Party Artistry

Confetti Invites

DiY: Checkered Backdrop

Party Garlands and Streamers

Vintage Wedding Inspiration

Baby Washcloth Bouquet

Baby Onesies Cupcake

Diaper Stroller

Diaper Cake Tutorial II

Diaper Cake Tutorial I

Baby Clothing Bouquets

Chinese New Year Inspiration III

Paper Blossoms Tutorial


Materials:
Pink & yellow tissue paper (or whatever color you’d like to make)
Tree branches/twigs
Scissors
Ruler
Thread (I used brown to match that color of my branch)
Get the better quality tissue paper, usually they sell it by the sheet on racks.  This paper is stiffer, stronger and will hold it’s shape better.  No worries if the only thing you can find is gift-wrap tissue.  This will work too, it’s what I used for this tutorial.  One sheet is easily enough to make 40-50 flowers.  


Making The Petals
Step 1:
Cut pink tissue into 5” x 2” pieces.  They can be a little longer if you want a fuller flower with more petals.  I like to stack a few pieces together and cut them at the same time.  The tissue is so thin it’s easier and faster to cut a small stack vs. one sheet.

Step 2:
Fold the tissue pieces into quarters… fold it in half length-wise and then fold in half width-wise.  Again I like to do this to 4 pieces at a time.

Step 3:
Cut deep lobed scallops along the open edge of the folded tissue.  So when you unfold the paper it will be scalloped on both edges.  Each scallop will become a petal when the flower is finished.

Step 4:
Gather the tissue by roughly pleating it.  It doesn’t have to be neat, just keep the paper centered.  Pinch it in the center, don’t twist.  I find it’s easier to fan out the petals at the end when it’s not twisted.
You’ve just made the petal portion of the flower!   

Making the Stamens:
The stamens are made the same way as the petals.  Useyellow tissue paper and cut it into 2” x 1.5” pieces.  Fold the tissue pieces in quarters and cut slits on the open edge creating a fringe on both sides when the paper is unfolded.  Because the sections are so small it might be easier to cut a long strip that is 1.5” wide, fringe it then cut it into 2” sections afterwards.
Repeat step 4 from making the petals and gather each sections, pinching it at the center.


Step 5:
Now you have both the petals and stamens finished.  It’s time to assemble the blossom.  Take a section of string and tie a double knot at the center of the stamen piece.  Then tie a double knot around the petal piece.  You’ll get something that looks like a feathery bow.


Step 6.
Now your flower is assembled, you just need to fluff it out!  Take the stamens and pinch them up.  You can tug on them a bit, but don’t pull too hard you might tear pieces out.  Then fan out the petals and fluff them up.  A better quality tissue will allow you to manipulate the flower more without tearing.


Step 7.

Tie the flowers to your branch and trim off any excess string.  Use your aesthetic judgement on what looks best. ;)  You can make bigger branches for a center piece or just small bouquets.  If the flower flops around too much on the branch you can always add a dob of glue to hold it in place.  You can also make garlands by tying them to a ribbon.

Paper Lanterns Tutorial

Click HERE for TUTORIAL

Lighted Lanterns Tutorial

If you haven’t yet sorted out your dazzling decorations for the holiday season, revamp last year’s string lights with these pretty paper cube designs! So instead of buying a whole new set of lights to pump up your seasonal decor, you can just recycle the ones you have by giving them an adorable, lantern-like touch with these quirky origami boxes.

Chinese New Year Inspiration II

Paper Lanterns

table runner 

Floral Table decor

Origami Paper Cranes

Window Garlands

Chinese New Year Inspiration I

Here’s what you need:

1. Glass bottles / tall vases
2. Gold-coloured wire
3. Red glitter
4. Boat-shaped “gold” tael bars
5. Limes
6. Gold-coloured Chinese New Year symbols such as or‘choy’ or ‘fook’
7. Your favourite long-stemmed flowers (enough for your vases and to scatter on the table)

Bottle collectors, it’s time to put your hobby to good use! We had a collection of limited edition bottled water at our disposal, which happens to be a beautiful shade of red and just the right colour for Chinese New Year. But please feel free to choose a different colour!

The gold-coloured wire is easily found in florist shops or hardware stores, while the gold tael bars and red glitter can be found in stationery shops or places that sell home decor items. Silver or copper wires will work just as well with this concept, but there’s nothing like good ol’ gold for the Chinese New year!

For our flowers, we’ve chosen the gloriosa, which is a type of lily. You may use other flowers, of course, but choose one that is a little more hardy and long-lasting than, let’s say, the rose. A flower with a bit of “flourish” (or “drama” if you will) is great for this look.

These Chinese New Year stickers are really handy! Use big ones or small ones, and use as many as you like. The children will LOVE helping you out with this! Remember, there are no rules when it comes to stickers…

Coil the wire around the bottle - any way you like! We just covered the top few inches of the bottle and let the rest hang out. It doesn’t have to be neat, and the best part - you don’t need glue for this! The wire will coil easily around the bottle since it came in a coil at the store, so it will already be all curly-wurly. Just tuck in the ends when you’re done, to avoid scrapes and scratches.

Carefully put the stem of your flower through the loops of the wire until it is secure. If you like, you can even put two or three flowers in there.

To make sure that our flower doesn’t move around too much, notice that we’ve coiled the wire a little narrower at the top. But if you have more than one flower in the bottle, you could loosen the coils a bit more. But just a bit!

When you’ve dressed up as many bottles as you like, it’s time to dress up the table. Didn’t we tell you this was so much fun to do?? Arrange the gold taels, limes and extra flowers in neat piles, then add a little more here and there. We like a little structure to our handicraft, but at the same time don’t want to make it look like it was too carefully thought-out. For the grand finale, sprinkle the red glitter over the items! We hope you bought the thickly-cut kind, because fine glitter will easily get blown everywhere and get stuck on everything… and we mean e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g. An alternative is to use sequins!

Perfect Palette: Dusty Rose (Rustic Romance)

    
{Dusty Rose, Chocolate, Taupe, Camel + White}

   
{Dusty Rose, Blush Pink, Peach, Light Yellow, Aqua + Lavender} 

Perfect Palette: Coral (Color of Potentiality)

  
{Coral, Fuchsia, Light Coral, Peach, Blush Pink + White}

   
{Coral, Burnt Orange, Gray + White}

     
{Coral, Pink, Peach, Ivory & Black} 

    
{Coral, Fuchsia, Pink, Taupe & Ivory}

  
{Coral, Chocolate Brown & Ivory}

   
{Coral, Taupe, Ivory & Gold }

   
{Coral, Peach, Ivory & Shades of Green}

{Coral, Orange, Aqua & Peach}

  
{Coral, Black + White}

  

{Coral, Peach & Gray}

 
{Coral & Green}

   
{Coral, Orange, Light Yellow & Peach}