Book Page Poinsettia

This is a reprint of one of my very first holiday posts which I'm sure only a couple of you saw.  These are very easy to do and I'm sure if you took a silk poinsettia and made a pattern from the leaves you could easily recreate these in a smaller version.  The ones I made last year were really large and a smaller size would be fabulous for Christmas packages.

 I love things made from book pages.  I recently went to a cute little shop in Orange County and saw a wall done with paper book flowers.  They were more springy looking.  Since it is time to decorate my space at Aubergine Emporium for the holidays, I decided to do my own rendition of a book flower.


Poinsettias by the Bunch

I started with a box I had laying around the house.  I used  a normal sized bread plate and traced it to make a back for the flower.

 I cut burlap circles larger than my cardboard and attached a ribbon on the back for hanging.

 Then I took spray glue and sprayed the burlap.  I cut slits in the excess burlap so that I could fold it over the cardboard neatly.

 Then I cut three sizes of poinsettia petals all in the same shape.  The actual largest petal was about the same length as the card board circle.  Then I made a slightly smaller petal and then a smaller petal still.  I put the patterns on book pages and cut them out.  I cut out five of each size petal for each flower I wanted to make.  Then I fan folded the base of the petal and taped it.  When I say fan folded, I first folded the base of the petal in half and fan folded out to each side.  Then I made the base of the folds flat and taped them so that I could glue gun them flat onto the cardboard.  You need to tape them so they stay flat and are easy to glue.  I laid down the largest petal first all the way around on the unfinished side of the cardboard.

 Next I took the middle size petal and folded them the same way at the base of the petal and then I glued them in between the large petals.  Be sure to leave a small circle in the center to put the center of your flower.

 Next do the same fan folding with the smallest petal and glue them in between the middle sized petals.  As you can see, I stayed in a pretty even circle in the middle.  Each layer goes directly in between the previous layer of petals.  You are still leaving that circle in the center.

Next take a little custard cup and cut circles like you did the larger back piece.  After these were cut, I took tissue paper garland (ivory color) and went around in a circle starting from the outer edge and working into the middle of the center piece of the flower.  I just used Tacky Glue to glue this down.  When that was done with the garland, I glue gunned the small circle into the center of my petals.

I purchased a sprig of red berries at Joann's Craft Store and cut off the little berries.  I glued them randomly over the center of the flowers to give them a little color.

When they were all finished, I cascaded them down my wall like a vine.  These would be beautiful on gifts at Christmas or also can be used as ornaments on the tree.  Thanks for visiting.  

I'm partying at...


Mondays          Le Chateau des Fleurs       The Graphics Fairy    
                                      Between Naps on the Porch Metamorphosis Monday
Tuesdays          Knick of Time       Coastal Charm  
                                      Boogie Board Cottage    A Stroll Thru Life   
                                     Cozy Little House Tweak it Tuesday
Wednesdays     Savvy Southern Style
                                           
Thursdays        The Shabby Creek Cottage    No Minimalist Here 
                                     Between Naps on the Porch Tablescape Thursday    
                                     Rustic Restorations Homespun Happenings
Fridays            French Country Cottage       My Romantic Home        Miss Mustard Seed
                                    Potpourri Friday     Common Ground
                                    The Charm of Home    Rooted in Thyme
Saturdays        Funky Junk Interiors

Sundays           My 1928 Charmer Sunday's Best

Wrapping Paper Placemats

The day before Thanksgiving I paid a visit to our new Home Goods to see if I could find some pretty new napkins for our Thanksgiving table.  What I had been using for the last 10 years was looking a little tired and I wanted a change.  I found my napkins and saw some fabulous placemats for $10 each that I thought would be pretty for our Christmas table, however I did not like the price.  Now mind you this is for a table we do not eat at, it's for my Christmas decorations which I will share with you tomorrow.  And anyway when I went back to Home Goods today, the placemats were all gone which removed any temptations I might have had to even purchase them.  I actually was quite pleased.

However, the Christmas placemats that remained were ho hum, nothing to get excited about, and they were at least $3 each and I needed six of them at the very minimum, and I certainly didn't want to store them until next Christmas.  

So I spent a long time finding six placemats that I didn't even like and didn't want to purchase, but on the other hand, I didn't want to run all over town to find what I wanted.  While standing in line with what I did not want anyway, I spotted some shimmery striped wrapping paper that was more along the lines of what I wanted.  Shiny and bright was on my menu.  So I scooped up the $2.99 roll of wrapping paper, dashed across the street to Michael's crafts and found some construction paper for .99 cents a sheet and came home with my goodies.

I measured an old placemat I already had and cut out six rectangles of the construction paper.  Each sheet of construction paper gave me two placemats.  Then I cut out my wrapping paper a tiny bit larger than the construction paper rectangles.
I used spray glue and sprayed a strip of glue down the left hand edge of the construction paper and then carefully laid the wrapping paper right on the edge.  With the left side secured, I lifted the wrapping paper back and sprayed the outer edges of the other three sides of the base paper and then a couple rows in the middle.  The wrapping paper laid right down.  I ran my hand over the newly made placemat and they were perfect.  I trimmed any excess wrapping paper and now I have six pretty and festive placemats.  I also have a lot of the wrapping paper left to wrap gifts with.

I'm estimating these six placemats came to a total cost of $4.50.  Tonight I'll get my table set for Santa and I'll show you how it all came together.

Thanks for visiting.

I'm partying at...


Mondays          Le Chateau des Fleurs       The Graphics Fairy    
                                      Between Naps on the Porch Metamorphosis Monday
Tuesdays          Knick of Time       Coastal Charm  
                                      Boogie Board Cottage    A Stroll Thru Life   
                                     Cozy Little House Tweak it Tuesday
Wednesdays     Savvy Southern Style
                                           
Thursdays        The Shabby Creek Cottage    No Minimalist Here 
                                     Between Naps on the Porch Tablescape Thursday    
                                     Rustic Restorations Homespun Happenings
Fridays            French Country Cottage       My Romantic Home        Miss Mustard Seed
                                    Potpourri Friday     Common Ground
                                    The Charm of Home    Rooted in Thyme
Saturdays        Funky Junk Interiors

Sundays           My 1928 Charmer Sunday's Best

Marie Antionette Christmas

I love images of Marie Antoinette, maybe because I love Frenchy type things and you can't get anymore French than Marie.  I started out with some aqua ornaments.  I wanted the vintage glass ones, but they are really expensive so I opted for the ones from Joanne's that are already 50 percent off.  They are genuine plastic, made in China, which I'm trying not to buy any of that stuff this year, but I made something with it that I hope to sell so I told myself it was okay.

These were just plain balls, and I wanted them to have a more vintage look so I brushed some gesso on them.

Then I blotted it off with a paper towel.  When it was totally dry, I took my thumb and massaged the ball.  This exposed some of the finish below but still left a lot of cloudiness.  Next I sprayed it with Deft lacquer in the satin finish (available at Home Depot).

I found an image of Marie on the internet and printed the wallet sized photos (9) of the image.  Next I placed it on my copy machine and reduced it to 60 percent.  This gave me the size image I needed for the ornament.  Once Marie was copied and cut out, I cut the corners since I didn't have an oval shape to work with and I wanted to cover a little more area of the ornament anyway.  Then I snipped little cuts around the image so it would lay as flat as possible on a round surface.

Next I decoupaged only the back of the image and stuck it on the round ball trying to keep it as smooth as possible.  Then I sprayed the image of Marie with more Deft Lacquer to seal in the ink.

Now I was ready to embellish.  I glittered around the image, and by the way, I did two sides of the ornaments, and then I tied some pretty faded blue seam binding around the top of the ornament.  I used Tacky Glue to attach it to the top so it would not slip off.  I tied a pretty bow, embellished with some junk jewels and Marie is ready for her debut.

Thanks so much for taking a look.  Tomorrow I'll show you a neutral version I did with this same technique with some old sheet music.


I'm partying at...


Mondays          Le Chateau des Fleurs       The Graphics Fairy    
                                      Between Naps on the Porch Metamorphosis Monday
Tuesdays          Knick of Time       Coastal Charm  
                                      Boogie Board Cottage    A Stroll Thru Life   
                                     Cozy Little House Tweak it Tuesday
Wednesdays     Savvy Southern Style
                                           
Thursdays        The Shabby Creek Cottage    No Minimalist Here 
                                     Between Naps on the Porch Tablescape Thursday    
                                     Rustic Restorations Homespun Happenings
Fridays            French Country Cottage       My Romantic Home        Miss Mustard Seed
                                    Potpourri Friday     Common Ground
                                    The Charm of Home    Rooted in Thyme
Saturdays        Funky Junk Interiors

Sundays           My 1928 Charmer Sunday's Best

Vintage Ice Skates Get a Decorative Look

Okay, these may not be vintage, but they are definitely pre-owned and perfect for Christmas decorating.  I run a ribbon or string to join these and sling them over a vintage sled that I keep on the front porch at Christmas time.  Even though it has only snowed twice in our 30 years of living in Northridge, California, it definitely feels like winter when you approach the front steps of our home.

 I picked up some used skates at a neighborhood sale, cleaned and polished them, took out the laces and replaced them with holiday ribbon.  I used a water slide transfer decal with Santa's face that I purchased from Ebay and placed a little Tacky Glue behind it when it was wet to ensure it would adhere to the leather.  I let that dry and went over Santa with a thin layer of Tacky Glue and sprinkled his face with white iridescent glitter.  Then I went to the craft store and purchased some faux white fur trim a little wider than what I needed.  I folded the trim and hot glued it into the top of the skate and folded it over like a cuff.  To add a little more pizazz I got a couple of holiday picks of pine cones and berries and stuck it into the top of the skate.  I also set these on the front porch just like I came in from the ice.  I like to pretend we have seasons here.