Crafts Unleashed » Decorations

Royal Wedding Craft-a-Long: Wedding Card Box

Vicki — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 12:13:03 +0000

Editor’s Note: This week, we’re celebrating the upcoming Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton by featuring some wedding crafts! Each designer is bringing their “royal best” to the table with crafts that will inspire you to craft along with us!

Destination weddings, weddings for relatives who live far away and attending a wedding for someone you don’t know very well. Any of these scenarios can make it tough to decided on the perfect gift.

A lot of folks are giving cards instead of gifts in big boxes, with bows, that have to be transported back home. Or worse yet, SHIPPED back home.

So why not make a nice card box to receive those cards?

Here are the supplies you’ll need:

White Mailbox Wedding Card Holder
6 inch Pink Tulle
6 inch Sage Tulle
3 – 35601-01 Rose Gypso Pearl Fern Bridal Bouquet White

The first thing I did was to cut the thick stem on one of the bouquets down as far as I could without cutting it apart. This becomes the center of the floral arrangement that will go on the top of the card box.

Then I cut the stems completely apart on the other two bouquets.

Following the advice from my video on How to Use Floral Tape begin taping the smaller pieces to the large piece. Add one to another making the center fuller with “vines” of flowers hanging down over the sides of the card box.

Then make tulle “poofs” by scrunching tulle down into the bowdabra and tying it off with bowdabra wire. Don’t make these too big as they will take over the florals. They are just going to be added as accent pieces.

I made 6 pink poofs and 4 sage green.

Glue or tape the poofs into the floral arrangement and then either glue or wire the whole thing onto the card box so that it’s fairly secure and won’t fall off when guests put their cards inside.

The nice thing is that this can easily be removed (easier yet if you didn’t use glue) or the colors changed and the box re-used for another wedding or another purpose all together.

To see how I made simple corsages using the bowdabra and these same flowers be sure to stop by The Creative Goddess Blog.

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Royal Wedding Craft-a-Long: Easy Flower Girl Basket Tutorial

Deanna — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 13:30:14 +0000

This is a simple, yet elegant, flower girl basket that any special little girl in the wedding party would be honored to carry on the big day. Here’s how you can make your own.

Supplies:

Start by cutting 2 strips of each color of tulle. Each strip should be approx 14-16″. Next, take one strip of lavender tulle, and one strip of purple tulle and lay one on top of the other. Then, tuck the two strips of tulle under the gathered satin on the front of the basket as shown below.

Tie a bow with the the strips of tulle. Then separate the loops in your bow to add fullness. Repeat these first steps with the remaining 2 strips of tulle.

Next, you’ll create the flower embellishment for the front of you basket. To do this, simply take 7 petals (I used 4 lavender ones and three purple ones) and glue them together, using Fabri-Tac glue, with the ends overlapping as shown in the step-by-step pictures below.

Once the base of flower is assembled, cut a strip of each color of tulle, approx 6″ long. Tie a knot in one end of the tulle and then simply twist and wrap the tulle around itself until your happy with the little “ball” of tulle. Secure the ball of tulle to the center of your flower using the Fabri-Tac glue. You’ll need to put glue on the center of your flower, then stick down the tulle, and then insert dabs of glue into the little gaps in the tulle to ensure it is securely attached. To finish off the flower, add 3 swarovoski crystals to the center using Fabri-Tac glue.

Next, to embellish the handle of the basket, simply adhere more swarovoski crystals to the handle. To ensure they were evenly spaced, I first glued one crystal to the side of each handle where the handle meets the basket. Next, I glued a crystal to the top of the handle in the center. I then glued each crystal at even intervals between the crystals I had already adhered.

Finally, fill with silk flower petals and give it to that special girl to carry on the big day! This simple, elegant basket is sure to delight the youngest girl in the wedding party.

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Royal Wedding Craft-a-Long: Floral Beaded Table Number

JenClark — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 13:30:54 +0000

When I got married, I had a simple wedding which I planned entirely myself with the help of a couple of my best friends. It was very small, held right at sunset in the beautiful back yard of some great friends, and catered by a local Italian restaurant.

But since I did do everything myself for my own wedding, from the table centerpieces to the cake decorations, coming up with a table number idea to go along with this week’s Royal Wedding Craft-a-long was a snap for me! With just a few supplies, you, too, can create your own beautiful table numbers!

Supplies needed:

First, pick out a sheet of paper from the Que Sera Sera paper pad which coordinates with the coral colored rosebud picks. Using your Cricut and the Tie the Knot cartridge, cut the “toast” card at 5.5″. Save the champagne glasses which the machine cuts out of the card, as you will use them in a future step. Then, use the same cartridge with a sheet of the Pearls cardstock to cut the table number circle monogram at 3″. At this point, this is what you should have:

Cut "toast" card at 5.5", and table number monogram at 3"

Next, cut a 2.5″ circle of the white cardstock (with scissors – doesn’t have to be perfect), and cover it with adhesive using the Glue Glider Pro. Using the sparkle tulle, begin forming loops or petals, sticking them down in the center on the circle of cardstock, and letting the loops hang off the edge of the cardstock by about one inch. Go all the way around the circle, forming a complete circle. Use a hot glue gun to glue the center down at the end, as well as any other pieces of tulle which aren’t staying down.

Use Glue Glider Pro and hot glue gun to form tulle "flower"

Then, use the hot glue gun to glue the number monogram onto the tulle flower, and the champagne flutes onto the monogram. Finally, glue the entire piece onto the card base.

Use hot glue gun to glue all layers together

Go ahead now and insert the card into the bell place card holder.

Next, make a small bouquet, using three of the coral-colored rosebuds, two of the coral-colored leaves, and two of the white hydrangeas. I used a bit of clear scotch tape just to hold them together temporarily…once you have the bouquet arranged satisfactorily, use the hot glue gun to attach the bouquet to the front of the table number. *Note: once you do this, you will no longer be able to remove the card from the bell.* Then, using sharp scissors or floral cutters, trim the wires from the stems as close as you can to the base of the bouquet.

Make small bouquet using coral rosebuds and white hydrangeas

Use hot glue gun to attach bouquet to table number card

Cut off a couple pieces of wired beading from the bead garland. Use hot glue to attach them – one along the side of the card, and one into the bouquet.

Use hot glue to attach wired beads to card and bouquet

Finish it off with a piece of the sparkle tulle tied around the top of the bell, to help hide the stems from the bouquet, and your table number is finished!

Tie a piece of sparkle tulle around top of bell to hide stems

To add to the festivities, this little bell even rings, so guests can pick it up and ring it to encourage a little smooch between the new wedded bride and groom! The champagne glasses on the monogram and card will remind guests to ring the bell and to make a toast!

Ring the bell for a kiss, or make a toast!

I hope you enjoy this week’s wedding festivities!!

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Royal Wedding Craft-a-Long: Guest Book Featuring Fabric Flowers

Jenny — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 13:59:25 +0000

A few weeks ago I showed you how to use recycled fabric to make shabby-chic flowers. Today, I’m going to show you how a few of these blooms and some pearly accents can transform a standard guest book into a personalized centerpiece.

You’ll need:

Victoria Lynn Guestbook
Fabric scraps from the bridal and bridesmaid’s alterations
Felt for the flower bases
Flower stamens and/ or Jewels f
Hot Glue Gun & Glue Sticks
scissors

Start by making flowers using the tutorial I shared with you here. I used 3 small ones (based on felt circles the size of a quarter), 3 medium ones, and 4 large ones. Next, I took the pearl stamens and cut them in half. Hot glue them to the back of the large and medium flowers.

Add varying lengths for interest & texture.

Next, prep your guestbook. I wasn’t digging the heart embellishment, so I carefully cut the plastic bar that held it to the tulle. (There was some glue, too, but it pulled away easily. I decided to leave the tulle. It added a little more interest.

Victoria Lynn Guestbook "Before"

Start hot gluing your fabric rosettes in a diagonal pattern, from upper left to lower right. Place the large rosettes first, then fill in with the medium-sized ones, then the smallest ones to fill in the empty spaces.

That’s it. It took me about an hour to make my flowers, and only 20 minutes to prep the book and glue it all together. Now isn’t this nicer that just a plain, white book? And come to think of it, you could whip up one of these in your graduate’s school colors for graduation open houses and parties…or baby showers… well, just about anything. Have fun!

Royal Wedding Craft-a-Long: Mini Rose Floral Ball Wedding Centerpiece

Sarah Forhan — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 16:00:47 +0000

DIY elegant floral ball wedding centerpiece to match your wedding color scheme. Select small mini roses using one color or several colors and create your own rose pattern. The floral ball is easy to make and looks gorgeous showcased with a fluted glass vase. To compliment your centerpieces continue using small mini roses in other wedding projects like wedding favors and accents on table seating cards.

Material List:

TW02CL Clear Glass Tower Vase – 12 in.
9162-03 12″x1/4 in wood dowel rods
38002 1 1/2 in white round head corsage pin
3573-102 Mini Silver Ribbon Rose Bunch
3573-51 Mini Purple Satin Ribbon Rose Bunch
V35442-102 Single Rose Leaf Silver Metallic
01007 4 in white Styrofoam Ball
VL23 Clear Plastic Faux Ice – 8 oz. Bag
2902-142 5/8 inch purple poly satin ribbon

Instructions:

1. Begin by cutting the mini roses away from the floral stems. Leave a small amount of stem at the bottom of the rose so that it does not come unraveled.

2. Insert a corsage pin through the center of the small mini roses.

3. Begin to create a pattern around the center of a 4″ Styrofoam ball.

5. Continue adding more roses to the Styrofoam ball with corsage pins.

6. Continue mini rose pattern.

7. Finish mini rose pattern along the top and the bottom. However leave a small opening at the bottom of the ball to place a wooden dowel.

8. Tightly wrap ribbon around a wooden dowel and hold it in place with hot glue.

9. Attach silver leaves onto the wooden dowel with hot glue.

10. Place floral ball into a vase, fill the vase with faux ice to keep the floral piece straight and centered.

The floral ball wedding centerpiece took me about 60 minutes to make. It is not a hard project it is just time consuming placing each individual rose. However, I love the results and I think it is well-worth the time spent. As a DIY wedding centerpiece it is easy to make and cost-effective. If you are making several of these for wedding table centerpieces it might be fun to have a bunch of friends and family over to help make several of these rose balls.

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Flowers from Recycled Materials

Jenny — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 13:00:48 +0000

I love to be able to recycle- it means I can stretch my money and save more for my craft shopping! Well, this handy-dandy flower is made from recycled silk or taffeta (I got mine from a relative who sews prom gowns) but you could just as easily rip up an old dress or shred one of hubby’s shirts to make yours.

You’ll need:

strips of cotton or silk fabric, 2-3 inches wide and at least 12-16 inches long
stiffened felt
Cuttlebug and Nestabilities dies- optional
scissors
Jewels (optional)
hot glue gun & sticks

I love this color palette of blues and greens.

I don’t like to cut with scissors, so I start by ripping strips of fabric- plus, i like the raw, thready edges. But you could use scissors, a rotary cutter, or even pinking shears to get different looks. Experiment! Then cut some circles (or flower shapes) from your felt. I made a number of 2-4 inch shapes with my Cuttlebug because it’s so fast and easy, and the Nestabilities cut the stiffened felt beautifully. I like the stiff felt because it makes such a nice base for your flowers!

Start by gluing your jewel or rhinestone into the center of your felt circle. (I think these ones by Darice are amazing!) Next, trim the end of your fabric strip at an angle.

Next, place a dab of hot glue next to the jewel and press the point of the fabric strip into it. Let it cool and set up a bit. When it’s secure, start twisting the strip. Add a dab of glue every quarter inch or so, and press the twisted fabric into the glue.

Continue until the felt is completely covered. To secure the ends, just flip the flower over, trim the excess, and glue the ends down on the back:

Ta-Da! You’re done! These are so fun and easy, you can whip up quite a few in an hour. Use them to embellish purses, totes, headbands- even guest books and jewelry. Stay tuned, I’ll have some projects coming up using these!

How to Make Tulle Flowers for Floral Arrangements

Sarah Forhan — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 13:48:49 +0000

Tulle is a neat ribbon to work with it. It is very lightweight, looks great stacked, and bends easily. I like working with tulle especially when it comes to making flowers. I have designed simple to make tulle flowers with a large pin center. The flowers can be placed into Styrofoam circles, blocks, discs, or wreath forms.

Materials:

Pink Tulle Item # 2912-91
Sparkle Tulle Apple Green Item # 2913-41
Corsage Pins 2.5″ Item # 38006
Silver Bowdabra Bow Wire Item # BOW3060
Pearlized White Stamens Item # 02PFS-21-P
Floral Leaves Item # 02BSL12

Instructions:
1. Begin by cutting squares of pink and silver tulle.

2. To make the center of the flower fold two pink tulle squares in half and then thread each one onto a corsage pin.

3. Next, place four stamens folded in half around the pinhead. Pull the tulle up around the stamens and tie it tightly together with Bowdabra Bow Wire. Leave the strands of Bowdabra Bow Wire.

4. To make the outside of the flower, thread about 5 full squares of pink tulle onto the large pin.

6. To finish the flower thread four full squares of silver tulle, onto the pin.

7. Hold the flower at the base and tie Bowdabra Bow Wire tightly around it.

8. Once the Bowdabra Bow Wire is tied tightly and knotted. Use the wire tails to tie floral leaves along the sides. Bend the ends of the floral leaves onto the underneath of each leaf. Trim away excess the Bowdabra Bow Wire.

9. Once, the flower is completed twirl the Bowdabra Bow Wire in the center of the flower with a pencil to make fun ringlets.

10. Follow these simple instructions to make several of these tulle flowers for arrangements.

For a very simple hanging arrangement place a hole through the center of a small Styrofoam ball. I used a chopstick to make my hole. Thread a pipe cleaner through it and make a loop at one end.

Pin the tulle flowers to the front of the Styrofoam ball. Then add a strand of ribbon to the pipe cleaner loop, for hanging.

Lastly, hang the tulle flower arrangement in a window, wall, mantle, or door handle.

Love Challenge: Valentine’s Pillows

Vicki — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 15:35:23 +0000

Welcome to our L-O-V-E Challenge! We’ve asked our designers to come up with a fabulous craft featuring the word “Love” to get us in the mood for Valentine’s Day. Check back every day to see what each design team member came up with- and then we’ll have a vote for YOUR favorite at the end (and probably some fun giveaway items, too!)

Oh how I love a challenge! When the Design Team here at Crafts Unleashed decided we’d do a home decor challenge with the word LOVE the gears started turning right away. And then I went shopping at Consumer Crafts!

To make this craft, you’ll need:

2 white bandannas
3 red bandannas
Studded iron-on “Perfect” large
Rhinestone iron-on “Love” large
Sparkly Sequins iron-on Heart
Fabri-Tac (optional for those who don’t sew)
Cricut Machine with the George & Basic Shapes cartridge
Fusible webbing or iron-on adhesive
Pillow stuffing
Sewing machine (optional), thread, scissors, iron

Following manufacturer instructions iron the fusible webbing or iron-on adhesive to the back side of a red bandanna.

Cut the bandanna with paper backing to a 12 by 12 inch size to fit the Cricut cutting mat.

Load it into the machine and cut out hearts just like you would on paper.

If you don’t have a Cricut you can still make this project. Find a heart stencil (or make one of your own) and draw hearts on the paper backing and cut them out by hand with scissors.

Iron the two white bandannas flat. On one bandanna lay the cut out hearts on the front in a pleasing arrangement. Notice I also included the sequin heart iron-on.

Iron all of the pieces to the front of the bandanna.

Next, place one bandanna over the other with the right sides facing each other and pin.

I made a couple of these pillows and the print on both bandannas never lines up exactly the same but don’t worry because once the pillow is filled you will never know.

Cut away excess fabric. I am going to sew the pillow around the outside black line so I cut about 1/2 inch off all around.

Now you have a choice. You can machine stitch, hand stitch or use fabri-tac and stitch/glue the two pieces of fabric together. If you are using fabri-tac I recommend having several small clip clothes pins on hand to hold the fabric together while the glue dries.

Leave a small opening on one side for inserting the filling and turn the pillow right side out.

Fill the pillow and whipstich or glue the opening closed.

For the heart shaped pillows, fold a 12 inch by 12 inch piece of cardstock in half, draw half of a heart with the top valley and bottom point on the fold. Cut out the heart and unfold the cardstock to make the template for the pillows.

Iron a red bandanna and place the heart template on one corner of the bandanna; cut out. Turn the bandanna to the opposite corner, place the heart template and cut out another heart. I got two pieces of pillow from one bandanna and I cut my pieces a little larger than the template for the seam allowance.

Iron the word “perfect” or “love” on the front of the pillow according to the iron-on package instructions. Place the right sides of the fabric together and either hand sew, machine sew or glue the pieces of the pillow together (just like with the first pillow).

Cut small slits in the edge of the pillow being very careful not to cut through your stitches. This allows the fabric to “bend” a little so that the rounded portions lay better once the pillow is turned right side out.

Also, make sure to leave the opening for stuffing the pillow on one of the long sides and not at the bottom point, one of the rounded top parts or the valley at the top of the heart. Otherwise when you stitch the pillow closed it will be more difficult and may make your heart look a little misshapen.

Repeat cutting, ironing and sewing/glueing for the second pillow.

Another option would be to use the iron on adhesive or fusible webbing on black fabric and cut out the word LOVE or another word and iron it onto the heart just like with the hearts on the white pillow.

I had some lovely scraps of bandanna fabric left over after these projects and I just couldn’t let them go to waste! Please visit my Creative Goddess blog to see what I made with them!

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Just 15 Minutes to a Better Organized Creative Space

Vicki — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 14:33:58 +0000

Welcome to our second Organizational Week! We understand that storing and organizing your craft supplies is on the top of many New Year’s Resolutions. Enjoy this week full of tips and sneak peeks into our design team member’s spaces!

When I found out that my first post for Crafts Unleashed would be about my studio and organizing I immediately began to panic because this is what my work table looks like right now. Seriously.

Then I thought that there are probably plenty of work tables that look like this after the holidays. Add to that the fact that I just finished a couple of huge projects, my son had surgery, we celebrated two birthdays and I work full-time and you will understand why my work table looks the way it does.

USUALLY, I have a rule that I try to stick to and I thought I’d share it with you. I spend 15 minutes a day cleaning up before I leave the studio. Even if I don’t get EVERYTHING put away I take that 15 minutes to clean up and then the next time I go into my studio I have at least a small space to begin working in.

And if your work space looks like mine… then what? Don’t let it overwhelm you. Just set a timer and work on it for 15 minutes. That’s it. Go take a break. You can come back later if you want, but don’t stress over it. Creating is supposed to be fun. No stress allowed!

Baby Shower Diaper Wreath

Sarah Forhan — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 13:03:42 +0000

A baby shower decoration that can also be used once the baby is born- awesome! I designed this decorative diaper wreath so that it can easily be taken apart after the shower and the infant diapers can be used. Diapers are so expensive it seems a shame to waste even one.

Materials Needed:

170140 14 inch green metal wreath form
0682-10 12×22 mm asst color baby pacifier beads
2912-91 6 in pink tulle
BOW2200 Bowdabra Hair Bow Tool and Ruler
BOW3060 Bowdabra silver wire or Yellow Curling Ribbon
2972-93-03 2.5 inch pink sheer organza ribbon (1 piece pkg)
Infant diapers

Instructions:

1. Begin by gathering all your materials you will need for this project. All of the materials can easily be purchased at Consumer Crafts, excpet for the infant diapers. Chose size 1 infant diapers, pay close attention to the design of the diapers. You don’t want any colors and designs that will clash with your wreath theme.

2. Next, cut a piece of either Bowdabra Bow Wire or curly ribbon about 36″ long and fold it in half and place it into the center of the Bowdabra. I chose to use curling ribbon because I though the yellow would stand out more on the wreath but Bowdabra Wire will work just, as well.

3. Place the 6″ tulle down into the center of the Bowdabra in an accordion like fashion. You will need approximately 36″ of tulle.

4. Cut the ribbon away from the ribbon spool and scrunch down with your Bowdabra Wand. Next, thread the two ends of the curling ribbon through the loop that was formed when you folded it in half.

5. Pull the curling ribbon tightly and lift the bow out of the Bowdabra. Bring the curling ribbon around the back of the bow and tie.

6. Tie the tulle bow to the center of the metal wreath frame.

7. Fold an infant diaper by bringing the top to the center and the bottom to the center. Tie the diaper in place with curling ribbon.

8. Attach the cute little pacifier beads to the curling ribbon. Next, run scissors over the curling ribbon to make it curl. Or when using the Bowdabra Bow Wire just twist the wire around a pencil, it holds its shape easily.

9. Make several of these diaper bows and attach them to the metal wreath.

10. Lastly, using the Bowdabra make a large loopy bow and attach it to the top of the Baby Shower Diaper Wreath.

This diaper wreath is very easy to make and even easier to take apart. After the baby shower just cut away either the curling ribbon or Bowdabra Bow Wire and diapers are ready to use.

Bowdabra Products on Consumer Crafts

Mini Bowdabra Review and How to Make a Loopy Bow

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