Roses contest back in May of this year. After much thought, I decided not to enter the desktop picture holder because of it's simplicity and entered my ring box instead. These pictures have been sitting in my computer since that time. Because I haven't been crafting at all over the last four months, I thought that I'd share them with you today.


For this project, you will need several mulberry paper leaves and roses, A Versamark Watermark Inkpad, glittered embossing powder and heat gun, gold 28 gauge wire, assorted small beads, a 1/4-inch paper punch, acrylic paint and paint brush, gold foiling paint or gold acrylic paint, a small flower pot, a small weight to weigh down the flower pot, small piece of styrofoam, cardboard, and cardstock, and a hot glue gun.

To begin, dip random parts of the mulberry leaves into a Versamark Watermark Inkpad.


Dip the leaves into the embossing powder.


Dip the tips of the rose petals into the ink pad.


Dip the roses into embossing powder. Use your heat gun to heat emboss.


I used a gold foiling pen to color the flower stems as they were originally green in color.


Using a length of wire anywhere between 2-1/2 to 4 inches, poke one end into the base of the flower alongside the existing stem.


Twist both wires together. The additional wire will lend more support to the rose stem.


To make the picture hanger, take a piece of wire about 5-1/2-inches and bend the upper third into a 90 degree angle.


Curl the short end of the wire into a swirl.


The wires used in this project measured anywhere from 5 to 8 inches. Add a bead to the center of a piece of wire.


Twist the wire tightly to secure the bead.


Create a flower and leaf cluster by twisting a couple of leaves around each of the roses.


Cut a piece of styrofoam that will fit snugly inside the pot. Cut a round piece of cardboard that will fit on top of the styrofoam (to hide the ugly styrofoam). Choose a weight of some kind to give some heaviness to the pot to keep it from tipping over(small rocks are good). You can use whatever small, weighty item you have laying around the house.


Paint the outside and a small portion of the inside of the pot with acrylic paint.
Glue the weight to the bottom of the pot using a hot glue gun.


Decorate the outside of the flower pot. I've chosen to keep it simple with just woven ribbon glued to the outside rim.


Cut a circle from cardstock using the cardboard circle as a template. Glue the cardstock to one side of the cardboard circle. Punch a hole in the center using a paper punch. Glue the cardboard side of the circle onto the styrofoam.


Gather all of the stems together, taking care to stagger the height of the flowers and beads while at the same time, arranging it in a pleasing manner. Glue the stems into the hole.


Here is a closeup of the flowers. They remind me of porcelain flowers. Well, sort of.


Here is the completed project.


The ring box and the desk top picture holder complement each other nicely.


I hope that you enjoyed this project. Until we meet again, take care, my friends!

Aloha,

I Am Roses Creative Contest Entry

Hi everyone! I thought that I would share my I Am Roses "In the Garden" contest entry with you. The contest is being sponsored by I Am Roses, a company that sells gorgeous mulberry flowers.

Please click on the video to watch. Oh, and if you have a YouTube account, please leave a comment over there. This is my first YouTube video so please be gentle. Can you tell that I was scared out of my mind recording this? I’m looking forward to hearing from you!



I don’t do product reviews or hauls very often unless it is for something that I am super excited about and/or I believe may be of some interest to you. I recently received my order from I Am Roses after watching haul after haul video on YouTube about these amazing mulberry paper flowers. As you all know, flowers are my weakness so I finally caved in and bought me some.

I just have to say that I am truly blown away at how amazingly beautiful and detailed they are and how much I love working with them.



Bunma, the owner of I Am Roses, offers excellent and personal customer service. Her prices are extremely economical and are far better than I could ever find in my stores.

It is evident that extra effort was made to ensure that I received the product in perfect condition.



I Am Roses is a company based in Thailand. I am in Hawaii and received my package in well under 2 weeks. If you would like to enjoy these flowers too, you can find her website HERE.

A HUGE thank you goes out to my son, Evan, who helped me make this video. You are the cat's meow, kiddo!

Take care, everyone!

**Music: Kevin MacLeod of Incompetech Royalty Free Music

**Victorian image courtesy of Magic Moonlight Free Images

Aloha!

Altered Dress Form

Over the last couple of years I have been watching the altered dress form craze from a distance, always wanting to try my hand at it, but never really diving in. Well, I am happy to say that I have recently changed that. The creation of this dress form was an ad-lib project put together on a whim late one Sunday afternoon.


The dress form is hand drawn and cut from chipboard. The trunk is painted in a soft muted shade of peach and a rich chocolate was added to the base.


A big thank you goes out to Valita of Valita’s Designs and Fresh Folds for providing the bosomy bodice tutorial and also for providing the inspiration for this project. You can find the bodice directions HERE along with many of her inspirational designs. This gal is a creative genius and I am certain that you will agree. Thank you again, Valita!

The fabric that I used for the extra full bouffant skirt is called Peacock Collage and is from a line named Proud by Keri Beyer for In the Beginning Fabrics. I have been holding onto this fabric for quite a while, hoarding it like a crazed fabric junkie and afraid to cut into it because I love it so. Beneath the skirt is a flouncy tulle crinoline in a medium shade of mango.


The addition of miniature paper flowers, ribbon, and rhinestones provided the perfect finishing touches.


I hope that you enjoyed seeing my version of an altered dress form.

Take care!

Aloha!

Carrot Patch Money Holder

I am always looking for fun and unique ways to give the gift of money, especially when the recipient is a young person. Since this gift will be for a 2-year old, I knew that it would be destroyed as soon as she put her hands on it. Because of the outcome, I knew that I wouldn't be spending enormous amounts of time and energy on it. At the same time, I wanted it to be cute and something that I felt good giving away.


I designed the Carrot Patch Money Holder to fit a single, tightly rolled U.S. dollar bill. I know that there are templates for carrot boxes out there but I didn't want to search for one and then have to manipulate the pattern to fit my needs. The rule that I set for myself was that it had to be super simple to make without using an actual pattern.

I found that an 8-1/2-inch salad plate was the perfect template needed for this project. Trace the template onto patterned cardstock and cut out the circle.

Cut the circle into 4 equal pie-shaped pieces. Each circle will make 4 carrots.


Make a 1/4-inch cut into the pointed end of the triangle. Trim 1/4-inch off of one side of the triangle (just eyeball it). You should get what resembles a lopsided fan.


Take the side that has been trimmed and bring it over to the opposite end, leaving a 1/4-inch margin. Crease the fold sharply. (The margin will eventually become a tab which will be used to close the box.)


Fold over again and crease the fold sharply.


Trim the pointed end of the tab at a slant.


Form a crease in the 1/4-inch margin to create a tab which will eventually be used to hold the carrot together in a cone shape.


Mark 1-inch from the top of the triangle on both sides.


Trim both sides of the triangle using the 1-inch marking as a guide. (Again, just eyeball it.)


Fold the top down using the 1-inch mark on either side as a guide. Crease well and unfold the entire triangle.


Add glue to the right side of the tab and glue the tab to the inside of the box.


Add a tightly rolled up dollar bill tied with ribbon to the inside of the money holder. Glue or tape the flaps closed.


To create the carrot leaves:

You will need a 1-3/4-inch by 1-3/4-inch piece of cardstock and a 3/8-inch by 8-1/2-inch strip of paper. Run the square piece of paper through a paper crimper if you desire.


Cut thin strips into the 1-3/4-inch square to create fringe. Be sure to leave approximately 1/4-inch at the base uncut. Glue the strip to the uncut side of the fringe approximately 1/4-inch from the edge.


Begin rolling with a quilling tool or a skewer at the base of the 1-3/4-inch square and ending at the end of the strip. Glue in place.


Glue the leaves onto a 1-inch paper scallop.


Glue the unit to the top of the box.


Make one or make more. I happen to think that a grouping of multi-patterned carrots look cute together.


The carrots were tucked into a paper basket along with some wispy paper shred. I'm sure that many of you will remember these woven paper baskets from your elementary school days. Embellish the basket with a cluster of pretty flowers for a fun Spring look.


Despite the lengthy instructions, this is super simple to create. Once I had the pattern configured, I was able to complete 8 carrots in about 45 minutes. I hope you give it a try!

Happy Easter, everyone!