I used some silk flowers that I pulled apart and made them into my own embellishments to put on the front of this adorable ENOY! Card. www.AboveRubiesStudio.com
Add something special to your silk corsage with ribbons and bows. Learn how to attach a bow and ribbon to corsages in this free video about how to make silk flower corsages and boutonnieres. Expert: Jim Tomasits Bio: Jim Tomasits has been a floral designer for more than 20 years. He currently has a shop in Wilmington, NC Filmmaker: Reel Media LLC
A bridal holder, Styrofoam, and scissors are all basic supplies you need to make bridal bouquets. Learn more tools you’ll need for silk wedding flowers in thisfree floral arrangement video clip. Expert: Jim Tomasits Bio: Jim Tomasits has been a floral designer for more than twenty years. He has distributed arrangements on both the national and international level, and he is considered an international florist. Filmmaker: Reel Media LLC
Before making a bridal bouquet, consider whether it’s a formal or informal wedding. Get tips for picking wedding flowers for a bridal bouquet in thisfree floral arrangement video clip. Expert: Jim Tomasits Bio: Jim Tomasits has been a floral designer for more than twenty years. He has distributed arrangements on both the national and international level, and he is considered an international florist. Filmmaker: Reel Media LLC
With every bridal bouquet, you have to wrap the handle so that the bride has something to hold. Learn how to wrap a handle of a wedding bouquet in thisfree floral arrangement video clip. Expert: Jim Tomasits Bio: Jim Tomasits has been a floral designer for more than twenty years. He has distributed arrangements on both the national and international level, and he is considered an international florist. Filmmaker: Reel Media LLC
Every child looks forward to Christmas Eve and Christmas Day anticipating all the presents and fun, but why not extend the holiday season by making the most of the four weeks of Advent leading up to Christmas Day.
Many children are given Advent calendars normally starting on 1st December although few will know that Advent represents the four Sundays before Christmas and can start on any date from November 27th onwards.
Plan to have a new activity every three or four days. A good way to start is by buying an Advent calendar and explaining that Advent is the four Sundays before Christmas. The children could then make a simple Advent wreath to put on the window-sill. Advent wreaths are normally a circle of greenery with four candles. Three candles can be blue and one pink to represent the joy.
The shops are full of beautiful decorations and lights to buy, but many older people will remember the pleasure of making paper chains when they were children. It is possible to buy packets of ready cut coloured strips, but if you cannot get these, origami paper can be used or brightly colored wrapping paper.
Children will get bored if they have to make too many Christmas cards, but why not get them to just make a few very decorative ones for special people like grandparents. Give them shiny beads, holographic wrapping paper to cut up and glitter so that they can really go over the top!
Christmas dinner is one of the highlights of Christmas day and the children will enjoy make table decorations. A center decoration is easily made using an empty plastic food carton. Mix up some plaster filler to put in the carton and before it sets put a candle in the center surrounded by sprigs of artificial holly, mistletoe, pine cones and Christmas baubles. The carton can be painted and wide scarlet or gold ribbon tied around it. Smaller versions can be made as individual place settings.
Plain white or red candles can be easily decorated but remember that whatever you use as decoration could catch fire when the candles are lit.
Carol singers used to be a regular part of Christmas, but now it seems a few children knock on the door, sing two lines of a carol before they run out of words and then look embarrassed. Why not teach your children and a few of their friends several carols and take them out to sing properly. You could door knock, or do what the Salvation Army often does and sing a carol in each street of your neighborhood. People will love to hear it and not feel pressured to make any donation.
A visit to Santa is a must but you can also arrange for a special letter from Santa or even a phone call. Santa letters have North Pole postmarks and include up to 12 personal references to make each letter unique. Small presents such an chocolates, a teddy bear or magic snow can also be added. Check my website for further information.
Wire cutters, wrist bands, and silk flowers are just some of the materials you need to make silk corsages. Learn about some other tools and materials you need in thisfree video about how to make silk flower corsages and boutonnieres. Expert: Jim Tomasits Bio: Jim Tomasits has been a floral designer for more than twenty years. He has distributed arrangements on both the national and international level, and he is considered an international florist. Filmmaker: Reel Media LLC
Making use of home herb garden You have planted the herbs and watched them grow and flourish. They are extremely useful in so many ways. But, using herbs from a home herb garden requires a little bit of work first.
In order to use the herbs you will need to harvest them first. Timing is a factor that cannot be ignored. The heat and the wind could break up the necessary oils of the herbs. You need to pick a dry and calm morning to harvest your herbs during midsummer. Lesser oils are yielded by the herb on days that are highly wet. The herbs need to be harvested after the dew dries form the leaves prior to the flowers opening. Removing the entire plant is not necessary when harvesting the herb. Upon reaching this point, you are just removing some amount of growth to be used. The herbs that you are harvesting aren’t necessary for use at the time that you pick them. You can preserve them for later use. Be careful to remove not more than a third of the plant’s foliage at a time. For the plant to re-grow well, it will need a good amount of foliage. Before you harvest it, you need to make certain to inspect the plant for insects and impaired leaves.
In preserving herbs, typically there are three ways for use later; drying, freezing or preserving them in salt or vinegar, which you have in your kitchen. To succeed in properly drying herbs, you will need twelve stems to bundle together and spruce away any foliage close to the base of the stems. You can use a string to securely bundle them with. In a cool location away from sunlight, there you can hang the bundle. You can use a screen or a rack if you are looking to dry leaves individually there, you can place them on. Do not forget to flip them constantly in order for them to properly dry. Few people have resorted to utilizing appliances like microwaves, dehydrators or ovens to dry herbs as well although these are ways that offer results that is less satisfactory. Freezing herbs is a quite simple way to evenly preserve herbs. Using wax paper to line with cut the herbs into ¼ inch pieces and place on a baking sheet. Once the herbs are frozen, you can put them all together in a bag and place them inside the freezer until use.
Through a medium is another (third) way you can use to preserve herbs. For example, you could cover herbs like basil, chopped mint or tarragon with vinegar and for several months it will be preserved. Or by making flavored salt, you can preserve herbs by alternating layers of fresh herbs between salt. When dry completely divide the brown herb from the flavored salt and set it aside in a container that is airtight.
Sure, people use herbs often fresh right out of the garden. Use caution cleaning and preparing the herbs prior to being placed fresh in recipes. Using a bowl filled with cool water, clean the fresh herbs. You can use the sink if there is a large quantity of herbs. In the water, put around two tablespoons of salt. The salt in the water will repel away insects without causing damaging to the herb plant. Take the herbs away from the water and dry them in a salad spinner.
Various kinds of herbs are used for much variety of uses. Each different kinds of herb have their own list of instructions on how to use, harvest and chop. Make certain to research the particular type of herb you are using for correct use. .
Spoonflower how-to video: Making wall art using custom printed fabric. Here Danielle shows how to turn a simple, scanned image from dried flowers into a lovely set of framed images. This may be the first youtube video ever posted on how to create a dried-flower triptych!
Christmas wreaths are considered an age-old Christmas custom that is used to adorn the outside of the house, usually on the front door, to welcome with a festive greeting.
Preparing the needed materials
To create a Christmas wreath you will need a wreath ring, a florist wire which can be bought from your local florist and some plants.
Collect interesting plants around the local park, on the countryside, or even in your own garden. Gather some evergreens, ivy, green and silvery grey leaves, and conifers.
In addition look out for some holly or other undergrowth that bear berries or berry-like fruits. Berries add color and elegance to the wreath. Look for some dried seedpods like poppies, and pinecones. Spray on some silver and gold paint on your collected seedpods to add attention to the wreath. Should you decide to use spray paint on any of these pieces, do it a few days to give the paint some time to dry. When using spray paint, always remember to follow strictly the instructions on its use found at the back of the can.
Making the wreath
To put together pieces of shrubs to the wreath ring, you need to cut a piece of wire and bind it around the lower end of the shrubs, then twist the wire around the wreath ring with one more piece of wire. Go over the same process until you reach an inch or two down the stem.
At the first encircling of the wreath, the shrubs will fall off a little bit, but the more shrubs you put on, the more it will become steady. Keep working on a flat tabletop to put off further movements.
However there are specific rules that you should always remember.
Use the interior and external rings as split ’rounds’, stuffing both rings makes a full lush wreath.
You will come across later on, that you can actually make rounds appear following a direction. This happens when all the stems lay on the same direction. Wreaths look finest if a round pattern follows the similar direction. However, the two rings on the wreath ring don’t essentially have to go in the equivalent direction.
Put aside the ‘feature’ or fancier items lastly, so that they stand out on the topmost layer of the Christmas wreath where they can be easily spot on.
To add some pine cones, bind some wire at the base part of the cone seeds, and entwine the two wire stems together tightly. Push the wire into the wreath and entwine them as one at the back of the wreath. You could also add some Christmas baubles by wiring them on or use other ornaments to add more glamour and beauty to you Christmas wreath.
When your Christmas wreath is finally finished, hang it on your front door for all the guests to see and appreciate. Remember, you need not to spend a lot of money just to make a beautiful Christmas wreath. All it takes is some skills and imagination and you’ll surely have pretty one hanging on your door or lying on top of your table.
