Fancy pegs

Christmas is rushing towards us even though I’m struggling to believe it’s not just late September!

This is an idea I saw on pinterest (how many sentences start like that in my life!) that actually came out ok. No pinterest fails round here but I mean it was the simplest diy project ever! All you need are alphabet stamps, an ink in a colour your feelin’ and some simple wooden pegs.

I went for a variety of Christmas sayings to use for present packaging and some for sealing packets (crisps cough cough) in the kitchen.

Fizz
Xxx

Crepe paper poppies

With remembrance day approaching and it being 100 years since the outbreak of war I seem to have poppies on the brain. These crepe paper poppies were fun to make but did take a little time (I made around 50.) I took inspiration from this tutorial but cowboyed it a little!

First gather your supplies

From top left in a spiral:
– scissors (duh!?)
– strip of green crepe paper any thickness it just must be cut across the grain (makes more sense when you are holding the stuff) but it basically makes it stretchy and easy to manipulate
– random coloured crepe paper square (let’s call it the length of my pinky squared!)
– length of wire doubled over and twisted together
– black paint
– masking tape (mine is standard thickness so for this project I cut it in half lengthwise to get skinny tape)
– petal (I freehand all mine because I like the wonky look but you can use a template if you prefer just make sure you cut with the grain going up-down the petal. This means you can sculpt some shape into it and make it look more like a realistic poppy!)
– Green crepe paper leaf, again let’s work with that grain people!
– Square of scrap paper (again the pinky size reference works well!)

Now you have your supplies it’s time to get poppying!

1. / 2. To make the stamen, roll the paper square into a ball and twist the wire. Hold the paper ball into of the wire (covering the two raw ends) and cover with the crepe paper square. Pull everything tight and use the masking tape to secure. Paint the stamen black and leave to dry.
3. Attach petals (between 3 and 7)  adjusting until they look right then tape into place. Decide where you like your leaf and attach that using a small piece of tape too. Right at this point nothing looks too pretty underneath but do not fear!
4. Add a spot of glue to the green strip and secure right to the top of the poppy, let it dry a moment then wrap all around the stem and secure at the bottom with another spot is glue.

Tada! I strung some in my front window and the rest are for a work project I hope goes to plan!

Fizz xxx