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Yarn Bouquet aka Pom Pom Flowers

5/17/2021

Are you looking for something cute and fun for these summer days ahead? Really this craft can be done for any season or holiday, let's be honest, but I think they are particularly cute for summer! It is a very simple and relatively quick craft that just about anyone can do. If you have littles wanting to help, just make sure you supervise cutting and that you handle the hot glue of course!

Supplies for flowers:

Yarn of various colors
Wooden sticks
Scissors
Hot glue

Supplies for upcycled vase:

Tin can
Patterned Paper
Embellishments
Floral Foam
Scissors
Hot Glue

1. To start, take your yarn and start with wrapping an end around something. Some people use a fork, cardboard, etc. But I think it’s easiest using your 4 fingers. Keep wrapping until you have the amount you want. The more you have = the bigger the flower!

2. Using a smaller piece of the yarn, string it through perpendicular around the whole wrapped chunk and tie it tightly.

3. Pull your tied chunk off whatever surface you are using and begin cutting the looped pieces all the way around the shape.

It should look something like this…

4. Next, trim around the yarn to make it more even all the way across, we’ll be trimming more as we go.

5. Now, you can choose if you want to “fluff out” your pom pom. You can do this by using a small comb, pet comb, fork, (something with teeth). And begin “combing” into the strands so they get fluffy. This will get messy…

This image below shows you the difference between "fluffing" and not fluffing...

6. It will look pretty uneven, so just trim around the yarn all over again 😊 Do this step with each of your pom pom flowers.

7. Next, using hot glue, glue each of your “flowers” on top of the wooden sticks. I had 6 sticks but cut 3 of them down to smaller sizes so that they would be at different heights! You're all done with your pom pom flowers at this point!

8. I decided I wanted to do a little something extra with this craft and wanted something to put the "flowers" in. I'm all about "upcycling" stuff and I had tin cans lying around that I thought would make the perfect recycled and rustic vase for these! So, take a tin can and cover it with a complimentary scrapbook paper.

9. Then, add some embellishments of your preference such as lace, ribbon, buttons, etc. to jazz up the "vase".

10. Lastly, plop a piece of floral foam into the bottom of your tin can and stick your flowers into it and you're done!

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Altered Book Journal Page

9/5/2019

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Let me start by saying anything... and I mean anything can be used for an altered book journal! This is what makes this project so much fun and so versatile. Every book is different, every page is different, and every material is different. The purpose of an "altered book" is making an old book into a new piece of art. There are many types of altered books, but for this project, we are beginning an altered book "journal". A journal can be used as a "smash book" for travel or random memories or can be used for a literal journal to write in. There are many possibilities.

I did this journal page spread for one of my classes. This was a little tricky as I had to come up with something that we could all do together in our own books but something that could get everyone started and get those creative gears moving! The page above is what I came up with. It is something very simple and uses minimal supplies. We could've gone crazy and used paints, textures, inks, stamps, stickers, etc. but I kept it simple for an easy clean up and to also show that you don't need anything fancy for this type of project!

Supplies:

Paper (scrapbook and scrap)
Printed Clip Art image
Printed text in a fun font
Ribbon
Elmer's Glue
Scrapbooking flowers
Hot Glue Gun
Xacto Knife

1. First off, let's talk about picking our book. If you can find something with "sewn" pages, that's the way to go! The modern glued pages are terrible for an altered book project! They are too flimsy and as you cut away more pages it loses its stability and could fall apart! These photos show what a sewn spine looks like verses a glued spine.

2. To start with, we need to "prep" our book. Everybody goes about this in different ways, but, for me, I go through and remove pages throughout the book. The more "stuff" you want to add to your book = the more pages you want to cut out. I use an Xacto knife to cut out a page. Then flip a couple of pages and cut another out. Keep going until you feel happy, at least for the time being. Make sure there are pages to the right and left of the cut section to glue together and cover up the cut page. You'll end up with quite a few lose pages (you could save these for future projects!).

3. Once you are done cutting out pages throughout the book, you are ready to start gluing. As mentioned above, glue the pages to the left and right of the cut together, hiding that cut line. I use Mod Podge for this, putting it on in an even, thin layer. You can always come back and add more if the corners aren't glued down after it dries.

4. The next step is where things start becoming "optional". What I like to do to "prep" a page, is to paint a layer of white gesso on the spread. Gesso gives a nice foundation for the rest of the items you will add. It also slightly covers the words or "greys" them out so you can still see them but you can also see your work! The page we are doing is pretty bare, you can still see the Gesso effect in the very first image on this post.

5. For this step, gather the supplies/items you want to use for your page.

I want to go over what I used for mine. The "Let your soul grow" quote was printed on a regular printer on antiqued paper. The bike was also printed on the same printer on regular copy paper. I tore some scrapbook paper to fit into the corners of the page (if you tear away/toward you = different results!). I had some spare scrapbooking flowers to use up and I also used some pieces of ribbon. Remember, I tried to keep this page spread very easy and user friendly!

6. All I did to finish this page spread up was glue! First, I arranged everything on the pages to figure out where I wanted it all to go. Once I was good with it all I glued everything down with a thin layer of Elmer's Glue, you could use Mod Podge instead. I also used the hot glue gun to glue the ribbon and the flowers down. But that was it!

This was a pretty simple page. But you could really get crazy and do pages like the examples below! Happy Journaling!

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Sock Snowman

1/12/2019

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This little guy, or gal, is a super easy craft for young and old alike! Great for a chilly winter day to take up some down time and occupy little ones.

Supplies:

Mid-crew or crew sock
- without text, if possible
Yarn or rubber bands
Scissors
Rice
Embellishments
- (sewing pins, buttons, markers, gems, scrap fabric etc.)

1. Cut your sock in half at the location in the photo

2. Take the top half and turn it inside out

3. Tie off the cut end with string (make sure to tie it tight!) and flip it back right side out

4. Start filling your sock with the rice (a funnel will help make it easier or just take your time with pouring) Fill the sock as much as you’d like – there is no right or wrong way

5. When the sock is as full as you’d like, tie it securely at the top with string or rubber bands

6. Create the “head” by tying string tightly around the second area

7. Start embellishing – add a piece of scrap fabric to look like a scarf

8. Use the toe part of your sock to create the hat by rolling it up from the cut side

*I wanted to mention here, if you have text on your sock, it may show on the hat. I, luckily, covered mine up by folding the hat over "hipster" style as shown below.

9. Create a simple face using sewing pins or with a marker

10. Add some buttons if desired and your little guy or gal is all set!

https://winkgo.com/diy-white-sock-snowman/

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Yarn Bouquet aka Pom Pom Flowers

Altered Book Journal Page

Sock Snowman

Rebecca Myers (Dickinson)

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