Let's Make Tissue Paper Flowers!

Making tissue paper flowers is simple and they add plenty of colorful impact perfect for Mother's Day, parties, or just a pretty vase. They can be made in various sizes from a boutonniere to extra large bouquets. 

One of my craft class students walked us through the making of these beautiful delights. Here's what Sandy showed us:

Materials

• Sheets of standard sized tissue paper
• Scissors
• Floral wire
• Floral tape

How to make this

• For a medium sized flower, fold one tissue paper sheet in half

• Fold the sheet again into thirds, bringing the outer edges towards the middle

• Cut the folds so that you end up with 6 squares of tissue

 

• Fan-fold the stack of tissues - starting at one edge of the paper, fold the sheets about 1 inch and crease, then flip the tissue stack over and fold the tissues 1 inch and crease, flip the stack over, and continue until you reach the other edge of the stack. The folds should be even in size.

• Fold the center of the "fan" in half.

• Cut the floral wire into a 10 inch length, or more or less depending on how tall you want your flower to stand.
• Bend one end of the floral wire over about 2 inches.

• Place the center fold of the fan into the fold of the wire and twist the wire around itself to close it.

• Wind a strip of floral tape around the wire to hide it.

• Use scissors to cut an oval shape at each end of the fan. Of course, I don't follow directions well, so I cut my tips into a pointed shape.

               

• Push each side of the fan outwards into a cup-like shape.
• Gently separate each sheet and pull them towards the center.

• Fluff the sheets into a pleasing shape.

To make a large sized flower, follow the above steps but instead of folding the sheets in half and thirds, simply start the fan-fold process and go from there. 

Smaller flowers can be made just by making your tissue stack into smaller squares.

Try using multiple sheets of tissue for a fuller flower or using more than one color of tissue at a time for a variegated look.

How pretty and fun! 

4th Annual Art & Wine Walk - May 7th

This Saturday will be a great day to enjoy food, music, and art! Find me in front of Agave restaurant where I will be showcasing my photography - just in time to get a Mother's Day gift! 

Grab your glass and come say hello!

A sample of what you'll see at my booth:

2016 Summer Journaling and Crafts Classes!

Can you believe it? Summertime is coming! And with that said, get ready for new art journaling and craft classes brought to you by your favorite artist...me!

  

Marla's Plate

My classes have been such a success! I've met and been inspired by really great people in these groups. Some of their work is seen here and on a few of my "Make-it Monday's" posts. Come join us as we learn all new projects and make new friends!

Haley's Wreath

Classes have been
expanded to 1 1/2 hours short (because our classes are never long enough for all the fun we get into!), and Saturday morning sessions are newly available (to get your weekend art on!).

Sandra's Journal

Sandy's Journal 

Art Journaling
Art journaling is a great way to explore your creativity, get your thoughts on paper, and enjoy the process of making your own kind of art. We’ll play with different techniques such as line drawing, watercolor, "windows" and pockets, and layering papers. There’s no right or wrong style in this fun craft for ages 15 and up!

Course #100520 --- May 5 - June 2, Thursdays - 6pm to 7:30pm
Course #100519 --- June 30 - August 18, Thursdays - 6pm to 7:30pm
Course #100754 --- July 9 - August 20, Saturdays - 9:30am to 11am

Lana's Sunburst Flower

  

Nicole's Watercolor Collage

Exploring Crafts

Each week you’ll learn a fun new craft project using low cost materials perfect for home décor and gift giving. Projects may include jewelry making, decorating birdhouses, Shrinky Dink fun, garden art, altered books, wreaths, canvas painting, and more! Fun crafts for ages 15 and up!

• Course #100521 --- May 5 - June 2, Thursdays - 7:30pm - 9pm
• Course #100522 --- June 30 - August 18, Thursdays - 7:30pm - 9pm
• Course #100755 --- July 9 - August 20, Saturdays - 11am - 12:30pm

Visit www.concordreg.org for more information and to register on-line. Just click on "Activities", and enter the course number. Questions? Email me at kimlawson2000@gmail.com

Let's make something together!

Students' Bottle Wrapped Vases

For My Daughter

My daughter, Sarah, is now a manager working for our local In-N-Out restaurant. She was chosen to spend 6 weeks helping to train employees and open a new restaurant near Monterey, California. This is the first time she has been away from home.  She is beautiful inside and out and will undoubtedly go far in her career whether it be ruling over burger staff or running a corporation. 

It is hard when a "bird leaves the nest", even if temporarily, but this is a great opportunity and I am so proud of her! 

My daughter. My darling.

As you leave today

For adventures beyond,

I find myself weeping 

With tears of two sorts.

One is for joy

As I realize you are all grown up

And the world is yours to explore.

The second are tears of sorrow

because you are all grown up

and no longer mine.

I open my arms to let you go free

But hold you close in my heart

And there you shall stay.

Go on, introduce yourself to the world,

Sail the seas, 

Ride the winds,

Climb every mountain,

Sing in foreign notes.

You will amaze all you meet

And spread joy when you leave.

Just know you are forever in my thoughts

And my heart is your home. 

Let's Make Flowers...From Q-Tips!

Let's say you find you're in the mood to make a craft project. And, you have a box of Q-tips plus a few foam balls left over from a project you never got around to making. What do you do? Make flowers, of course!

This simple and easy project is fun to make and creates a cute flower in just an hour.

Supplies needed:

• Styrofoam balls - I used 1.5-inch, 3-inch, and 5-inch balls
• 1 large box of Q-tips
• Glue gun and glue sticks
• Food coloring
• Rubber gloves
• A glass bowl
• Floral stem with leaves (pop the flower off and save it for another project) or bamboo skewers

How to make them:

Cut Q-tips in half. I used about 150 halves to cover the 3-inch ball. That makes for a full looking ball but you may use fewer spaced farther apart.

• Heat up the glue gun. When it's ready, dab a dot of glue onto the cut end of a Q-tip and poke it into the ball. You don't have to use a glue gun but I found that it helps to hold the Q-tip in the ball permanently.
• Timesaver tip: squirt a small pool of glue onto a paper towel and dip the end of the Q-tip into the glue rather than directly from the glue gun.
• Keep dabbing the end of each Q-tip with glue and poking it into the ball - not too close together because it will take too long to finish but not too far apart that the ball looks half done.
• I made a single line around the ball then made a second line of Q-tips going the opposite direction so that the ball was in quarters. You don't have to be that precise - just start glueing and poking!
• Fill in the rest of the ball with the Q-tips until it is full.

• At this point, you can admire your "snowball" and you are done. Imagine how cute a bowl of snowballs would be!
• If you choose to add color to the balls, get on your rubber gloves.

• In a glass bowl, add a few drops of food coloring to a small amount of water and stir together. 
• Dip the Q-tips into the food coloring just enough to saturate the cotton tips. Do this over the entire ball (the food coloring will stain clothing and skin so, wear the gloves and watch your shirt!)
• Set the balls aside to dry on a plate.

Lana's sunburst flower

• You can display these just like that as a table top display or move on to the next step.
• Once the balls are dry, use the glue gun to put a bit of glue on to the top of the floral stem or skewer. Poke the stem or skewer into the ball deep enough to keep the ball from flopping over.

That's it! You can make a garden of these flowers in an afternoon. They would be pretty for a springtime party or shower!

Cupcake Paper Flowers

Spring is in the air finally! My craft class got busy making flowers out of cupcake liner papers on St Patrick's Day - because what else is there to do to celebrate this holiday!

The rustle of paper filled the room as we made bouquets of pretty flowers in pink and white. Everyone donned their St. Pat's hats for a group photo to show off their creations.

Here's how we made the flowers...

Separate 8 cupcake liner papers. I liked the final result from using 8 papers but you may use more papers or less for your project.

Cut a sturdy heavy gauge wire to 10 inches or use a floral wire. Wind one end of the wire around a pencil a couple of times to make a flattened coil that anchors the cupcake liners in place.

Pierce the center of a cupcake liner from the inside with the straight end of the wire. 

Carefully fold the paper up and around the coiled wire center so that the paper is tightly closed. Keep piercing and folding cupcake liners nice and tight up around the previous paper until all papers have been added onto the wire. 

  

Coil the straight end of the wire around a pencil under the last liner for a final anchor.

Hold onto the bottom of the liner stack with one hand and with the other hand fluff open the paper layers into a pretty flower showing off the various "petals". 

Flower power fun! This would be great to make with the kids for Mother's Day!