Paper Dogwood Blossoms

The art of Paper folding and cutting is certainly not new, I suppose that paper crafting is a real love of mine, and I want to show you how easy it is to create beautiful dogwood blossoms out of something so simple: paper.

Here are the things you'll need:

White card stock

Paper cutter

scissors

hole punch (standard)

bone folder

Distress Inks, I used:

(Old Paper, from Ranger { Hi Tim! } & Sepia, from Archival Ink)

Rubber stamp

I used a snowflake design, because that is what I had on hand,

really anything that will give you a dappled look

Pencil (with an unused eraser)

I made 3 different sizes, 2''-4'', getting the most out of a 12X12 piece of white card stock.

Tree branch (optional)

Glue gun (only if using branch)

~Fold your squares into quarters, using the bone folder to get nice and crisp folds.

~Open the square back up, and fold corner to corner, just using your hand to crease, this gives a softer look to the petals

~Fold the paper back into a square, hold the square on the diagonal, cut the "corners" off, creating a teardrop shape

~Open your paper to reveal your almost dogwood!

And then make a whole bunch

...and a whole bunch more....

When you've finally cut out as many as you want, it's time to make it look real!

Like I said, I used a snowflake stamp and just kept stamping and stamping until it looked random enough, using 'Old Paper'

Then using a standard office hole punch, clip all four petals and then ink (with sepia) it with the unused eraser

If you need more inspiration, study the actual flower...that's what I did!

forestry.about.com

Using the tree branch, I hot glued the little dogwood blossoms on randomly. I knew I was doing this for a mantle display, so I concentrated on the "front" side of the branch. If I was doing this as a center piece, I would glue them facing all directions.

I will be honest, I liked the smaller 2 and 3 inch size better, the 4'' was just a wee bit too big....but he's still purdy! :)




I glued some onto the branch but, I really liked just laying them around too!




I just loved how it turned out!! I gotta tell you, it was addicting!! Cut and fold and crease and cut and fold and crease and...........

I hope you're inspired!! Come by again soon, I hope to be ready for the mantle reveal and more on Logan's room next week!!

Have a blessed Easter! He Lives!

The Stool and the Pigeon Part II

If you are a regular reader, you know I just painted this stool, just a few days ago, Friday to be exact...

The Stool and the Pigeon Part I

You are probably wondering why I'm doing a seperate post, it is just a stool afterall, but because I'm some kind of camera junkie, I take pictures.of.every.single.thing.

....and I decided to do an addition to the stool

As you know, I started with a 3.00 Goodwill stool

Using left over wall paint, I gave it two good coats and distressed the edges with black paint (see part I)

and for a whole day, I was happy with the results

I thought it turned out terrific
But then I decided to take another look at that top...it needed sumpin'

Here's What I Did:
~I printed a "3" using the Engravers Font, sized at 450, on my word processor

~Using a blunt pencil, or an embossing tool, I traced the number on center of the stool

Sitting in the right light, it was very easy to fill the number in with black paint using a very small brush....

oh yeah, and a steady hand!

Ok, I think I'm happy...maybe!! :)

So, from this:


To this:

Thanks for stopping by to take another look!


I don't think there will be a Part III!


Linking to the following parties:












Rhoda

The Stool and The Pigeon Part I

See the beautiful long narrow basket in the picture below? I bought it while I was at home in NC this past summer. I loved the shape of it and the painted finish. I did not paint this myself, but I thought I could recreate it.What I did paint is a stool and a basket that I picked up at the Goodwill. The stool was 3.00 and the basket was .99 cents. Initially I bought the basket to see if I could recreate the paint finish {the pigeon} and I bought the stool purely for the function...I use it, the kids it....I especially like sitting on the stool while I'm watching Justin cook. Just Kidding.

So I asked Logan if he wanted to play outside while I was painting my projects.......

So outside we went, it was such a fantastic day here in Missouri!

You just gotta know...
I wasn't even going to paint the stool, but you know how it is when you open a can of paint....once you've got that brush going, you start looking around the house for things to paint, because you know what a pain it's going to be to clean the brush, so you want to make it worth your while, and any thing's game...or......maybe that's just me.

I painted both the stool and the basket with left over paint that I used on the walls in living room, because I thought that most matched the base coat of the finish that I wanted to recreate...that, and I had it on hand. *I am really enjoying the new paint color in the living room, so much so, that I haven't even hung our pictures back up, I'm just basking in the spackle-filled-nail-hole-freshly-painted-wall feeling.* Sorry, back to the project

Once the paint had dried, I used a very dry brush, with the slightest amount of black paint, and then dry brushed the basket and the stool. It is a very easy process, the key is to dab into the paint and then blot a lot off...it's easier to add more paint than to take it off.

I hit the edges quite a bit and I like how the top turned out, catching in the cracks and nicks

And of course I can't just take the "after" shot, I have to style it up first!
"So Logan, how do you think my projects look?"

Linking up with these lovely ladies:

Thanks for stopping by!

If you would like to see what I did to the stool next, check out:

The Stool and the Pigeon Part II