design

Thursday 27 October 2011

Poinsettia Wreath for Christmas

Some of you may remember the poinsettia flower that I did as a tutorial a few weeks ago. I pondered and pondered about what I could do with it and finally this wreath is what I came up with.

If you want to make one then you will need some red felt to make the wreath and some kapok to stuff it. I cut out a circle of felt. I used a large ribbon reel but feel free to improvise and use whatever you have in the house. The centre was marked with a reel of beading wire that I happened to have handy.

The wreath is sewn together using good old blanket stitch and stuffed with kapok just before it is completely sewn together. Sew the poinsettias to the wreath.

I uesd a 38mm satin ribbon in teal to make the bow and the hanging ribbon. You can buy it from Craft Fairy here.

Sunday 16 October 2011

Everlasting Corsage of Roses for a Winter Celebration

How many of you have paid for a beautiful fresh corsage only to have it collapse during the day?  This post, I hope will help you to avoid this and show you how to make your own corsage.


Here is the finished article and I guarantee that it will look this good next week and next month.
So, to get yourself started you will need:

1 really large rose
2 curly roses
barrel roses
small rose buds
medium rose buds
Ribbon





  If you look above you will see what I used. Now, apart from the larger roses, you can vary the others a little. However, you will need lots of sizes. You will not get the same effect if you use all of the same size flowers so be warned.

I layered the smaller roses as shown below.


Start with the barrel at the top and gradually work down.Twist the stems together as you go.

Put the large rose in the centre and then twist the wires together at the back of the corsage so that they lie flat. At this point, this is what you'll end up with.
Add any of the barrel roses that you will use and twist in to place. You will see that there are barrel roses on one side and small buds on the other. You need that to balance out the design.
Do not be tempted to add the really large rose too soon. Get everything into place first and then twist in the large rose.

 
 Now add the last of the small roses and twist. Add the last of the large curly roses. twist into place.

To make the bow, fold the ribbon in a figure of eight shape and then go over the figure for a second time. Wrap the wire of one of the pearls around the centre of the ribbon and use the remaining part to wrap around the corsage and secure it in place.

Now you have youe corsage that you can wear, but have you thought about making several corsages and using them as table decorations? They make your table look superb.

Sunday 9 October 2011

Ribbon Poinsettia Tutorial

Do you like it? I really hope that you do as I am getting a tutorial ready for you.

The ribbons are available on Craft Fairy and the beads are from my stash.
If you want to make one then all that you have to do is get the follwing ready to play with.

a needle
thread
scissors
measuring tape.
Start by cutting 5, 7cm pieces of scarlet ribbon and 5, 5cm pieces.

Fold a 7cm piece in half and pinch. Where the pinches are sew together as shown.


Below you will see the two stages together so I hope that this helps.
Now fold the petal on the right side and you will have a pointed petal. If you want really sharp points then you can iron it flat. Repeat with all five petals and lay out side by side on your work space.

Sew along the edge of all of the petals as seen.

Pull the thread tight and the petals will form a circle.



Now repeat the above with 5cm pieces of ribbon and you will get a smaller flower.

Place one flower on top of the other and sew together.



Sew some gold beads to the centre and sew two pieces of teal ribbon to the back for the completed flower.

Saturday 8 October 2011

How to make a punched flower

I hope that you liked the card shown in the last post and I can't believe that it has been so long since I published that.

So, if you want to make one you will need punches from Kuretake. You will see them in the photo below.
I also used two pigment pads for colouring and some adhesive.
Start by punching out lots of petals and two circles.


 Below you can see how I coloured the petals.
 Then I punched out a circle.

Next I stuck the petals to the circle, overlapping as I went. Continue until the whole of the cirle is full and then add another layer offsetting thm over the first ones.
Cover the top of the center circle with another circle and this will cover the mess that you may have made. Basically your flower is now made.
To make it look better you can add a ribbon leaf as I did below. Now attach to the card.