Newspaper roses

I had read somewhere, probably Pinterest, about a girl that made roses from newspapers. I don't recall ever reading how to make them, but decided that I wanted to make some for this utility room makeover thing I am doing. Actually I am planning on framing them.....after I make the frame that is.

Since I didn't read to tutorial I had to make up my own. I took a newspaper that was still rolled up from the driveway and cut the roll into pieces. Quite like you
would if you were slicing bread. My slices were about 1-1.5 inches thick. After I complete the slices, I unrolled the slices and glued them end to end....making a long strip. It did sort of roll up on itself, but I thought that would be easier to make into a rose. I actually used a glue stick to glue my strips together. Then I started rolling. I would roll a bit and then twist the newspaper to make what would appear to be a petal. I just kept repeating the process. When the flower was as large as I desired I cut the strip and glued it under my flower. Then I started rolling the next flower. I got 5 flowers from one a newspaper.


Once I finished with the last flower I started painting the flowers. I used a pink and a red. I poured both into my palette next to each other. I used mostly pink to paint the flower, then I dipped my brush without cleaning in the red. I brushed it too the flower in other parts. Then I loaded my brush with pink and red and went over it again.

I repeated the process with two shades of blue and the same brush. Therefore I got a tad of purple on these flowers.

I liked the effect hope you do too.

I will wring you up by your neck

Today I made scarves! I had leftover fabric that needed to be purged from my craft closest and decided that scarves would be the best way to clean out that closet.  I first took two large rectangles of fabric, one in brown chiffon like and one a floral rayon blend.  I stitched them together to make one long rectangle.  Then I fold them in half right sides together and stitched up the long side.  I turned it right side out and stitched closed the bottom and bam an infinity scarf.  FAST and easy!

The next one took some more work.  First I started with 2 7 inch wide rectangles and strips of pink.  I stitched the pink up to make two long ruffles. I pinned those ruffles to the long sides of one of the black rectangles.  I then placed the other rectangle on top of this rectangle and pinned the ruffles in the inside.   I was making a tube full of ruffles.  I stitched closed the tube on the long sides.  Next, I turned it right side out.

And it looked like this. Each end had a selvage so I did not have to hem up the ends, but I did decide to use some black thread and stitch the ends closed.  I am very pleased with this one. 

Lastly, I was running out of fabric and just made two long black rectangles again. I took some leftover striped material and made ruffles from it.  I wanted a sloppy look so I did not serge the edges.  I layered two rolls of ruffles on each end of one rectangle and stitched in place with a zig-zag.  Then I made another tube using the last black rectangle and stitched that baby closed in all but a small area so I could turn it right sides out.  I slip stitched it closed. I like it!!!!

Recycled "ART"

I am all about leaving a smaller footprint on this world.  The mark I leave on Earth is not one that trashed the place.  I want to leave a mark that says "wow she made a difference".  Today my difference is in TRASH!

I have started collecting what some would call TRASH.  I am making things from this garbage.  Some things are going to be serviceable and some just a dust collector (so essentially I am leaving a dust bunny trail).

Today I challenged myself with a box of junk and a sundrop can.


Let's start with the can....

I first decided to clean the can and cut it apart.  The aluminum is much thinner than I thought it would be no wonder I have punctured many a sundrop can. Next I decided to use punches and punch out shapes.  I wasn't sure what I could do with that.

Then a vision came to me. The punched pieces would make a great base. I decided to color the pieces with alcohol inks using an inking tip that I got from Tim Holtz. I still needed something else. I needed to make flowers!

I cut a spiral from the can. Let me tell you this was not that easy, you have to be very careful not to slice your finger. Once cut, I inked it with alcohol ink I began to roll it. I started from the wide part of the spiral. This can he tricky as the edges are very sharp. It seems to be worth the trouble. Finish it by adding a dan of hot glue to hold it together. I will probably add these to some canvas art.

A Mirror Makeover

My father-in-law used to buy things from Publisher's Clearing House so that my mother-in-law could keep her hopes alive of winning 10 million dollars.  Today's refit craft is one of those "GRAND" gifts that he ordered from PCH and then gave to me.  It was a granddaughter frame and I was supposed to give it to Hannah, but she did not want it.  What I did was scrape off the granddaughter poem and took off the flower that was glued on there.  Then I redid the whole thing. 

I first added a wire of seed beads in purple and green (using this week CR84FN colors).  Then I made flowers from paper (a gray and a purple).  I used a prima flower at the top of the mirror along with a Tim Holtz metal charm, some rhinestones and then on the bottom a rub on that said "someone to watch over me" along with some Prima leaves.

I thought it turned out cute....especially since my "canvas" was so tiny.  The mirror is about 7x2.

Very simple, but I promise you it is 100% better than the PCH mirror that I started with. 

My Upcycle Life

I have this friend, Wendy that well is a pretty cool young lady.  I won't go into describing her into detail because it would take much to long to do so, but I will tell you Wendy is one of those ladies that could wear a potato sack and look like a million bucks.  Her fashion sense is classy, fun, chic, and it seems to come to her effortlessly.  Wendy has the little ideas and as she said: "I just can't get them out of my head" to make things.  So she has started bringing me things.  Once she brought me a t-shirt and I made her a scarf from it. Another time she brought me a necklace that was broken. I took some pieces off of it and then put it back together for her.  She has brought me little things that I have fashioned into other items but did not photograph.  :(

Wendy's necklace

  Wendy had this dress.  A very cute little dress.  The top half was of t-shirt material and was brown and white striped.  The bottom was a skirt that was made from lace.  I thought about it for a few days...what could I do.  I knew for sure that I wanted some flowers from the lace and I cut out the material that I needed for that. I knew that I wanted to use the ruffled lace waist part of the dress for a ruffle on a card, so I cut that off.  I knew I wanted the lace hem to make a rolled flower and so I made it so.  I still had the bulk of a lace skirt and the brown and white top.

I just started cutting.  That can be very scary but for me, it is usually when I can make it work.  I cut in lace skirt into 3 strips of fabric and sewed those strips end to end.  Then I cut 2 strips from the brown and white top and sewed those unto the lace strip.  Then I folded in half and stitched up the sides.  I now had a very long tube.  There was some part where the lace was pulled or where I had gotten a little too aggressive with the scissors and I just stitched those up as well.

There was just enough left over to make some t-shirt strips that could be fashioned into a bracelet.  I do believe that this up cycle was a success!!!!!  

this used to be the hem of her skirt

The infinity scarf

The sleeves of Wendy's t shirt

You can see that there is an additional project here.  This headband was the sleeve of Wendy's first t shirt that I had made into a scarf.  I cut a strip from each sleeve and reenforced the seam.  This makes a wonderful knit headband!  I just embellished it with handmade flowers and handmade leaves...even included a bit of wire for fun!  And BAM!  I have a little headband for Wendy's daughter.  

 I am certainly glad that I have a friend that likes to get rid of her JUNK! :)

I adore a pink scraf, especially when I make it!

So I had this great pink t-shirt.  Fit great, great color, was WELL made and in typical Michelle fashion, I washed it......WITH AN INK PEN!!!


Yes, the lovely shirt had ink on the back of it.  For a while, I wore it under a shirt because the front was fine.  Until that one day when I was sweating and I needed to take off the over the shirt.  I decided then and there that wearing it under something just was NOT going to work.  Next step?  To repurpose it.  I thought about it for a couple of weeks.  What did I want to do?  How did I want to do it?  etc...I decided that a scarf would best serve me. I wear scarves all the time (I am sort of like a Cullen in that fashion) and the pink color would be perfect to wear with a black or brown t-shirt.

I first made the shirt as flat as I could on the table and then cut off the hem.  The next step was to cut the midsection just under the armpit area.  That left me a tube and from this tube I just 1/2 (ish I don't measure) strips.

When I cut strips out of the entire tube I put all the strips together and pulled as hard as I could to stretch out the strips.   The t-shirt had two side seams so I would have to deal with them.  On one seam I made a band out of the t-shirt remnants.  I tied the strip around the seam, wrapped it and then tied again.  I tried to hide my tying inside the bulk of the strips.

On the other side, I put a flower that I made from the sleeves.  I did not come up with this design, this lady did.....it is brilliant!!!    http://gonetoearth.typepad.com/gonetoearth/2009/03/tutorial-fabric-flower-brooch.html

In the end, all that was left was this pile of scraps. I do intend to make a couple of flowers out of this stuff. 

In the end, I had very few scraps left, I made a bracelet, a flower and had 4 square left that I intend to stamp on and place on a scrapbook page.