Flowers and Wooden Beads

I have been seeing necklaces all over the place with fabric flowers on them, so I decided to make one of my own for a Christmas gift for someone.  I learned how to make the flowers from a tutorial on Tea Rose Home, one of my fav blogs, and I have been making them into pins for gifts, and hair ornaments, but I decided I wanted to try a wooden bead and  flower necklace.  I got the pretty, blue enameled, wooden beads on an old necklace I got in a box at a yard sale.  The necklace was far from pretty, but I saved the beads to be re-purposed, and I got the gray organdy ribbon on clearance at  Michaels for twenty-five cents.  So all in all, it probably only cost me about $1.00 to make it.

Necessity is the Mother of Invention

Wee Babe in Diaper

Back View

Night Gown and Bonnet

Dressy  Outfit and Bonnet

Close-up

My little grand daughter, Avery is nine years old, and she and I were looking through some magazines one day, and she saw a miniature baby doll, made for collecting, that you can order and then you get a new one every month.  They were quite pricey, so we decided she might not want that for her birthday, because it would have to be her only gift.  Avery loved it so much, it had been on my mind off and on trying to think of how I could get her one.  I am making many of my Christmas gifts, and I suddenly thought about making a miniature soft-sculptured doll for her.  I had made some full sized ones years ago for my daughters when Cabbage Patch dolls were all the rage, and were in shortage.  I got out paper and set about making a pattern for the wee, six inch little babe.  I ended up having to hand sew it, because of it's tiny size, but when I finished sewing and sculpting it, I fell in love.  She's kind of silly looking, but I think she's sweet.  I made her some little clothes also.  I think Avery will love her.  At least I hope so.  Now I have to make another one for my other little two year old grand daughter, Gracie.  She loves babies, and I think this one will be just her size. 

What Can You Make From Cardboard, Old Book Pages, and Coffee Filters???

First Book Wreath

Close-up of Center

Second Book Wreath, a little different

Side View of Second Wreath

I found a wreath made from book pages that I was impressed with on "Living With Lindsay".  I loved her idea, but wanted to put my own twist on it.  I also saw some paper flowers, no tutorial, just a picture, on "Style Me Pretty", that I liked, so I went to work.  I figured out how to make the center flower, and got a circle of cardboard, actually out from under a frozen pizza.  I cut the book pages from the book with an exacto knife, rolled them into cones, taped the ends, and began to hot glue them around the outer half of the cardboard, and when I made an entire row, I placed another row between those of the first row.  When that was done I applied my two toned, bleached, and unbleached, coffee filters by hot gluing them to the back of my cardstock flower.  Then, I cut a small square of burlap and fringed it a little, and applied it to the center of the flower and topped it off with a vintage button.  I then glued the flower to the center of the wreath.  At first it sat too far down in the middle, so I found a small box, a jello box to be honest, and covered it in white paper, and glued it in the middle and glued the flower to that, so it wouldn't sink down too far in the center.  It's about 2 1/2 ft. across when finished. 

I love this project because it has a very organic look, it is reusing items that might normally be thrown away, and it is very inexpensive, yet looks beautiful.