*happy spring*

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Thought I'd celebrate this lovely first day of spring with some pictures of my spring flowers. 

All are made from paper and natural elements by me. Enjoy!

Happy Spring!

dandelions *tutorial*

I have been making these sweet little dandelions for several years, including making many, many of them for my wedding decorations. They are super easy and fun to make and here's how!

Grab yourself some yarn. White is the best for making little dandelion fuzzies, but yellow also works for billie balls.

Start by grasping the end of the string between your first two fingers and your thumb.

Begin to wrap the string around your fingers over and over.

Continue to wrap until you have about 1/2 thickness around your fingers.

Cut the end of the wrap and lay the wrapped string on top of a short piece of string, about 8 inches long.

Tie the two ends of the short string together over the top of the wrap.

Pull very, very tightly. Tie another knot to make sure everything's secure.

Trim the ends of the knotted string.

Use a scissors to cut around the wrapped string so that all the loops are separated.

It will probably be a little all over the place when you're done. That's why there's one more step!

Pinch the puff ball between your thumb and pointer finger...

...and use the scissors to trim all the way around the edges. This will even out everything and make your dandelion look pretty.

And there you go! A beautiful finished dandelion!

peace&love,

Jill

it's that time

It is reaching that lovely point in December that all busy people reach where not everything is getting done. For me, that usually means I'm not getting dressed in outfits fit for public consumption. So here is a peek at what I have been doing to attempt to distract you from what I haven't been doing.

I blame the cold.

Some of these flowers, as well as others and all kinds of Favoring Brave goodies will be available at Alliday Everyday, Dec. 15th (Saturday!) at the Fairgrounds, Tulsa, OK.

peace&love,

Jill

favoring florals

This is what I've been doing the past three weeks: making flowers. For more, check out my Flickr set here. If you're in the Tulsa area, I'll be selling them at Indie Emporium this weekend!

peace&love,
Jill

spiral flowers *tutorial*

This was one kind of flower that I made for my wedding last month and it worked really well for the boutonnieres. My husband's was especially adorable, and the photo below is courtesy of my stunning wedding photographer, Suzanne Corum. Visit her site here.

Here's the magic secret weapon to make these flowers look so awesome: shaped scissors.

Use the magical scissors to cut circles out of a thicker paper. I used card stock. You can make the circles as big or as small you want to, it will just affect the size of the flowers.

Then use the scissors to cut a spiral into the circle. Again, you can make the spiral as tight or as wide as you want and it will affect the size of the flower. I found that some irregularity (read: shaky hands) actually added some visual interest, so you don't have to be too careful.

I made a million of these.

Once they're all cut in a spiral, start rolling from the outside. If you pinch at the bottom as you roll it helps.

Keep going.

When you get to the end it should look something like this. 

Tuck the middle up under the bottom of the whole roll.

When you let it go it should look something like this.

I added some hot glue to the center of the spiral and gently pushed down on the top layers to get everything good and stuck together. Then I did this all a million more times.

And there you go! Beautiful flowers!

Let me know what you think and share pictures if you make some!

peace&love,

Jill

paper leaves *tutorial*

Purple and light blue were unconventional wedding colors, absolutely, but the other colors we added in made it work, especially the green in the floral arrangements, courtesy of these cute little leaves. 

I found the original tutorial on Skram Mama, which is actually a German language blog, but handy Google realized I don't read German and translated it for me. It was intended for fall leaves, but it works just as well with summer ones :)

Here is my step by step tutorial, except for those steps during which I forgot to take pictures. Let me know if you get lost!


Step 1: Get yourself some green paper. I used scrapbooking paper.


Step 2: Cut it into perfect squares. Your finished leaf will be about half as long as the diagonal of your square, so plan accordingly. Then cut each square into two triangles, cutting along the diagonal. Set one triangle aside.

Step 3:

Fold your remaining triangle back and forth tightly like an accordion:

When you're all the way done it should look like this.

Step 4:

Keeping everything together with your fingers, fold the accordion in half so that the long sides are against each other:

Like so:

Step 5:

If you want to be able to connect your leaf to something on down the line, add a loop of wire through the middle of the fold. If you want to be all matchy-matchy, use green floral wire. If you are a fan of using whatever you have, do like I have done and use whatever you have.

Step 6:

Put a line of craft glue down one long side of the folded accordion. 

Press together and secure with a clothespin.

Step 7:

Resist the urge to play with it while it dries.

And that's it! You have a shiny new leaf to use! 

Let me know what you think and send me pictures if you make your own!

peace&love,

Jill

to have and to hold

Every blushing bride needs a bunch of flowers to hold on to, and I was no exception. But I am the exception in the fact that I get to keep my flowers, looking just as fresh as ever, for as long as I like. Like what you see? Tutorials for most of them coming soon!

The vase was a wedding present from my aunt and uncle, the rosary was a gift from my grandma. All flowers handmade by me.

peace&love,

Jill