As Rylan and I have figured out more of a daily schedule, I've had a
little more time to get crafting and scrapbooking. The morning goes one
of two ways: I either can't fully wake up and go right back to sleep
after he eats, OR I get motivated by how messy my house is. On those
lucky motivated days, I usually have some time to myself in the late
afternoon that I spend scrapbooking (I have done about 6 pages of
Rylan's baby book!) and the occasional craft.
This
project took me a few days last week to complete. It started out really
frustrating for me, but I like the way it has turned out! These
scrapbook paper wallflowers were the perfect springtime addition to our
dining room!
1. Choose! To make
these flowers, pick out some of your scrapbook paper in several
different coordinating patterns. Decide beforehand which ones you want
to use for the center of the flowers, the petals, and other accents.
2.
Cut! In order to form the petals, your scrapbook paper needs to be at
east 20" long (the longer the easier- trust me!), but mine wasn't, so I
had to use tacky glue to adhere two pieces together. The widths of the
paper will vary depending on the size you want your flowers, anywhere
from 2.75" to 5 or 6." In the picture above, the small orange flower is
the 2.75" width and the large polka dot flower is has a 5.5" width, with
the others varying in between.
Left: Score the edge
of one length in whatever fashion you want: the small orange flower is
demonstrated below, a basic repeated triangular score. Other types
include a more jagged, thin triangular score, small slits, or even wavy
lines (as seen on the blue/green flower in the large picture above).
3. Fold!
Accordion fold the paper in relation to the score- marks on the edges,
as seen to the right. I made the mistake with this flower (my first) of
making the folds too large, so smaller folds, though more difficult,
will also be more beneficial. Be sure that your folds remain aligned
with one another.
4. Bond! Glue
the edges of the folded
paper together to form a tube.
When the glue is secure and dry, gently push down on the un-scored edge
of the tube until it flattens. Mine were never able to fully flatten, so
gluing the back was difficult- I used hot glue for this part since it
hardens quickly and holds paper well. Then I simply cut out two circles
of coordinating paper for the center. You can use other items to be
creative as well: buttons, fabric, beads, pearls, bling, anything!
5. Repeat! Use an
appealing variety of colors, patterns, solids and shapes!
6. Show off! Hang your
masterpiece somewhere it'll POP! To connect them, I used hot glue and
balsa wood to create a stable foundation for all the flowers. To hang
them, I (shamefully) used tape! But it worked, so I guess I'll just call
it "using my immediate resources" instead of "being straightup tacky."
Hope you enjoy this
project as much as I did!
