Monday, July 13, 2015

Weekender Bouquet: Sweet William


Weekender bouquet: This is an arrangement of Dianthus barbatus "Sweet William" taken from "Howard's Garden" - the garden at the entrance of our kennel building where Charvie now happily reins as top dog. Sweet William convey to me old fashioned innocence and country charm; the Mason jar with wire bail seemed the perfect vessel for them. Their essence is sweet and evocative, much like their botanical cousin the carnation. Do you have a memory of old fashioned Sweet Wiliams?

Friday, January 23, 2015

Heart's Content Valentine's Wreath

Happy New Year!
So this is my first post of 2015 and I wish everyone a happy and joyful New Year! This is a frenetic time of year for me and it seems I've barely taken down the Christmas decorations and here it is time to celebrate Valentine's to our heart's content. Today I share a little wreath project I crafted in 2014. The wreath is a 7-inch Styrofoam heart that I covered with worsted-weight rose colored yarn. The heart shape is a bit challenging to wrap smoothly due to the curves and bends but still looks pretty and homespun.


For adornment I made two crepe roses with ivory crepe paper. Crepe is such a delightful paper to use for making everlasting flowers. The stretch of the paper gives a natural ruffle and it holds the shape well without a stiffening agent. I used a pale pink chenille stem (pipe cleaner!) for the stamen and worked the flower from the stamen out adding petals and affixing with low-temperature hot glue. For the flower leafs I used moss green crepe, cutting a basic leaf shape and then bending and tugging to give life to the leaf.


Notice how I rough-trimmed the leaf edges for a more realistic appearance. I adore the translucent appearance of the crepe blossom: the petals almost look as if they were well-veined like a real rose.
 For me paper everlasting flowers are an intriguing creation because I am looking for balance between a realistic representation of Mother Nature's best work and an artist's interpretation. Take a look at my Everlasting Flowers board on Pinterest for inspired ideas and step-by-step tutorials.

Thanks for joining me today!



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