Decorations & Decor – Page 18 – The Reaganskopp Homestead

Posted on March 5, 2013January 20, 2019 by Brianna — Leave a comment

Easy Crepe Cherry Blossoms; A Quick Tutorial

The following is a quick and easy tutorial on creating faux cherry blossoms from crepe paper. I have followed the rather tedious tutorials on making different crepe flowers before. Yes, they look lovely… But with two small children underfoot I will sacrifice a bit of my ~~accurate-compulsive tendencies~~ artistic integrity to make a final arrangement that beautifies my space. And doesn’t take 30 damn hrs to painstakingly cut tiny petals. So read on for Quick and Easy Cherry Blossoms:

Supplies (For some reason I always want to type ingredients here…)

Shown: Glue Gun with glue sticks (don’t run out!)
Crepe Paper
Scissors
Floral wire that matches your branches (this is optional)
Not Shown: Branches
Spray Paint

Step 1

Take your crepe paper and accordion fold it up. In this picture I am using two shades of hand dyed crepe paper (You can see the tutorial here). I make it as thick as I can still cut because I hate cutting. Cutting, to me, is just a process to get through before the fun begins in crafting. So thicker = less cuts.

Step 2

Cut out a circle-like shape. Trust me here, no need to go get a compass. As long as it ends up kinda rounded you are all good. I thought about using a circle punch (might have given up trying to find it in the basement) but I like the more organic shape in the end.

Step 3

Here is where the magic happens! Take your petals to the bedroom… Just Kidding! The magic I am discussing is what makes crepe paper so nice for creating organic items like flowers. Pull lightly on the outer edges of the petals. The crepe will stretch a bit and ruffle; making for a more realistic looking shape.

Step three: ruffling the edges of the petals — And here you can see what I meant by only needs to be kinda circular. Such an amazing cutting job.

Step 4

Take your super-technical-amazing-implement, in this case a pen and wrap the petal around the bottom to make a cup shape. You may have done the exact same thing on a pencil eraser as a kid to make tissue paper crafts. I couldn’t find a regular pencil in the house so a pen worked just as well.

Step 5

Technically at this point you are done. The flowers look pretty just laid on objects. You can see inspiration by clicking here. However, to fully assemble a branch you will need, well… A branch. For mine I used some old maple limbs from the yard that I spray painted white. Since they didn’t have a lot of small limbs I made extra places to glue the flowers with matching white floral wire. Again you can see the final result here. Simply use a tiny dab of hot glue and stick on a flower.

Notes:

To make thicker flowers that look fully open try gluing two smaller flowers together. Also for tight buds twist the petals tightly together around the pen. I was able to make 40 or so flowers in less than half an hour. It is always a race to see who will finish first. Me with the craft or Conlan with his nap, so, I know this one was quick and easy. I hope you all enjoyed.

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Posted on February 28, 2013January 20, 2019 by Brianna — Leave a comment

Cherry Blossom Spring Mantel

Spring is heralded by the appearance of flowers, singing of birds, and greening of everything. While it isn’t quite Spring-time I am beyond ready for a little bit of growth. To celebrate the coming season change I worked on creating faux cherry blossoms and branches from old maple limbs and hand-dyed crepe paper.

The tutorial for creating these blossoms is quick and easy. The mantel itself, just required ~~stealing~~ borrowing a few rocks from the garden and moss from the neighbors shady backyard. Don’t worry I’ll put them all back very soon. Well at least the moss. The rocks are probably getting moved to a new position in the garden anyway.

The quick and easy crepe paper blossom tutorial leaves out the visual steps of spray painting branches white and hot gluing the blossoms down. Mostly because I really hope everyone can read the can of spray paint and use a glue gun… If not then I suggest you run, not walk, away from the rest of the tutorials. Anyway, here are a few more details. Make sure to check out the how-to for creating your own blossoms.

How-to Create Easy Cherry Blossom Branches

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Posted on February 26, 2013January 20, 2019 by Brianna — 1 Comment

How to Make Thick Tissue Paper Fringe

Creating a thick tissue paper fringed garland add a lot of texture to my Spring Photo Wall. As an added bonus one single sheet of tissue paper will give you 4-6 feet of garland depending on how puffy you want to make it. The picture below shows a single sheet of yellow tissue paper turned into the piece of garland:

Supplies

Tissue paper
Scissors
Sewing Machine

Step 1

Cut a single sheet of tissue paper into thirds down the long side of the paper. Because I am lazy I folded mine in half to cut as you can see in the photo. After cutting the paper into thirds fold each third down the long/lengthwise side. This makes cutting the fringe much easier.

Step 2

This is either the very easy or very time consuming part of the project. Cutting the fringe. I stacked all three pieces that were folded in half to cut the fringe. Sure that is six layers… But six layers of tissue paper is still pretty easy to cut. You might not I have some awesome fringe scissors in the photos. You can cut them one at a time, but for 12 dollars fringe scissors are awesome. You’ll see that I left a lot of room in the middle. I’ll explain why in the final step.

Cutting fringe in tissue paper — I’m just going to call these scissors of awesomeness.

Step 3

Unfold the tissue paper till each piece is flat and lay it on the sewing machine with the fringe on either side. For more detailed directions on gathering you can see the post on making Easy Crepe Paper Ruffles. But basically if you have a long stitch length and mess with the thread tension the tissue paper will gather itself a but to make the fringe fluffy and thick. When you get to the end of the first sheet just overlap about an inch and keep going sewing to make as long as a garland as you need. And then you are done!

Gathering the fringe — I’m lazy so sometimes a little of the fringe gets sewn in the middle. Trust me it doesn’t ruin the effect.

Notes

Sometimes when I was sewing really fast the feeder teeth would rip a little hole in the tissue. It isn’t noticeable once the garland is done. The thick fringe hides any ~~lazy mistakes~~ imperfections.

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See more great crafts and decor at these link parties: Snippets of Inspiration

Posted on February 21, 2013January 20, 2019 by Brianna — Leave a comment

How to Make Elegant Tassels From Tissue Paper

I spotted some tissue paper, tasseled garland on Pinterest and immediately wanted to make some for myself. It was pretty plain, just some twists hung together. But something about the fluttery colored tissue looked so good. I started thinking about how it would be nice to replicate the tassels but make them more elegant, more like a home decor tassel. So I came up with a quick way to add a rounded portion to the middle.

Supplies

Tissue Paper
Scissors (Rotary cutter speeds this along)
Cotton
Wire (Only if you really need to reinforce the tissue)

Step 1

I wanted to make a number of tassels in different colors at once so I stacked various colors together and cut long strips about 1/4 to 1/2 inch (and frankly all sizes in between).

Step 2

Take two strips of paper and twist them together to make a tiny tissue paper rope. Then repeat.

Making tiny tissue paper ropes — Twist and Shout!

Step 3

Make two bundles with about half of your strips. Twist the middle together. Uh… Take a look at what I am talking about here:

Somethings are easier to show than describe

Step 4

Twist the two bundles together, curve them into a loop and tie with one of the tiny tissue paper ropes. If you want added strength you can twist the two bundles around a wire, but I found they were pretty sturdy without it.

Step 5

Take 1/3 of a cotton ball and roll it in your hands to make a tighter ball. Gently separate the tissue paper pulling it back so you can get the cotton as close to the underside of the knot as possible. Then pull the tissue around the cotton to cover it and secure with the second rope. You can leave the rope ends or trim them off. I also tended to straighten the bottom of my tassels after they are complete by trimming them a bit.

Creating the puff portion — Yeah, I consider the puff to add elegance. I mean we are discussing something made from tissue paper… how elegant can it get?

Notes

Pushing the bottom rope up gently will make the ball portion a bit more rounded. You can get one tassel per half sheet of tissue paper. Plus you can see the tassels in more detail at my Spring Garland Photo Wall post.

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This post was entered at Shabby Creek Cottage, Somewhat Simple, Craft-o-Maniac, & Today’s Creative Blog. Visit there for more great DIY’s, crafts, and recipes.

Posted on February 19, 2013January 20, 2019 by Brianna — Leave a comment

Simple Garland: Twisted Tissue Paper Puffs

Want to make a cheap, quick and easy garland? Then enter tissue paper. The green garland in the picture is the one we are going to learn how to make:

Supplies

Tissue paper
Scissors

Step 1

Cut long thin strips out of the sheet of tissue paper. I made mine around 2 inches in thickness. Feel free to eyeball it, you are going to be twisting it anyway. So no cutting judges will be out to check your work.

Cutting strips of tissue paper — Do as I say and not as I do. An astute observer might note I cute these on the shorter side. It still works but you have to attach a ton more pieces together.

Step 2

If you folded the paper ~~because you are lazy~~ to make the strips quicker to cut then unfold each piece until it is a single thickness. Take one end and begin to twist the paper through your fingers. Gross, but useful tip: If you lick your fingers the twist will take tighter. I mean you could probably dampen them with a sponge, but really…

Strips of tissue paper — If there was ever an action shot. This is it. #sarcasm

Step 3

Every 6 inches or so leave a gap in the twist of about two inches. This will make the puff part. When you come to the end of the strip overlap another piece by about 1 to 2 inches and twist it in. It will take a little planning as you near each end so a puff doesn’t occur right as you are trying to add another piece.

Twisting the garland — Overlap, pinch, and twist. That is all there is to it.

Notes

The tissue paper is light enough that the twist holds all the pieces together without glue or tape. However, I wouldn’t try scaling any castle walls with it. Also one piece of tissue paper makes 12-16 feet of length. So this project is very inexpensive. Also to see more details of the garland in action you can go to my Spring Garland Photo Wall post.

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