Pressed Flower Mobile

With flowers beginning to bloom all around... here is a sweet simple craft you can do to preserve them and enjoy them for years to come!

To create you will need:

1 cup baking soda

1/2 cup corn starch

3/4 cup of warm water

rolling pin

round cookie cutter or cup for cutting your clay circles

pressed flowers

mod podge (we used outdoor so we could hang it outdoors)

paint brush

fishing line

embroidery hoop

To begin

Follow this tutorial to make the white clay. 

Cut out your clay with a cup or a round cookie cutter and poke a hole where your string can slip through to hang.

Bake at 100 degrees C for an hour. 

Once it is cooled you are ready for the fun part!

Gather up your pressed flowers, leaves, ferns...

Apply a layer of mod podge to the clay and then place your pressed flower on top.

Gently apply another layer of mod podge. 

They will remain a little milky looking, but leave them to dry overnight and you will be happy to see it dries beautifully.

Once they dry completely, you can flip them over and repeat the process on the other side.

 Lovely little flower gems!

To make the mobile:

Take two pieces of string (or we used raffia), fold them in half together and knot a loop.

Measure equally across the embroidery hoop and mark at the four compass points (NESW).

Tie the string on at the four points. 

Ready to add your flower gems!

Tie on your clay flowers with the fishing line at varying lengths.

Hang and enjoy!

Loved how pretty they were spinning in the sunlight. 

If you happen to have a wind chime around... tie it on!

Somehow it just seems to give the mobile that extra magic.

This can make a great gift for any flower lover in your life. I was inspired to create this for my Mum for Mother's Day. It now it twirls its flower faces for her daily and hopefully when the chime tinkles in her backyard, she is continually reminded of her how much I love her.

Have fun playing with flowers!

Spring Wreath

{Confession} My Valentine wreath hung on my door until today. Yep. Even though each time I looked at it I was reminded that I needed to change it up, winter was being so stubborn that I was left a little uninspired. 

Finally spring began to show her face and inspiration hit!

To create you will need:

grapevine wreath

mactac (also know as contact paper)

pressed flowers

moss

glue

To begin:

Cut two squares of mactac a little larger than your wreath.

Peel the backing off one of your pieces of mactac and tape it down, sticky side up.

 Arrange your flower design in the center.

Peel the backing off your other piece of mactac and firmly press it onto of your flowers. 

Glue it to the back of your wreath and trim off the excess mactac.

Glue the moss onto the wreath.

There you have it!
Ready for the door.

Love and light to you this Easter weekend,

Butterfly Finger Puppets

With spring seemingly unwilling to show it's face and snow still surrounding us, we decided to take matters into our own hands and bring spring to us.

What speaks spring more than butterflies and flowers?!

Here is our spring inspired solution...

Flower-filled butterflies to conjure up spring's warmth and new life.

To create you will need:

flowers (pressed flowers work best for the longest lasting collage)

sheet of colored construction paper

tape

mactac (also know as contact paper)

To begin:

Print or trace this butterfly template onto your colored paper.

Cut out your butterfly and then cut out the insides of the wings.

Gather up you flowers.

Cut out two squares of mactac a little larger than your butterfly.

Peel the backing off one of the squares of mactac and place the butterfly on top of the sticky side.

Now for the *FUN* part.

Fill the wings with flowers to make the butterflies come alive with color and beauty!

When your flower collage is complete, peel the backing off your other square of mactac and press it firmly on top of your butterfly to seal your flowers in. 

Cut off the excess edges around your butterfly.

There you have it. A flower-filled butterfly!

When it was done we couldn't resist placing in in a sunny window for a bit to admire.

Instant spring to make us smile.

Soon it was time to let this butterfly fly.

To turn it into a finger puppet, simply cut a small strip of paper and tape it onto the back to fit the finger of the "flyer".

Ready to take flight!

Butterfly

Flutter by,
Butterfly,

Floating flower
in the sky.

Kiss me with your
Petal wings—

Whisper secrets,
Tell of spring.

Author Unknown

Welcome spring sunshine and butterflies!

Rainbow Stained Glass Sun Catchers

With the sun streaming through our windows more and more these days, we have been on a bit of a sun catcher craze! Head on over to CBC to see our latest inspiration... rainbow sun catchers!

Soaking up this (almost spring!) sunshine,

Mandala Sun Catchers

I developed a love for mactac and pressed flowers when I was a girl. I have fond memories of being given a box of pressed flowers, some plain paper and mactac to create cards with. I think I still may even have a couple of those cards hidden away as keepsakes from my childhood. 

I thought it might be fun to do something similar with my girls. This past summer we collected and pressed flowers from our garden and in the wild. We thought it would be so nice to have these flower faces smiling at us in the window! It was such a treat to pull them out now and admire them in the midst of (this never ending!) winter. We really enjoyed playing with these flowers and creating pressed flower mandala sun catchers! 

They are simple to create.

Here is a quick how to...

To make you will need

mactac (also known as clear contact paper)

embroidery hoop

pressed flowers

suction cup for hanging

To begin...

Cut out two squares of mactac a little bigger than your frame.

Decide on your layout for your sun catcher.

Peel the backing off one of your mactac squares and secure (sticky side up) in your embroidery hoop.

Gently place your pattern of flowers onto the mactac .

When your design is complete, carefully remove it from the frame.

Peel the backing off your other square of mactac and press it on top of your design. 

 Place it back into the hoop.

 Cut off the edges around the hoop.

 Hang in your window to enjoy!!

Wishing you all...

abundant beauty in this day...

 and always!

Only 17 days until spring! The count down is on. Hopefully these flowers will tide us over until the fresh ones pop up their sweet faces!

In sunshine and flowers,