New Year, New Craft

 

I’ve tucked, packed and shoved my Christmas decorations into the closet under our basement stairs. The tree is waiting at the end of the driveway for the garbage truck to whisk it away. The Christmas clutter is gone and the house looks bare but refreshingly clean.

But now I’m longing for a craft to brighten the long New England winter. I’ve overdosed on crocheting, I’m done baking for awhile and I’ve made enough origami stars to last a lifetime. January is the perfect time to log into Pinterest and sift through the thousands of craft projects that I so overzealously pinned.

The craft project that I’m drawn to is paper flowers—they are easy yet incredibly impactful, not to mention inexpensive. If you’ve ever strolled down the scrapbook paper aisle in the big-box craft stores, you know that the color and design possibilities are endless.

My senses have had enough of the bold reds, greens and blues of the holiday season so I’m thinking that a more peaceful color scheme works well in January for these flowers.

A sweet pastel palette feels about right but I’m also going to mix in some subtle shades of green and beige as well as scrapbook paper with old-world vintage motifs.

 

Here’s what you’ll need:

-scrapbook paper in 6″ x 6″ squares

-scissors

-glue gun

-floral wire stems (optional)

-green floral tape (optional)

Draw a spiral on the paper, leaving about  1/2 inch between the lines.

Cut out the spiral along your pencil line, or you can simply cut a spiral free-hand—precision is not necessary since these flowers are very forgiving.

Starting from the outside edge of the spiral, roll the paper until you get to the end. I roll the paper so that the design is on the inside of the flower but you can roll the paper in the other direction if you prefer. Ideally, you’ll find paper with a design on both sides.

Before you glue, slowly let your flower unravel so that the spiral opens up a bit. Or if you prefer a tighter flower, you can leave it snug.

Using your glue gun, add glue to the end of the spiral so that it forms a small base for the flower. Press the spiral into the glue. Don’t worry if the whole spiral isn’t sitting on the glue.

And that’s it! You’ve made your first flower.

But don’t stop creating: there are all kinds of variations you can make to these flowers…make them smaller…make them larger…or cut the spiral in a wavy line.

To attach the flowers to a stem, bend the wire about a 1/2″ down.

Use your glue gun to put glue on the bottom of the flower and attach the bent wire. Hold the wire in place until it sets.

For a nice finished look, you can use floral tape to wrap the stems.

 

Now it’s up to you to decorate your home with these beautiful flowers! Add them to a vase or mason jar, attach them to a ribbon and string them across a doorway or mirror, embellish a wrapped present, pile them in a crystal bowl. There’s no end to the possibilities.

 

 

Happy New Year Crafting!

And please send me photos of your creations!