Hello friend! Today we have a guest blogger, my sister, MaryEllen Kiser, who will share with us some beautiful spring-themed papercrafting artwork she has made to brighten and bless her home and family! I will let her take it away from here to explain how she made these beauties!...
"For the Spring Sign I purchased the wooden sentiment from Oriental Trading Company. I chose patterned paper to use from my stash. I made sure that I used a variety of paper like a stripe, one that would read more as a solid, a large, bright floral, an argyle, polka dots, and a feminine floral. After selecting the paper, I found acrylic paint that would match the background of each piece of paper and I painted all the edges of the wooden Spring sentiment. After letting that dry, I traced each letter onto the patterned paper and then used Modge Podge with a sponge brush to attach each pattern paper piece to the letter. After I let the Modge Podge dry I used some spring themed embellishments that I already had like sentiments and tags. I made one of the flowers using a scalloped punch and attached it with foam onto a newsprint flower. I made another flower by stacking two different sized silk flowers together and attaching them with a yellow brad. The rest of the flowers that I used were premade. I messed up on the "P" and had a space showing between the letters so I used small premade flowers that had some "bling" already attached to them and I think it turned out really cute. Love that in crafting mistakes can make your piece look even better than you had originally anticipated! This project was super easy, inexpensive and fun! It shows up really well on my mantel and really cheers up my den!"
Here is another beautiful project that also serves her family around the dinner table...
"I have a pitcher that I love to display on my kitchen table and as much as I love to fill it with flowers, I just can't justify that expense on a regular basis. I was looking at it one day and realized that I could merge my idea of having meal conversation starters handy on the table and cute flowers! I went online and hunted for different kinds of dinner conversation starters and typed a list of the ones I liked. Some of them have spiritual significance and some are more simple opinions. Being a former middle school teacher, I saw kids on a regular basis who could not take part in a simple conversation and it is important to me that my children understand and practice this important skill. After coming up with all the conversation starters that I liked and some that I had made up myself, I printed them out and cut them up into small strips. I hand made two different flower templates. One has more rounded flower petals and the other has longer, more narrow flower petals. I thought the two different shapes would make the bouquet more interesting. Once again I chose paper from my stash that goes with my décor--lots of earthy reds and yellows--paper that just makes me happy! I traced my flower templates and made sure that I was using a nice variety of paper. I didn't want to use more of one design and over power the entire bouquet.
To build the flowers, I punched out a center using different sized scallop punches (1" and 1 1/2") that I have and rotated between a red center and a Kraft center. I then used adhesive to attach the sentiments to the flower. I tried to attach the sentiments off center to make the flowers look more interesting. I attached a green pipe cleaner to the back of each bud using basic tape. They were simple and fun to make and more importantly my girls enjoy choosing different flowers to talk about while we eat."
Wow! Thanks MaryEllen! Such a beautiful way to ring in Spring in your home AND to serve a wonderful purpose for your family around the dinner table!
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