Hanging Paper Flowers

I found today's craft on Martha Stewart's website. For less than $10 and less than a half hour, you can make 10 of these decorations! They are great for any room, or special occasions such as a wedding or baby shower. Here are the supplies needed:

5 Paper Bags, Scissors, Twine and Double-Sided Tape

I chose brown paper bags and twine because they are very inexpensive in addition to the fact that my bedroom wall is lined with brown butcher paper, so it matches my theme. If you wanted to make these flowers in a different color, you can easily purchase colored paper gift bags. At Rite Aid they were about 50 cents a bag, so still cheap. I know that Martha Stewart already has a pretty extensive how-to, but I thought I would write my own as well :)

The first step is to fold the five bag's bottom in half. Once that is done, cut off all of the bottoms. Cut one bag into a petal shape, then use this bag as a guide and cut all of the others to be the same size/shape. Once all five bags resemble flower petals, take a hole punch, and punch a hole at the bottom center of each bag. You want the hole to be fairly close to the bottom of the bags, but be sure not to have it too close to the bottom in case of tearing (because it is only paper afterall). Once the bags have been hole punched, thread a piece of twine (or yarn) through the holes and tie it loosely. Also during this step, take double-sided tape to tape the 5 bags together. You should use two strips per bags. The strips of tape should be placed as shown above (bottom left picture). Once the bags are taped together, tape the top bag to the bottom bag by opening the bags around the string. 

That's it! The result is a paper flower ready to be hung. I will try to upload another picture soon so that you can see it in scale. They turn out to be a bit larger than a frisbee. I hope you try this one out. It is very very simple and as I mentioned before, you will have enough supplies to make ten :)

Bouquet Decoupage

With Valentine's Day being over a week ago, sadly my bouquet of roses and daisies are wilting. I decided to seize the opportunity and turn my wilting roses into something useful and lasting. Here are  the finished products:

I was really excited for how this came out, and it was really easy and inexpensive! Here are the supplies needed, all of which can be found at a craft store:

Modge Podge (I bought mine from Aaron Brother's framing store), a sponge brush (preferably one slightly smaller than the one I used, but the smaller ones were sold out), flowers (the less dried out the better), a surface to work on that can handle messy glue-type materials, and finally the item you will be decorating (I chose a cheap picture frame and a small candle holder).

The steps are simple. Just apply a coat of modge podge onto the item you are decorating, then put on the petals, arranging them however you like. Working in small patches is easiest, so apply a small section with modge podge, then flowers, then move to another section. Once you have finished applying all of the petals, you can quickly go back and fill in the gaps with smaller petals from the center of the roses. Once everything is in place, add another thick coat of modge podge over the petals and let it dry, making sure you brush out all of the bubbles. Making the candle holder is very similar. I worked from the rim of the holder to the base. Just add an inch thick layer of modge podge around the rim, then add the petals. After that first layer, keep going, layering the new petals over the old ones. Then coat the whole thing with a layer of modge podge and let it dry. Once dry, add your candle and watch it glow.

I hope that some of you try this project, especially because you might have a wilting bouquet from Valentine's Day like me  :)