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Easter Table Setting: Florals

Decorated table setting for Easter

I always have a ton of ideas when it comes to creating any table setting.  Easter is no exception.  It is more a case of me trying to stick with 1 theme and make a cohesive look for any of my crafts and decorations.  This year I settled on a floral theme.  Initially, when I thought of florals; I thought pink!  Well let’s be frank, for me, a little pink goes a long way.  So bring on a fresh new color for Easter.  Orange!

Easter Decorations and Table Setting

Obviously, these Easter place settings used my hand-made chargers, no-sew napkins, and patterned Easter eggs.  However, I always have to add some details.

DIY Floral Table Setting

 

I wanted to layer a number of patterns to create a bohemian feel.  Strips of various floral patterned fabric dressed up white table cloth.  While I quickly colored the floral part of various paper doilies to complement the colors already used in the fabrics.

Decorated table setting for Easter

I also tried to bring in a little spring green, white, and tan to balance out the colors.

Floral Easter Place Setting

I am pleased that the table setting and Easter decorations came out Spring-like and feminine without resorting to a pink bonanza.  Here is one more shot of some of the details.  Below that are all the accompanying tutorials for creating your own DIY Easter decorations.

Easter decorations and decorTutorials

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How to Make No Sew Fabric Napkins

No Sew Fabric Napkins

Fabric napkins always add a bit of ambiance to any table setting.  However, the cost of pretty embellished fabric napkins can add up quick.  My solution?  Make your own no-sew, embellished fabric napkins!  You could absolutely sew these napkins, but 1.  I hate dragging out the machine and 2.  not everyone sews. On to the tutorial:

No Sew Fabric Napkins

 

Supplies

No Sew Napkin Supplies
We will get to the purposed of that red and orange striped towel in a minute.
  • Fabric Squares: I have used a faux linen here.  You could also use a cheap plain fabric napkin.
  • Fabric strips: 17-20 inches in length and .5-1 inch in width
  • Heat’n Bond iron on adhesive
  • An iron
  • A towel An ironing board

Step 1 Prepare the Fabric (not shown)

I am going to save you the boredom of seeing a picture of me me cutting a 17 inch square of fabric.  Just remember if you aren’t going to hem the fabric pick a tight weave that you can fray a little bit of the ends.  If you are new to buying fabric look for a one that doesn’t have tons of strings hanging off the cut end.  Also cut some thin strips of fabric.  If you do not have excess/scrap fabric laying around, then I suggest just buy some of the tiny quilting samples (like the 1/8 yard).  You do not need a lot of fabric at all.

Step 2 Lay Out the Heat Bond

Laying out Heat'n Bond
I promise I will explain the towel in a second.

Lay out a one tiny strip of Heat’n Bond.  Make sure to start and end the strip right inside the fringe.  I know it is hard to imagine this almost transparent item will do anything, but I can promise it will!  Finally, lay one strip of colorful fabric over the top.

Step 3 Irons Away

Iron setting the heat'n bond
And now to that ugly beach towel!

Alright here is where I tell you, in the immortal words of Genesis’ Jesus He Knows Me , do the following directions as “I say, don’t do as I do.”

Here is where you should read the directions on the Heat’n Bond.  Iron carefully etc.

However, I have had mighty good results with throwing a towel down, cranking up the iron and slapping it together.  The ugly beach towel is a lot easier to grab than finding out where exactly I have stuffed the ironing board in the basement.

So step 3 really just consists of ironing.

Step 4 Trimming

Finishing no-sew cloth napkinsFinally, just trim the excess fabric to the edge of the fringe.  If any area doesn’t feel secure you can always tuck a little more Heat’n Bond under the fabric and iron.

Notes

Yes these are washable!  The fabric may fray more (though I like the look) and if you dry them with heat some of the Heat’n Bond may loosen.  I am so lazy that I keep some Heat’n Bond by the iron to fix no-sew items or torn hems on pants.

Thursday these napkins will get used to create the perfect in a full Place Setting.

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Patterned Easter Eggs

Folk Art Easter Eggs

Easter is just around the corner and I wanted to make some pretty floral patterned Easter Eggs.  These will be part of my Easter table setting (coming next week).  I blew out some eggs a couple of weeks ago and they have just been sitting…  Waiting… for divine Eggspiration.

Folk Art Easter Eggs
Bring on the Pattern

Got a wild hair and grabbed some permanent markers. Voila!  I did these all freehand while trying to throw a ball to McClain and keep Conlan from exercising his new found ability to crawl… off the porch.  Imagine if I had a stencil or even a reference pattern!

Easter Eggs that are Patterned

If using permanent markers I would strongly suggest to NOT eat the egg.  I wasn’t using hard boiled eggs, but I can’t imagine eating anything that smells like those markers do.  But, the markers make a quick and easy way to make colorful patterns on Easter Eggs.

Using Permanent Markers To Dye Easter Eggs

If you want to see these eggs in their final table setting I’ll post a link here when it goes live next week.

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Make a Floral Charger or Decorative Plate

DIY floral Plate or Charger for Easter

You might ask yourself: What the hell is a charger?  Not only will I answer that question, I’ll show you how to make a pretty floral charger for your Easter table setting.  While a charger is technically a car and the thing you use to make your cellphone keep working, in this case we are discussing a decorative plate.  It goes under your regular plate for decorative purposes.

Basically a charger = a useless plate that you can’t eat off of.  But damn do they look good.

DIY floral Plate or Charger for Easter
Damn that is a mighty fine looking useless plate

Supplies

Floral Plate - Charger Supplies

  • Plates that can get ruined made awesome (these lovelies we .50 a pop at Goodwill)
  • Fabric
  • Decoupage Glue
  • Something to paint the glue on with (foam brush, paint brush, fingers, whatever)
  • Ruler
  • Scissors (I happen to have rotary cutters but as long as you can cut fabric you’ll be fine)

Step 1 Cut Fabric on the Bias

Cutting Fabric on the Bias
You can see that I am very exact in my measurements #Sarcasm

Decide how large of a fabric rim you want on your plates.  Mine had a natural edge so I chose that to be the width of my fabric strips.  Use that width to cut multiple bias strips.  Why bias?  Well…  I wanted the very outside edge to lay neatly on the plate and to create a “gathered” look towards the center of the plate.  I’m not going to get into a lot of technical fabric mojo here, but bias cuts allow this.  If you don’t know what a bias cut is or how to do one, let me google that for you.  There are a variety of tutorials that will show you how to do that in a flash.

Step 2 Sticking the Fabric

Adhering the fabric to the plates
You’ll note that I put down some old newspaper. Modge Podge is a beotch to scrape off the table.

Note: I thinned my decoupage glue with a bit of water because fabric really soaks it up, and frankly that stuff is expensive!

Take the glue and cover a few inches of the rim.  Carefully stretch the fabric along the edge, pressing gently to adhere and smooth.  Leave the center all ripply.

Step 3 Getting Messy

Step 3 adhering the gathers
I hope the glue really is non-toxic since I basically decoupaged my hand.

Stay with me because this should probably be a video instead of a still photo.

Take the fingers of one hand and form the extra fabric into little gathers, while holding the edge so it doesn’t slip.  Now take your other hand and apply glue from the rim to center (a downward motion).  This takes a little dexterity, but, no worries!.  The glue makes it nice and slippery so if anything slides etc.  you can nudge it back into place.

Step 4 Let it Mostly Dry

Step 4 removing air bubbles
Yet another photo that looks like I need a manicure and have some flaky skin disease. I promise it is the glue!

When the glue turned mostly clear you will want to take your plates and press down on all the gathers.  I did this to make the charger flatter so the dinner plate will set level.  I also did this for aesthetic reasons as it gave me an opportunity to smooth out any air bubbles and remove any excess glue.  After smoothing the plate I put a second coat of decoupage glue to seal the fabric fully.

Notes

These chargers aren’t washable nor are the meant to be eaten on.  With the multiple coats of decoupage glue they are wipeable.

If your strip fabric doesn’t go all the way around just add a second.  I cut the end straight and overlapped it slightly right on one of the gathers.  With the gathers and pattern it is hardly noticeable.

Regular Readers

I am mixing it up a bit.  Usually I post the finished mantel, table setting, etc. first and then add the tutorials.  This week we are going backwards!  I’ll post the link to the final Easter table setting here when we get to it.

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Dr. Seuss Inspired Trees: A Centerpiece

How to make Dr Seuss inspired trees

Want to make Dr Seuss inspired trees?  Then you have found the most esoteric tutorial on the web.  Hopefully this how-to will answer your extremely specialized questions.  I debated making a tutorial on how to create Seuss like trees, but I personally wanted to recreate the pointy-one in the first picture as some sort of whimsical Christmas decoration.  Plus I put some time in making these for Conlan’s Dr. Seuss themed first birthday, so why the hell not?

How to make Dr Seuss inspired trees
One of the most random tutorials on the web.

 

Supplies:

  • Dyed Cotton Balls (You can see a tutorial on how to dye them here)
  • Wooden Dowels or Bamboo Skewers
  • Styrofoam (Or something for a base)
  • Modge Podge (or thinned white glue)
  • Tissue Paper (Traditional Dr. Seuss colors are Yellow, Red, and Aqua/Turquoise)
  • Optional: Hot Glue

Step 1 Bending Dowels

Step 1 Bend Dowels

 

Soak wooden dowels or bamboo skewers in water.  I threw mine in a pot the night before: That means around 8 hrs of soak time.  This will make them supple enough to bend into curvy shapes.  You can see in the above picture that I just stuck mine in my, rather dirty, heating vent grate to dry.  You WILL break a few and some may split a bit.  I saved the broken pieces to make short trees, while, the splits can be trimmed off and will be covered in the next step.

After they were dry, I stuck ends into the bases to make sure that I had enough and to get an idea of the final placement.

Step 2 Adding Embellishment

Step 2 cover trunks
Holy Hell! I swear that is glue peeling off my fingers… Not some horrible skin disease.

Dr Seuss’ illustrations of trees have color and curves and the magical element of poof.   To color the “trunks” cut a strip of tissue paper and lightly coat the dowel with a little glue.  Then wrap the tissue paper around the dowel.  You can leave a little on both ends uncovered as it will be sticking in the base.

Once covered, I lightly coated the tissue with  gloss Modge Podge to give the trunk a nice sheen and make sure the tissue was nice and stuck.

Step 3 Add Poof

Added the final touches
Pretend you are trying to make some amazing ‘Southern Hair’

Simply take the dyed cotton balls and lightly stretch them into cones, swirls, and puffs.  I then used hot glue to attach 1-3 cotton balls per tree.  To hide the unsightly bases I wrapped them in an extra piece of tissue and simply poked the bottom of the dowel through the thin paper.

You can see the complete Dr Seuss themed birthday party click here.

Related Tutorials:

How to Dye Cotton Balls: It is #1 in my post 11 Household Items You Can Dye: With Tutorials

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