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Showing posts with label Embellishments. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Embellishments. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

More Paper Flowers & A Question

Please tell me what you think about selling hand made embellishments at craft shows. Do you think they would sell? Is it a good idea?

I am just loving making these flowers. I have been flattening out the back so that I can use them on cards & such. But, I think I have to try to make some 3-D Bouquets too. I also started making leaves for them. I painted the phone book pages the same way, then I just cut the leaves freehand with deco edge scissors.
These were done with orange (mixed yellow & red) and lightly went over them with yellow. Two of them have yellow skittles in the center. The other has an orange button threaded with natural hemp twine in the center. Some of these, the top layer was put together with torn pieces of the painted paper. Others, I tore the petals of the flower & arranged freehand & glued.

The bottom flower was made with light & dark blue. The top is one of the orange & yellow flowers. The orange one is one of the torn flowers. I covered an I-Top brad with some similarly colored cardstock for the center. The phone book pages, I find are too thin to use in the I-Top, they tend to tear. I have also found that thick cardstock is sometimes too think for the I-Top. I crinkle or rumple it up to soften it a bit. Once it goes through the I-Top it is smoothed out & looks great.
Thanks for looking. Questions & comments are always welcomed.
Lori

Friday, January 15, 2010

Making Embellishments - Paper Flowers

As you may or may not know I am trying to get together some inventory to do craft fairs in my area. I still want to make some projects to have on hand to sell. But, I also had a thought to make embellishments to sell also. I know I go to craft shows a lot of the time to get ideas. I'm sure I am not the only one. It's good to have our crafts for those that don't crafts. But I thought that it would be nice to have some handmade embellishments for those that do craft. I mean - we all still buy embellishments that we see & like even though we can make them. I think that is the nature of the beast we call crafting - LOL.

So last night I sat down to make some paper flowers. This VIDEO is what first inspired me to make these flowers. Then Donna came out with VIDEO 2. You really need to see both videos that are wonderful. Although I did put my spin on them. I don't have all of the materials that Donna has, so I improvised & I think I really like how they came out.

I used a roll of electrical tape and one of my rolls of sticky strip as a guide to cut the circles. I was not worried about them being perfect. I just tore the paper while holding down the rolls of tape.

For this one, I made the flowers with the bare paper. Then (The colors are off in this pic. They are actually lt. purple & lt. pink.), I watered down some acrylic paint and just kind of splattered it on them. I used my heat gun to help dry them faster (I tend to be impatient.). I then glues them together, painted a button with the acrylic paint, threaded it with some hemp twine, and coated the button with Mod Podge & attached to the center of the flower.


The following 2 were done a little differently & I think I like this method better. I watered down the paint, dried it, crumpled it, then went over it again with wither a lighter or darker paint color. I did this until I liked the look of the paper. Then after the circles were torn, I went around them with wavy deco edges scissors.

This one is Alexis' very first paper flower. She did hers as I showed her while making mine. Its a little more flat, but that's how she wanted it. I think she did a wonderful job for her first time trying. I actually think it looks better than my first paper flower. My first one can be seen HERE.

I really like the rustic look about these flowers. I am in the process of making many different colored ones. Forgot to mention, the paper I am using is old phone book pages. Way to RECYCLE, and it's FREE!!!!
Thanks for looking. Questions & comments are always welcomed.
Lori