Reverse Stenciling

First the back story...

Last fall I joined a weekly Bible Study/craft group. We shared our worries and our joys and discussed our Daily Devotion and how it applied to our lives. THEN... we made a craft.
Yes, I know! THAT is a great combination!

I'm going to share the awesome book I worked on from week to week in another post. But, out of all the techniques we were taught from our inspirational leader Diana, this reverse stenciling thing was so easy and packed a punch.

I knew right away I could use it in more wedding crafty goodness.

Daniel and Katie's wedding was taking place in a barn with the reception taking place in a big fancy tent.

And in between the two was a trailer housing the bathrooms!

Then there was the thought 

"how can those bathrooms look crafty and charming?"

With some cute signs of course!

So, with the bride's blessing, I began this simple little project

•First I cut scraps of paper with mostly yellows and grays and used a mixture of white glue and water (very watery) to adhere the pieces all over the canvas board.
•I cut out photos of Daniel and Katie from when they were little.
The 'photos' were actually photocopies that I did on a laser printer at a local FedEx Office Print and Ship Center.
•please note that the photo is just printed on
regular paper not photo paper!

•Next you will need a set of alphabet stickers
You select the font and size
The color doesn't matter
you'll be throwing away the letters that you use in this project

•I placed the letters right on top of the paper scraps
that were already glued to the canvas board.

•Next I used an artist palette knife to spread Patching Plaster OVER the background of the canvas board
INCLUDING over the letters!
I went close to the photo's edge but not over the photo.
I used the Patching Plaster by DAP sold at my local Lowe's
This is actually a great compound for lots of art projects.
I keep my tub in my studio, not in the garage!
Also, it's nice to let a little of the background paper
show through here and there.

• Before the Plaster dried, I removed the letter stickers.
I used a straight pin to pick at a corner of a letter.
With the pin I was able to lift the sticker up and off of the canvas.
I did this step immediately after I finished spreading the plaster.
Once you get a corner lifted with the pin
you can gently pull up the entire letter with your fingers!

Here is the result!

When it is completely dry
you can apply a protective finish.
Then just add a ribbon to the back for hanging!

•••••
As I said at the beginning of this post
I learned this technique from my good friend Diana.

Below was my first attempt.
I will show off my little book in another post.
You'll even see how these pages
changed and took on new life.

Another thing to note by looking at this example
is how bold the paper is for some of the letters
and not for others
•Lesson learned•
use strong colors
such as what I used for "my"
and the "han" of "hand"

handmade wedding part three • Origami Kusudama flowers

The second type of flower I made for my son's rehearsal dinner was an Oragami design called Kusudama. Kusudama is a modular Oragami flower that is made in units. It seems to be most common to make a 5 unit flower however, I made mine with 6.

PS I LOVED when my dining room table was covered with these beautiful bouquets leading up to the wedding!

Here's how it's done

 #1 • cut a 4 inch square 

#2 • fold in half as shown • use a bone folder or the dull side of a table knife to make the crease sharp

#3 • fold the right corner up to the top and make another strong crease

#4 • repeat with the left corner

 #5 • fold the a-c edge (refer to previous photo #4) 

on the left side over to meet the d-c edge

#6 • fold the a-c edge on the right side

over to meet the b-c edge

continue to make strong creases

with the bone folder

#7 • open the fold on the right side by placing your finger

in the outer pocket

gently pull it open and then flatten it in it's new fold (#8)

This is when your sharp creases will pay off.

It makes this step much easier! 

 

#9 • repeat #7 and #8 so that both sides are now flattened open

#10 • fold the tips down on both the left and right sides

toward you as shown

#11 • fold the left side in and the right side in

this fold will be easy because of previous sharp creases!

#12 • join the left side to the right side

I've ONLY used a paperclip to hold it together for the photo

so DO NOT fold it here!

just join the two sides together

use hot glue to join them.

repeat all the steps above five more times to create a six petal flower

 

a pile of petals  

Gluing the petals together to make the flower

#1 • a little hot glue on one side

#2 • gently squeeze together

do steps 1 and 2 for all six petals

#3 • a little hot glue on the outside

#4 • attach another petal

#5 • adding the third petal

press lightly keeping in mind that this is already half of your finished flower

#6 • you can add the stem here or after your 4th or 5th petal, just squeeze a line of glue on the inside of the flower as shown and lay your stem in the glue

finish adding your petals • six total

#7 •  Doesn't the bead look pretty in the center? Squeeze a dot of hot glue in the center

#8 • gently press in the bead

make sure that the hole in the bead doesn't show

#9 • TA DAH!

 

handmade wedding part two • DIY paper flowers • Swirls

ok, where were we?
Good thing it didn't take me as long to make the flowers as it did to blog about them!

I made two types of flowers for the rehearsal dinner. The solid yellow ones were super easy. I used two different yellow papers. One was plain and one had a texture in sort of a linen look with a slight shimmer. I thought this subtle difference would add a little depth.

start with a six inch square

draw a swirl and cut on the line

 start rolling from the outer ring to the center

 in the first section of the photo below

 I am holding the rolled up flower fairly tightly

in #2 I have let go

in #3 I have bent the wire stem, bringing

the end up through the punched hole

that I punched earlier with a 1/16th paper punch

if you look closely at the first photo on this post

you will see the tiny punched hole

I used hot glue here to secure the stem to the flower

#4 shows a pile of flowers BEFORE I added the stems

you may or may not 

want to add some dots of hot glue

here and there between the layers

of swirls.

I did because I wanted each flower

to look a little different.

the glue holds some layers closer together

while pulling some further apart. 

SPECIAL NOTE

My niece Emma made her own version of these for her wedding in July. She painted sheet music and book pages with water color to create her own paper. I'm guessing that she drew more swirls than I did as she had many 'layers' to her flowers. 

What a beautiful version.

her bouquet 

real greenery 

paper flower

genius!

even on the cake!  

 

another graduation scrapbook

In 1999 I was introduced to the world of scrapbooking. My 1st niece was about to graduate from high school so I thought a scrapbook would be the perfect personal gift from me.

That got the ball rolling for 'the graduation scrapbook' gift from Auntie Lo!

Over the years since that first graduation I have made one for her sister, my three children and another niece. This year was my nephew's turn. With all good intentions to start it early, I waited until the last minute!

In fact I began on Tuesday, April 24th and finished it on Tuesday, May 22nd. I worked each and every day. In some cases ALL day and into the evening. I left one day to clean up and pack and we headed to Iowa for Will's graduation, scrapbook in tow, on the 25th!  That first book for Dori was a surprise. By the time I got to this book for Will, his mother (my sister) provided me with all the photos, even having categorized them all nice and neat in a box.

There is a HUGE creative leap between the book from1999 filled with triangles of colored paper and lots of stickers, and the book of 2012.    But then, isn't that how all crafts and abilities evolve over time?

Starting with the birth page

here are a few more pages

not in any particular order.

I love taking photos that have a theme even if they are from all different ages. Then I create the artwork out of that theme, such as the Tinkertoys!

                                      

  Will was expecting the book but it is still a joy for me to watch him open the cover for the first time and dig in.

Inside the cover of each book I have written a favorite AA Milne quote from 

Winnie The Pooh

"I lay this book in your lap.
Say you're surprised?
Say you like it?
Say it's just what you wanted?
Because it's yours-
because I love you.” 

note:

each book got a little bigger

sometimes it's best to be last!

Paris and Pooh

How does a dear friend's 50th birthday slip by so quickly?

There was that surprise party in early November.

That's when I thought I still had plenty of time to make a special gift.

Then Thanksgiving AND the actual birthday

came and went.

then Christmas.

then New Year's.

Suddenly months have slipped by and all I had was a blank canvas

and some ideas.

I decided the canvas should represent all the 50th birthday celebrations that she had been blessed with.

a trip to Paris with her husband.

a trip to the Azores with her high school friends.

the surprise party.

and Pooh.

Pooh was important because she loves Pooh

and so do I.

The phrase I chose makes me think

of an imagined conversation

between she and I.

You see, I don't just slap paint on a canvas.

I put my heart on the canvas.

Here's how it went

better at projects than posts...that should count

I've actually been quite crafty since my last post,

just not diligent with my crafty blog.

Let's catch up.

First I came up with a good use

for two of the old doors

that came out of the back hall remodel.

I had been contemplating something new

for displaying my necklaces at shows.

cut down the doors

remove the knobs

pull out my favorite paper, scraps and maps

 and the white glue/water mixture

and

voila!

I added corkboard to the other side

and then hinged it together.

Here it is in action

at The Handmade Market!

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Then there was the pillow for Piper.

I got out the fabric samples that Holli had given me

from when she worked for an Interior Designer

I began by cutting squares and rectangles

out of the samples

and sewed them together.

As I got closer to the overall pillow size

I had to sort of work it like a puzzle.

 

side one

side two

The pillow insert is a very used insert from a chair.

That's what led me to make this in the first place.

My favorite chair and a half had lousy pillow inserts.

I finally purchased some great feather inserts.

I couldn't just toss the old ones!

They looked sort of flat and even split in the center.

But, for some reason it just looked like a comfy doggie pillow to me!

look at those sad pillow inserts

before...

after...

one happy Piper!

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Next up

 the paper poms

*

Oh, the paper poms

who knew the paper poms would be tricky to make?

certainly not I.

I had this great idea to make paper poms

for decorations for a

Bridal shower I was hosting 

for my dear friend

Alison.

My friends and co-hosts 

Becca and Libby

got in on the fun.

My first shock was that the flowers would turn out so large!

For some reason, I thought they were going to be 

these small little flowers that would turn into

a garland.

They could have been,

but as we tried them

we found out that the smaller the flower

the harder it was to work

First you cut a width of tissue paper

about the same size as what you want

the finished diameter of your pom to be.

Libby had just folded her purple paper accordion style

and was adding the floral wire.

We followed the directions

on 

Martha Stewart.com

I worked on the green poms.

We rounded some of the ends

as shown on Martha Stewart.

Some of them we trimmed to a point.

 Becca worked on an orange one

with rounded ends,

Carefully pulling layers

of tissue out from

each end.

Here is a green pom in progress.

The funny thing is that we thought

our poms were awful at the time!

Looking at these photos now...

They were actually

some pretty great poms!

No one can see the torn pieces here and there!

The holidays came and went

and

it was time to use our tissue paper poms

for the shower.

Our original plan of a garland

was replaced with

this awesome bunch of flowers

hanging

from a light fixture.

Cheers for Libby

and that idea!

If you look closely

you will see 

additional flower poms made of tulle.

They were made on the spot

out of lots of loops.

It was the perfect filler.

I know that I learned more than just a new craft

with this little project.

Three capable artists

thought they could whip through

this little project.

When the tissue paper

started tearing,

the frustration level

starting growing.

We expected perfection

from the start.

But, after a few hours

and a lot of laughs,

it turned out

we made some

pretty nice

tissue paper poms!

Thanks Becca and Libby

for the memory!

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And finally,

the sweetest project of all...

Footprint pictures with "the greats"

I like to call my great nieces and nephew

"the greats"

After all,

they are pretty

G R E A T

!!!

We spent part of the holidays

with family in Des Moines this year.

That gave us the priceless opportunity

to hang out

with 

the greats!

We searched Pinterest for a project idea.

Made a few creative additions of our own.

And here is how it went.

Camryn

Sat perfectly still

not one bit ticklish.

Gage

Super ticklish!

Hayden

Another ticklish one.

It was a challenge

to keep those toes

out of the green paint!

This one was Camryn's.

I added the star.

Holli added the trunk.

And for our crafty addition

to these mini masterpieces.

Holli added song lyrics.

Camryn's and Gage's

Auntie Carol and cousin Emma

wrapped them up

to surprise

some happy parents.

T H A T

was a fun afternoon!
I
L O V E
my greats!

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crafty in Nashville

So I've been spending time with Holli in Nashville this week.

One entire week.

Tuesday to Tuesday.

Bliss.

We've shopped, dined, run errands, exercised, and shopped a little more.

Holli worked too.  She is getting ready to take kids to camp and there is plenty to do in preparation for "the best week of their lives". 

But, since this was sold to me as "the best week of my life" we've been on the go for days, building up to Holli's 26th birthday.

There is so much to see and do in Nashville and we have so much fun together.

But let's face it, for Holli and I nothing is as fun as our craft time together.  Holli had saved an idea from a blog and we spent her birthday afternoon on our Book Page Wreath.  We started out by stopping by a used book store to pick up a book from the free pile.  This is a very inexpensive craft project. 

In addition to a couple books

you need a foam wreath

some brown craft paint is nice

a glue gun

and lots of glue sticks!

The project could be finished in an afternoon but we started late in the day, stopped for snacks and birthday dinner out, and even made cupcakes.  So our wreath wasn't finished until after church the next day.

Here's a few photos we took along the way but, if you want the real directions to do this yourself please refer to the original blog.  She even has a video that we thought was helpful.

 aging the edge of the pages with a little brown paint

 starting the ring of rolled pages on the back of the wreath

 the completed back

 working on the first row from the front

 lots of variation in rolling the paper

sometimes in an S, sometimes loosely, sometimes not

 looking good but still a ways to go!

 finished!

or

was it

that we were out of glue sticks?!

 the original instructions said to glue a piece of ribbon to the back to use as a hanger.  I didn't trust that so we stuck a piece of wire around the wreath and twisted it.

much better!

 the end