My new found love of moss!

 Moss, Moss, Moss!  It's my new love!  Maybe it's the color or maybe it's the texture.  Whatever it is, you can't mess up with moss.  Moss is definitely messy...so probably I should say you can't go wrong with moss.  I've mossed quite a few things in my house.  I mossed the same Dollar store balls found in this post.  And I have several "G"s in my house that have been mossed.

I feel moss blends itself so well with Easter decor and color.

When I was deciding on what to display in my kitchen on a small wall space, naturally I turned to moss.

The polish pottery hard-boiled egg holders needed to go. 

I've seen the word "EAT" in many pictures of kitchens on design blogs and magazines.  I wanted to do something similar. 

So this is what you need and this is what I did.

I printed off the word "eat" in a basic font from my computer- I think I used Ariel. 

I cut out the letters and started tracing them on to a cardboard with carbon tracing paper, which you can find in any office supply store. 

I started to cut the letters out but cutting cardboard is difficult with scissors in some areas.  I needed to get my xacto blade and cutting mat out to finish them.

There they are!  The best thing is that your cutting doesn't need to be perfect.  The moss will cover all the areas that you may have not cut straight.

Then I put on hot glue and pressed the moss into it.

For the edges I simply just added more hot glue to the edge and wrapped the moss around it.  Some areas I needed to add more to the edge to cover.

One thing I have seen around blogland is that some people leave their freshly glued moss in a more of a "loose" look.  I wanted mine to be nice and neat.  So I trimmed them up quite a bit.  You can see this in the close-up picture at the bottom.

In the above pictures the "T" was looking a little more green the other two letters.  I just hot glued more moss on top of what was already there.  That fixed it.

Also I would add one clean-up tip.  Cover your work area with something!  I cut a plastic bag and spread it out onto my counter top.  When I finished I carefully folded up the bag and threw it in the trash.  The first time I didn't do this and it was one big mess!

I took down my egg holders and put them in place.  Love it!  It's a small wall space and they fit perfectly. 

My hubby said he didn't know if he liked moss and his food together.  I agree, but this is not near our food preparations and it's going to stay for awhile. 

I really like my mossy "eat"!

Have you mossed anything lately?

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Revised Spring Tree

  I was not completely happy with my flowers on my spring tree.  I came across this wonderful blog that made tissue paper cherry blossoms that I decided to give a try.



Sarahndipities

Her flowers look so real..at first I thought they were!  She has a tutorial on how to make them found here.

Well I got out my tissue paper and got to work Saturday night. 

My new favorite color is ivory, cream, off-white whatever you want to call.  I knew I wanted the outer part of the flower to be ivory with a light pink center.

I ripped off the old flowers and hot glued these on along with my ribbon leaves. 

I didn't care so much on how they would typically grow.  I randomly placed the flowers on the branches so that it all balanced out.

I'm lovin' this new look.  The flowers are bigger and adds more spring color to the space.  It also pulls your eye downward to my crepe paper balls.  You can find the ball tutorial here.

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Crepe paper flower tuturial

Today I thought I would show you how I made my crepe paper flower balls that I have pictured in my spring tree post found here.

They are a little time consuming, but super easy to make. 

I started with these things:

Hot glue gun with lots of glue sticks

Scissors

Crepe paper (make sure you have a large amount - whole roll)

Ball of any size (I got mine at the Dollar store - 4 for $1.00)

Just a side note - some stores have smaller crepe paper rolls.  I would plan on getting extra so you have enough to finish.  In my earlier versions I noticed dye lots have a variation in color even from the same store but bought at different times.  I got mine at Walmart and I have enough left over from the first roll that I could even make another one.

I started with a strip of crepe paper about 3 feet long.

I cute the strip in half.

I crumped up the strips.

Then I uncrumped it.  I did this so that it would not be so straight.

I started rolling it to make the flower's center.

Once I had a center, I started twisting the end around.

I added a dab of hot glue to secure the end.

Then used hot glue to the bottom and applied it to the ball. 

Be careful!!!  If you use a ball like mine some of the hot glue will go through the holes and land on your fingers!  Ouch!!!  That hurts!!!

I wanted a smushed flower look so I smushed the flowers down a bit.  But that's optional.

The great thing about working with crepe paper is that you can mold it into certain areas.  Once the ball gets covered you end up with odd spaces.  The flowers can be molded to fit those areas.

There it is!  I love how it adds a shot of color to my kitchen window sill.  For my next project I want to make a flower topiary for my bathroom, but haven't come across an ivory crepe paper.  Still searching.

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Spring Tree

Our sweet daughter finally learned how to ride a bike without training wheels this weekend! 

I've come to the realization that learning to ride a bike is a lot like learning to use the potty.  We have tried for the last 2 summers without training wheels and she simply was not having any part of it.  But once her mind was on that task she wanted to keep doing it and doing it until she got it.  It was very similar to our youngest using the potty when he turned three.  Up until then he showed no interest and we were not going to push him (we pushed the older two and it got no where).  Again once he started using it he wanted to keep using it.   It took him a day!  Yes, they have accidents and they will fall.  But it's all part of their learning experience.  They need to go through all of that before they master the task.

In the mist of all the excitement I finally finished my spring tree!

I had branches there before that I painted white and sand papered some of it off - to look more like an aspen branch.  Next, I cut several circles of my goodwill women's shirt and ribbon leaves like I did with my front door wreath found here.

The flowers I just folded the circle and then rolled it up and put a dab of hot glue.  Then I put a leaf with it and hot glued it on to the branch.  Nothing special!  I'm so pleased to how it turned out!

The glittered eggs are nothing but plastic colored eggs glittered in Martha Stewart's glitter (I absolutely love her glitter - it cover so well and you don't even need to paint underneath).  We have bags and bags full of plastic eggs!  We seem to get dozens each year!  I don't know why we can't reuse them...this year we will start! 

The eggs had a horrible visible seam line that I hide with ric-rac ribbon.  No more seam!

My speckled eggs are plastic eggs as well.  These I spend a little more time on.  I hot glued them closed like I did with the glittered eggs but then I painted them with gesso.  You could also prime them but I didn't know how that would work with spraying them.  I then sanded them for a smooth finish and painted them a light brown color.  Next, I dipped my bigger paint brush into brown paint and flicked it on.  A tooth brush would also work.  Again these eggs had that visible horrible seam.  I wrapped twine around them several times and tired it off.  Oh yeah I also thinned brown paint after I speckled them and brushed it on.  I then wiped the majority of it off.  It gave the eggs a variation in color and made the speckles not so prominent.

I plan to be back on Thursday with a tutorial on how to make my paper flower balls.  I just love them...they are all around my house.

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