More paper flowers!

Continuing on with making for of the flowers for Granddaughters 6th birthday party!  Here are two 8 inch flowers my friend and I decided to try yesterday.  I will use for the top of the birthday gift!  It will be so pretty, don't you think?

 Here you can see size in relation to table and lamp. These were done a bit different, since they have a rounded flower head rather than a flower center.  This was done by putting the paperclip in the center of the fan-folded tissue papers, and by cutting petal shape on both ends. If you watch the video on how to make them on my last post, you will understand what I am saying here. My once dining room table has become a demolished crafting area, hasn't it?  I love it.  No worries, all fun!

 Here is the 3 ft. pink flower for the My Little Pony called Pinky Pie. It is made with light and dark pink tissue paper.

And the flower for Princess Celestia.  Using white, light blue, light purple, light pink and gold.

Pay no attention to that old woman in the photo!

I have two more to put on the blog.  One is made...and one more to make this morning.  I will be glad to have them finished, as this project does hurt my back.  I have to stand over the table, bent over a bit, and with having my arms outstretched, making repetitive movements, I have to take 2 or 3 Ibuprofen before I start each day.  That helps.  I have made three large flowers on each day the past two days, and the last one will be done this morning.  Yeah!  I will get pictures of the party venue too.

Making giant paper flowers!

To decorate my granddaughter's party area.  I found this video on YouTube:


and have made 3 huge flowers now from tissue paper.

She is obsessed with the Equestria Girls, which are the My Little Pony's gone human!  Anyway, the space where she will have her party is made for the addition of giant flowers all around, and each one is the special colors of each Equestria Girl.  Trying to go for a ballroom affect, in a round about kinda way!  I am thinking I may hang some tulle from each one to fancy it up even more, but am worried about them being able to be pulled down by little hands.  We shall see.  Anyway, here are some I have made.

Orange and yellow for Applejack,..... and purple and white for Rarity:

Rainbow colors for Rainbow Dash:
                           
It's hard to tell from the photos, but the middles are sunken down inside, and that there is a section of bright orange tissue paper between the red and yellow.  Each one is about 2.5-3 ft in diameter!  I will need to do some finally fluffing.  They are hot glued into a plastic lid just like in the video.  It will be easy to staple them into wood for hanging.  Now only 4 more to go.

I really appreciated the video and easiness of making these flowers.  A lot of bang for your buck!

I will show the final 4 when I get them done tomorrow!
Ever onward!
XOXO- Julie

Flowers from the garden yesterday!

A fall embroidery!

I am a very cheap person.  Most of you probably know that already.  Anyway, I was reading one of my favorite free embroidery sites at About.com, and came upon this pattern by Cheryl Fall.  It just hit me across the head, and said..."Try me"!  Here is what I am talking about:
The Fall Acorn Medallion Embroidery by Cheryl Falls

I drew the pattern out using pencil onto muslin, by re-scaling it to the size I wanted, and holding the muslin up to the computer screen to trace it.  It uses a few different stitches, but I have enjoyed filling in the bottom of the acorn with the chain stitch.

Next will be filling in the top of the acorn with a laid filling stitch.  Luckily I had suitable thread colors lurking in my stash!  I got my kit of traced design (thanks, Cheryl), threads, needle and small scissors into a zip lock baggie for portability and keeping it all clean.

Here is the photo Cheryl has on the website.

It just signals the start of cooler air, and I am so ready for fall!

Let the season begin! (soon).

I love About.com's embroidery section!  It is worth checking out!  For sure!

Happy Sunday to you all.

Julie

Check out this dude who was on the wall near my front door. This thing is so ugly its cute!  It kind of looks like the Starship Enterprise!!! Lol.

 

New zinnia plants and seeds

Well, I was walking by my neighbors house the other day and she was throwing out this old fountain.  I took it apart and it had this beautiful base to plant flowers in!  Of course, I knew it had to be zinnias!  I have no idea what has come over me with these darn flowers, but I just love them!  Below are some of the new plants (top 3 photos).  In the middle of this top photo are a kind of bushy pink zinnia, which I think MIGHT be a Zahara strawberry or cherry.  This is a guess.  It is has a much wilder  petal look to it.  On the sides are two yellow and 2 white POSSIBLE Profusion zinnias.  The one yellow had two shabby looking blooms on the plant, but tons of buds. I left them on just to see the yellow for the picture. I found the pots all had two or three actual plants in each pot that I found at HD today!!!  Yeah!  It was nice to be able to spread things around a little! This will look so gorgeous when it fills out!

In this second photo are more of the whites. Surrounded by light peach mini roses, and hot pink portulaca.

Third photo there are two new zinnias here.  In the front you see a similar color one to the bushier ones in the back.  Two different varieties.  Oh, by the way, I bought every last zinnia plant they had at HD!!!  They only had one larger one, and 4 small ones.  But as I said each of them had two or three plants inside!!!!!  

Not sure how I got this shot of my feet, but I thought I would include it so you could see at least part of me standing there waiting for an actual SWALLOWTAIL butterfly to return to the garden!  I saw one briefly today and it was huge and so gorgeous!  My heart nearly jumped out of my chest!  I think my parsley is attracting them now!  I waited about 30 minutes after I finished planting and watering to see if he would return, but he never did.  By the way, I have a 5 gallon bucket of italian flat leaf parsley from seed that seems to be growing well, and then I bought an established plant of regular old parsley at Walmart the other day too.

Some of my older pink liliput zinnias. They just keep on producing, which I find to be just so fantastic!!!

Another grouping of pinks.

A large grouping of orange Liliputs.

OK, now here is a photo of my current kitchen windowsill.  My containers are getting larger and larger to hold all of the zinnia cuttings.  I have started cutting the older heads off to dry, and will save seeds.  

Now, I was thrilled to find that HOME DEPOT does not send their seeds back to the  seed companies in April or May.  Many of the shops do this as they have a program that saves them money on unbought seeds by that date each year.  They will not have seeds available until Sept, I believe it is.  So, when I walked into HD and found flower seeds, I was thrilled.  They had Ferry-Morse, and Burpee who both offered zinnia seeds.  I bought two more purple colored ones, but did not get a picture before sending off to my cousin for her birthday.  She loves purple, so I included them with her other surprises!  I was reading a blog just yesterday and that gal was talking about her FRUIT SMOOTHIE zinnias, and LOOK, I found them!!!  Then I decided to give Carnations a try.  I see that they will grow in zone 10.  Hey, I'm up for a little fun experiment!  

Wish me luck!

xoxo- Julie

P.S.  As soon as I get a photo of that Swallowtail, you will see it here!!!

if you love embroidery, specifically ribbon embroidery, you've got to see this!!!!!

cLICK HERE:  hONEY bEE bLISS.

iT IS AN AMAZING PIECE BY HER.

Newest card....

Here is one I put together quickly for my husbands brother and his wife who we got to visit on our vacation. The specialty paper packs make it so easy to make a sweet little card. I still need to get a clear block to put my letter stamps on to get them on a straight line!!!!!  Soon.....I just have to get my brain to remember when I am at Micheals!!!!
Front:

 Inside:

The garden this morning!

A monarch butterfly was just fleeing the scene when this friendly fellow flew in. He did not mind me being around at all.  Identified as a Zebra Longwing by Cindy at Bug Safari, I have since realized this is the Florida State butterfly.

My first coral colored California Giant Zinnia! 

The moss roses

More shots of my model!!! He seemed to be posing for me!

Xoxo-Julie