Posted on Mar 07, 2010 under wreaths | Comments are off
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.
Posted on Mar 04, 2010 under silk flowers | Comments are off
A silk lei is made up of silk flowers instead of fresh flowers, which allows them to last much longer. Thread silk flowers into a lei with a demonstration from a Hawaiian entertainment director in this free video on making a lei. Expert: Nalani Contact: www.maikai.com Bio: Nalani is the entertainment director for the Mai Kai Hawaiian Restaurant, located in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Filmmaker: Paul Muller
The scent of lavender has been proven to lift people’s spirits by fighting depression, can relax the mind after a grueling day, and can even help soothe body aches and pains. When used in our homes, lavender can enhance our moods and make life more enjoyable. There are many ways to use the power of lavender and incorporate that power into our daily lives. These gorgeous purple flowers can be dried and used either in stalk form or through the dried buds of its flowers. You can also purchase lavender essential oil for a highly concentrated source that will give a tremendous amount of aromatherapy with using only a few drops of the oil.
Dried lavender on the stalks can be used to create gorgeous wreaths or a dried flower arrangement. Wreaths with solid lavender all around make a dramatic purple accent to any room while adding a fragrant scent that lasts for months. If the stalks need refreshing, a little spray from an atomizer filled with lavender essential oil is the perfect solution. If you either want to tone down the lavender scent in your wreath or don’t have a lot of purple in your décor, you can always use a few sprigs here and there to add a touch of purple and a hint of fragrance to your setting.
A dried flower arrangement is the perfect place to add lavender. Again, you can intensify the impact of the color and scent of this flower by filling a vase or basket with just lavender. A few stalks here and there can be used to add pizzazz to an existing arrangement. The bathroom and bedroom are great areas for dried lavender because, respectively, it hides odors and brings relaxation. This is why when you go to the spa or to a massage therapist they always use lavender to enhance the ambiance for their clients.
Essential oils are simply the scented components of the lavender flower that have been added to a liquid for easy application; this is usually oil, but can also be in an alcohol-based liquid such as cologne. Oils are wonderful because they hold the scent for a longer time when applied to the skin or to sachet or fabric. Dating back to ancient times, lavender has been used in soaps and laundry to soften skin and give fragrance to clothing. You can purchase essential oils from a perfumery shop, natural foods store, or online.
Here are some tips for adding the scent of dried lavender to anywhere in your home:
Want to make your plot’s summer plants last all year? Ok, the easiest way to beget your patch plants inside and dry them. It is best to cut your plants in the morning hours after the dew has evaporated from the plants. Once cut, group stems into bunches with rubber bands (absolute rubber bands work best) and detach them from the sunlight as presently as promising. There are trusty developmental period which are best for bitter plants for drying. This could be very actuality for different plants or even different cultivators of the same factory. In universal, it is best to choice immature plants (ones that are not completely open) since plants maintain to open during the drying means. If you tool a flower at the time that it looks sharpen, it will resume to open while drying, parting you with a flower previous that ‘whole period’. Most people choice plants too postponed. For example, have you ever seen a sweet dried rose? If you genuinely look at it, the flower is still literally stopped. Avoid harvesting plants too mature in development. Such flora would commonly shed ahead drying and will not view up well in arrangements. We deal exact picking and upward recommendations for each flower we grow. Just click on any dried flower name on any of our lists to take a wealth of given information with films! With only a few exceptions, we air dry all our plants. We unfussy droop flower bunches upside down on line (over two miles of it is stretched in our circa 1860 barns). The barns offer great conditions: 1) darkness; 2) very good airflow; 3) cool updrafts; 4) precise (usually) moisture levels. Once you have cut your plants, it is important to amputate them from the sunlight as shortly as promising. This, along with drying in the murky, is the most important cause in maintaining good incline. Suspend a 1/2-creep-diameter horizontal shaft or cheep from the ceiling. If binding hooks into your ceiling or stockade is not an option, use tripods or two high-backed chairs to hold the raft. A bent paper clip makes a perfect hanger for your bunches. Put newspaper or a ditch cloth on the flummox under the lynching bunches to grasp falling plants, seeds, and petals. Hang bunches far enough apart to permit good air circulation. The drying treat takes from 10 to 20 days, depending on the lodge. When dried, the stems should bark. You must hardship the plants for irony. Dissect one or two, and make steady the plants” entrails are thoroughly dry. Some plants, such as delphiniums, keep their influence better if dried rapidly near sources of cozy air such as a warmer. Large, many-flowered blooms such as dill, fluffy grasses, and Queen Anne”s line, should be dried upright, not execution upside down. Silica-gel drying is done in shallow, hermetic, plastic (or tumbler) containers or trays. I dry many plants at once with a 10- by 18-shuffle hermetic plastic container. Yours hardship not be that big, but make loyal that the flora aren’t crowded. Spread the flora out, face up, on a 1-edge (lowly power) bed of crystals. Carefully dollop or touch more silica on top pending you’ve completely enclosed the plants with at least another shuffle of crystals. Drying plants with track-petal structures, such as daisies, facedown is another system, but my results have been duplicate using both approaches. To dry flora facedown, coin a small load for the flower control, place the flower start facedown on it, and add silica over the flower pending it is covered. Flowers can be almost affecting, and because analogous kinds of flora dry at the same tariff, you may hope to group akin blooms in the same container. Seal the container, and don’t move it for three to four days. Remove delicate blossoms very warily. Shake or brush off the crystals lightly with a velvety performer’s paintbrush. Leaving flora in desiccant too long makes them very fragile, so eradicate flora right away once you’ve determined that they’re dry enough? Sand must be very superior, fresh, dry, and preferably brackish unbound. Sifting is recommended to amputate coarse grains and strange particles. Rinsing the sandpaper in water numerous period to remove any soil is also recommended. Damp smooth can be dried in a stove by insertion in shallow pans and baking at 250 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes. Be really to use only flora in their summit and manner them swiftly to thwart flaccid. To dry with sandpaper, place a creep or two of smooth in a container; dipper away a small total of sandpaper to form a depression on the rise; place the flower beginning upright in this depression and push the smooth in and around the external of the flower to buttress it. Next, scoop a little polish into your hand and tolerate it to trickle in a tenuous gush around each petal. Start with the external petals and work within row by row, allowing the sandpaper to size up likewise on all sides of each petal so its stand and identity are not altered. Flowers dried with sandpaper are fragile so be very chary when removing them from the polish. Notice that flora must be stored in a powerful sachet to shield the petals from breech. The latest and longest method to dry flora is to use a combination of silica gel and a microwave oven. With the use of a microwave, you can now dry your flora very suddenly. Flowers should be gathered at their zenith or, moreover they will turn auburn. Use any of the drying agents (silica gel, sand, borax) in a container cavernous enough to insurance the flower. Leave a 1/2 crawl stem on the flower, and place it face up on a 1/2 inch layer of drying agent. Carefully pepper enough agent to swathe the flower, and place it in the microwave along with a small bowl of water. Do not remove the plants from the agent immediately, but set the tangent for some hours. Listing below are some period for drying flowers in a microwave. By using air drying and other methods also, many flowers can be preserved for year-spherical enjoyment. Plan now to embrace some flowers in your plot for drying, and prove adjoining fields and road sides throughout the summer and drop for more dried factory supplies. Routine dusting can be accomplished using a genuine feather scarf or locks whack dryer on it’s lowest venue. Last: Storing and Enjoying Dried Flower We advocate wrapping the flowers in newspaper and insertion them in a cardboard box. Do not gather the box containing the dried flowers where it is unusually damp (some basements) or very dry (some attics). Also, a lot of people think you should never collect dried flowers unlikely (it would be way to cold). This is purely not stanch. Temperatures are not important. In fact, a garage can be an archetype place for storing dried flowers. Actually, if mandatory air heated your home, the ideal place to warehouse drying flowers would be in a past shop away from the dry warmth. In universal, dried flowers should stay out of guide sunlight while you enjoy them in their absolute state. This will reduce departure over time. We also advocate not to place dried flowers during unnatural air boil registers. This awfully dried air is very hard on dried flower form (causes shattering). Suggestion for use of dried flowers would involve wreaths, swags, sheaths, bouquets, and sprays. Simply execution dried flowers in a span can be very appealing. Also, placing clusters of bunches in a basket, as while you just came in from a garden, is most attractive. Caution: if you do stow your dried flowers further, make sure you keep them from small rodents and insects (a few mothballs will work). Finally, I should to say that drying flowers can be addictive! Before long, wreaths will adorn all your doors, and swags will hang from every partition. And they’ll all have come from your own garden. Talk about an extended period! You’ll rapidly see why dried flowers are often called “everlastings”.
Dried flowers, plants and herbs are another way to enjoy cut flowers. Whether those plants are from your garden, store bought or picked wild they are a longlasting keepsake of nature. Did you know that drying flowers is a craft you can do yourself?
Introduction to the Craft
Fortunately there are many flowers that dry well; so experiment with flowers that you like. Do not harvest growing plants until they are completely dry of any rain or dew. Pick them at the base of the stem for long lengths in arranging. Place cut flowers in a warm, dry area away from direct light. The simplist method of drying is air drying where the plants are hung from a wire to dry naturally.
Drying time varies considerably depending on air temperature and humidity. Once the drying is complete you should store them in a place that won’t require you to move them around frequently as they are delicate. Never store them in plastic containers or plastic bags as they will sweat and then rot. Keep them in a cardboard box with ventilation holes. If the flowers were preserved using silica gel, apply a thin layer of the gel to the bottom of the box.
Methods of Drying
For bulk drying large quantities air drying is the best method. Strip off unwanted leaves. Bunch the flowers together using an elastic band. Don’t bunch too many together or allow the flower heads to closely touch each other. Some very large heads are best dried individually.
If you tangle leaves and blooms together in the bunch they will stay in that position when dried. Hang them suspended from secure hooks in a place with air circulation. Drying time is anywhere from a few days to several weeks. You can tell they are ready when they feel quite crisp. Easy enough!
A very different process to get dried flowers involves using silica gel. It results in the flowers retaining spectacular color and appearing almost fresh. The silica gel (resembling rock salt) must be ground to fine granules. It can be reused countless times. This method works for flower heads. Once the flower head is totally dry you can begin. Egg cartons or small plastic flower pots are ideal as the holding area for the gel and flower head.
Tins can be used for a large quantity of flowers. The egg carton or pot must be filled 1/3 full of gel. Set in the flower head and start with the outer petals and work in. Gently spoon the gel between each petal. Do this until the head is fully covered.
Cover and check on them in 2 days. Remove flower heads when dry to avoid overdrying them. Large-headed flowers sometimes take 5 days. Be extremely gentle in removing the flower. Excess gel can be removed with a fine watercolor brush. To revive the flower’s color spray a bit of wax polish on it.
A suitable method for drying large flowers like sunflowers and peonies is to dry them flat. Lay them on a wire garden sieve and rest it on raised objects to create a space. Again, drying time can be 2 to 5 days. Another method for drying in emergencies uses an oven or microwave.
The trick is to set the temperature in a conventional oven at its very lowest setting. Drying will take 30 to 60 minutes. A microwave oven should be set very low. Check the plants very frequently. Try once each couple of minutes.
Glycerin is the perfect substance for preserving plants such as mimosa and gypsophila. Boil about 2 pints of water and add a large tablespoon of salt to dissolve in the water. After the water cools a little pour into a jar. Stand this jar in a bucket as support for the plant. Stand the stems in the hot water for 24 hours. Make a mixture of 1 part glycerin to 2 parts hot water.
Replace the old water with this new mixture and stand the plant in it up to 10 days. The leaves will look darker and feel slightly sticky when ready. During recent years dried floral arrangements have become popular and much loved. You can arrange your flowers in a container of your choosing. You could press flowers with a flower press instead of using previous drying methods explained in order to display your flowers flat.
Papermania Silk Flowers are a gorgeous, decadent but great value embellishment, ideal for all your cardmaking and scrapbooking projects. In this video we look at the product range as well as some basic and some less obvious techniques to bring your projects to life! For more inspiration visit www.docrafts.co.uk.
At the last Phoenix DIY meeting, art teacher and avid crafter Lisa…
Instructions on making jewelry flower from Italian Craft Dough or Cold Porcelain clay.
Papermania Silk Flowers are a gorgeous, decadent but great value embellishment, ideal for all your cardmaking and scrapbooking projects. In this video we look at the product range as well as some basic and some less obvious techniques to bring your projects to life! For more inspiration visit www.docrafts.co.uk.