Tutorial

Edwardian Easter Eggs

Inspired by the Fred Astaire and Judy Garland movie, Easter Parade, I decided it was high time I made some eggs with old fashioned flair.

If you have never seen the movie, you should. It takes place in 1912 New York and the Edwardian era costumes are superb. The hats alone are worth the price of a movie rental. And, seriously, people, it’s Judy Garland. And not the coked out and bloated Judy Garland, I mean the doe-eyed and vulnerable, gorgeous with a butter voice Judy Garland. You need to see this movie.

These eggs were super easy thanks to some previously tie dyed eggs, some Mod Podge, and some German paper scraps.

(der Osterhase is German for Easter Rabbit)

The bunnies required some crinkling and snips in order to get them to adhere to the curved surface, but they found their way in good time. After all was dried I added some gold ink, a few sequins and a ribbon. Tada!

Golden Seismograph Easter Eggs

by PEACHES 11 Comments

A couple years ago a friend told me about dyeing eggs with silk ties – an idea she picked up from Martha Stewart Show staff member, Jackie Manzolillo, who picked it up from her Great Aunt Helen, who picked it up from her grandmother. It’s a family tradition. And if there is one thing I can’t resist, it’s a craft project with lineage. Of course I had to try it, and of course the eggs came out great. If you haven’t seen the original video, you should, ‘cause there be some serious granny cuteness going on. And yes, the results are mucho mucho impressive.

Since I like to try a new egg dye technique each year, and that one came out so well, as did my tissue paper eggs from last year as well, I thought; why not cross the two?

The end result is a swirling dervish of sparkly pastel Easter goodness. This is an easy project that relies on little more than bundling and soaking — both are very kid friendly, especially if you use hard boiled eggs instead of fragile, hollow eggs. Of course, I would avoid eating eggs that have been boiled in garment dye but I wouldn’t think twice about setting them out on the coffee table.

Materials

Eggs with their guts blown out (see this video)
Silk neckties (can also use scarves or fabric scraps – must be 100% silk)
Tissue paper cut into long strips (dark colors work best)
Non-metal pot (I used my slow cooker, but you can find ceramic and glass pots at the thrift store – no metal)
Vinegar
Coffee filters
Dental floss or strong white thread/twine
Mod Podge
Gold Paint Pen

Again: watch the original video. That way you can skip most of these directions. Or piece it together from the pictures. I love craft tutorials with more pictures than words, don’t you? Brevity is a virtue. I ramble too much but I’m good with sequins – that’s my virtue.

The number of eggs will determine how many neckties you need, but I would estimate 4-6 eggs per tie (I found these ties at the thrift store for 50cents each. Not all neckties have obvious fabric indication tags, but if a tie is 100% silk, there is a decent chance the manufacturer will brag about it with a big ol’ tag).

Cut the tie apart into pieces large enough to surround each egg, roughly 5″ square or larger.

The dying process is based on a simple bundling technique.

Egg > Tissue Strip > Silk Piece > Coffee Filter > Tied Together with Floss

Use tongs to submerge the egg bundles in hot water (not boiling) with a splash of vinegar. Leave them there to soak. Be sure to use a non-metallic pot, as it will react with the acidity of the vinegar and effect the dye process. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have any non-metallic pots sitting around so I resorted to using my slow cooker with a ceramic insert. The slow cooker also allowed for a clamp-on lid, which was helpful in keeping the eggs wet, even if they insisted on floating (fully submerging eggs in a crowded pot isn’t easy).

You will have to experiment to see how long they stay in there. Some dyes will release in a few minutes, some will take a few hours.

As you can see, the paisley print was a direct transfer in some spots, while the strip of green tissue created reverse-print stripes in other spots. The overall effect is very muted and pretty. And abstract. Which is a nice way of saying no one will notice if you make a mistake. Don’t you love that?

It’s important to coat the outside AND the inside with diluted Mod Podge (we went over this last week). I also added a dash of glitter paint to the mix. Because, you know, I’m tasteful.

Now for the fun! Use the ‘stripe’ created by the tissue paper as a guide on where to use your gold paint pen. I chose to draw staggered vertical stripes along the outer borders of the stripe. I was trying to give the visual impression of “music” but it came out looking more like an “earthquake.” Hence the name of this project, Golden Seismograph Eggs.

I almost gave them the name Earthquake Eggs but I like the word seismograph. I also like the words mercurial and besmirch. Last week I was on the phone with a guy who used troglodyte in a sentence without even trying. Man, some people are so cool!

Interested seeing some other folks dye eggs with neckties? Check out Dabbled and Parents Magazine.

Friday Flowers: Ann’s Cherry Blossoms

by PEACHES 33 Comments

Sad fact: I have never seen real cherry blossoms.

You don’t find them so much here in the Midwest and I have never been out east mid-spring when they are blossoming.

But one day we will time it right.

One day.

Actually, years ago, I dragged a friend into lunch at the famous Pool Room at the Four Seasons just so I could brag about eating a meal underneath a spectacular canopy of cherry blossoms. How grand would that be? It was to be a highlight of trip, but, lo, apparently they don’t have cherry blossoms in July. Apparently they store them somewhere in Yonkers for ten months a year and make you eat hot buttered shrimp under indoor palm trees.

Bastards.

So when I was taking suggestions for Friday Flowers, and Ann mentioned cherry blossoms, I thought the timing would be perfect. Next week would normally be the start of cherry blossom season, although, little did I know there would be a heat wave and the cherry blossoms would come early this year. I’m already behind the curve! So let’s not delay any further – let’s get started…

I’m not going to do a full tutorial on this one because I took 90% of my directions from this amazing paper dogwood tutorial from the team at Martha Stewart. I highly recommend you take a gander at the video.

As much as I like the dogwood shapes made from construction paper, I wanted something a little more delicate and colorful. So I swapped the construction paper for coffee filters (as if you didn’t already know how much I love me some coffee filters).

I dyed the filters by dipping the bottoms into a dye solution of one cup water + 20 drops red food coloring. If you don’t have food coloring you can use red water color paint. Your pick. I purposely used little liquid and LOTS of coffee filters so the tops of the filters would remain white, giving a more realistic, ombre pink and white appearance. There are probably 200 coffee filters here, but I only used ten to cover the whole cherry blossom tree. The rest will be used to make some other flowers down the road.

After the coffee filters dry overnight, cut them in half and then into simple four-leaf clover shapes.

Just for kicks, I dotted the outer edges with a red magic marker, but that looked a little harsh, so I blended them out with water.

Martha’s tutorial attaches the flowers to the tree with hot glue, but that seemed too clunky for the coffee filters, so I chose to cut 1cm slits in each blossom and slipped them onto the tips of a barren branch. The branch is held in an old ice bucket anchored by sand. Please forgive the tarnished silver — if you had seen that bucket when I found it at the thrift store, black as a skillet, you would appreciate the recent improvement!

Speaking of thrift stores — did I ever show you the treasure Kelly found at a thrift store last fall?

Behold, it is Miss Piggy! Isn’t she wonderful?

Original art. And the framing is so nice, too. It warms my heart to think of someone treating Miss Piggy’s picture the same as a formal portrait. How she ended up in a thrift store, I will never know, but thank goodness she came my way. Thanks again, Kelly!

I like the idea of having a couple of these cherry blossom trees on a formal dining table. Maybe for a Seder. Or Easter. With eggs. Or not. Oh, I don’t know, but if you try it, send pictures, por favor!

Are you anywhere near Washington DC in the next month? It’s the 100th annual National Cherry Blossom Festival.

If you have two minutes today, watch this short documentary, The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom. It is truly remarkable to think what beauty can survive the most horrific of disasters. Makes me that much more anxious to see a real cherry blossom one day 🙂

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Update January 2015: See how Stephanie used these coffee filter cherry blossoms as centerpieces for her wedding.

How to Make Hollow Eggs Last Ten Years (or more!)

by PEACHES 29 Comments

Every year I blow a new batch of colorful Easter eggs, and every year people tell me I am crazy for spending all that time on something that “will never last.”

But here is the thing: they do last.

Or, I should say, they can last if you take a couple extra steps. Last year I skipped a critical step and they didn’t last. They done busted. I opened up my egg basket (and yes, I keep all my eggs in one basket) and this is an example of what I found:

The egg on the left came from a batch that I sealed with polyurethane spray, while the one on the right was sealed with two coats of Mod Podge on the outside and on the inside. That is the important part — the inside. Egg shells are very porous and they become more and more brittle as they dry out. If you seal the shell from the outside AND the inside, the Mod Podge will soak into the shell and create a web-like bond, strengthening the surface. The end result is almost like plastic. Delicate, but strong. Those eggs will last for years. The egg on the above right has survived eleven years and four house moves, and I can still drop it on the coffee table from 10″ up without a crack. Not that I suggest you try dropping your eggs, but you get the point — who knows how long it will last?!

I know what you are saying… OK fine, I get it, but how do I seal the egg shell from the inside?

Boom. Here it is:

Bear with me, this is going to sound more complicated than it actually is:
First create a sealant coat out of equal parts Mod Podge and water. You can brush it on the outside easy enough, but getting it on the inside takes some finesse. If you have access to an eye dropper, go for it, but if you have straws around that will work too –just insert one end of the straw in the liquid and hold your finger over the opening on the opposite end of the straw, creating a temporary vacuum that will allow you to carry the liquid to the egg. Then lift your finger off the straw to drop the liquid inside the egg through the top hole (this is very scientific). Put your fingers over both egg holes and shake away! Let the excess liquid fall out as it dries. As long as the shell is dry from the start, it will absorb plenty.

Cliff Notes Recap:
Insert watered down Mod Podge in the egg by any means necessary, shake it around, then let it fall out and dry. Whoop, there it is.

Treat your eggs nice and they will last you, well, a long time. Long enough to survive a thrashing from Lola, anyhow.

Never tried blowing hollow eggs before? Here is a great video.
Never worked with Mod Podge before? Let Amy break it down for you. This is good stuff!

Friday Flowers: Tracy’s Daffodils

by PEACHES 14 Comments

Did I mention I am bringing back the Friday Flowers?

Rewind: the first few months I started blogging I posted a series of paper flower projects every Friday. Then I ran out of room and my friends got tired of me pushing them, so I stopped. Then recently Emma wrote me an email and asked if I would do some more because she had already attempted every one of the projects from the first round of Friday Flowers “…and I could use some more.”

Emma is eleven.

If an eleven-year-old can get it together enough to make paper flowers, so can I.

So here we are, Emma. I’ll be keeping you busy every Friday until you are, well, you are, ummm…. well, old enough to get bored of it. And let’s leave it at that.

Heads up: some of the Friday Flowers will be dimensional flowers, some will be items simply improved with the help of flowers, some will be flowers made by other people….Who knows? All I can tell you is I will plan on publishing a post every Friday. So if you like Flowers, you will know where to get your weekly fix. And you can thank Emma for it.

With that in mind, I asked the folks on Facebook what sort of flowers they wanted to see, and the first person to reply was Tracy, who said “Daffodils.” Actually, Tracy said “Daffodils, Hydrangeas, and Daises” but y’all will have to give me some time to make my way down the list. We will get there eventually, I promise.

So, without further adieu: let’s get started on Tracy’s daffodils.

Materials:

Yellow Cupcake Liners (I happened to have two shades of yellow cupcake liners laying around, but any color will work)
Plastic Drinking Straws
Frog Tape ripped into 10″ pieces (Frog tape is a fairly new product, but you can easily find it in the painting aisle at the hardware store. Runs around $5 a roll, depending on thickness)

Start out by dividing your cupcake liners in two piles: One pile will be the ‘outer flower’, and one will be the ‘inner flower’ (if your daffodils will be two-toned, now is the time to decide).

Take the cupcake liners you will use for the outer flower, fold into thirds, then snip off the rounded edges, forming a mild V shape in the center. Here, the picture will explain:

Also use your scissors to cut a small slit in the center. The end result will look like a six pointed star with a small hole in the middle.

Now take your ‘inner flower’ cupcake liner and pinch the middle.

Pull the tip of the pinched inner flower through the slit in outer flower.

Now pinch them together. Secure with the first 1″ inch of a 10″ strip of frog tape. Then proceed to use the other 9″ to adhere the flower to the plastic straw, rolling downward as you go.

That’s it. Keep rolling downward…

Now gently pull the inner flower upward, and the outer flower down. That’s it!

Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Have you ever seen a solo daffodil? No. They came by the dozen. Luckily these only take a minute so you can populate a whole field of daffodils!

Did anyone else read the “Real / Not Real” and think of The Hunger Games?

Wow I am a dork.

Happy weekend 🙂

Friday Flower: The Paper Hyacinth

by PEACHES 39 Comments

It’s nearly mid-March. Do you know what that means?

Magnolia season. Dogwood season. Bulb season.

And the hyacinths are nearly here!

TOP FIVE FLOWERS ACCORDING TO MOI

Stargazer Lily
Hyacinth
Dandelion
Shasta Daisy
Homegrown Rose

1. Don’t anyone write me an email declaring outrage over the lack of calla lilies on the list. Relax. This isn’t the Olympics. They can try out again before their peek has passed.

2. Yes, I am an eccentric, sequined cat lady and I can have Top Five Flowers list if I want to. You might have a list of Top Five Restaurants, or Top Five Friends, or Top Five Nights Involving Pantyhose, Grain Alcohol and a Muskrat. To each his own. No judgments.

There are few things I love more in life than the smell of the first March hyacinth. The window for it’s arrival gets narrower every year, and when you find it, not only does it come accompanied by a beautiful flower, it comes heralding the best news you have heard in months: Spring is officially here.

Huzzah!

I have been wanting to make paper hyacinths for years but could never figure out how to create the delicate frillyness, until last fall, when I found a vintage cookbook with directions on how to make those little white ruffles that go on the end of turkey legs (name anyone?)

So, really, these aren’t so much hyacinths as they are big pink and purple turkey legs.

Note on tissue paper: Rumpled old tissue paper works best on this one. If you do not have any old stuff, wad it up for a day or two before you start –it will help the fibers to relax a little which will prevent them from tearing so easily.

Also, as you may have noticed above, my tissue paper has a big stain on it –the result of a simple water spill (all the colors in the stack ran together)…it gives some of the flowers a two tone effect that I think is pretty neat. But you could skip that. Or just spill water on a stack of colors and get them to run on purpose for a mottled/watercolor effect. That might be cool, no?

OK. Let’s get this party started.

Begin by cutting some long skinny rectangles of tissue paper and fold in half on the long edge. My

rectangles started as 3″x18″ but you could play with the proportions to get all sorts of cool results. I like to work in stacks of four, but you could do a lot more if you are the delicate and efficient type. I am the rhinoceros type, so I stick to no more than four.

Snip the fringe (or fringesnip if you are sassy enough to pull off that kind of verb) on the folded edge. The narrower the better, just be sure to leave the outer half inch in tact.

Adhere one end of the tissue fringe to the end of a straw and start rolling. Go around the top three, maybe four times then start spiraling downward.

Use a piece of tape to adhere the end of the fringe. Add a leaf if you want. I think they are more authentic looking without the leaves, but a little green won’t hurt.

And that’s it! They don’t smell as nice as hyacinth but they sure are pretty 🙂

Happy weekend!

Confetti Snow Globe Business Cards

by PEACHES 25 Comments

You like my business cards?

The issue of business cards has come up several times in the past few months.

And by several times I mean twice. But saying several makes me sound much more in demand.

The minimum print quantity for business cards (500) would be ridiculous, and since handmade business cards are quite The Thing these days I thought I would give it a try.

Then I remembered an image of an invitation in a graphic design book — a transparent yellow envelope stuffed with confetti (See Left: New Millenium Greeting by Nassar Design, as featured in One-Color Graphics: the Power of Contrast, Rockport Publishers, Inc. 2002).

I couldn’t find transparent yellow envelopes in the right size, but the Paper Source sells a glassine variety. They are so cute and precious. They make me want to start a stamp collection!

The confetti is just some cut up shreds of tissue paper that are sealed in the envelope with a smear of a glue stick. The envelope is transparent and there is no need to ever open it –the recipient can read the text through the glassine as is. No mess. The confetti moves around when you shake the card, but it can take a little effort if the envelope is overstuffed. Next time I’m sticking to sequins.

Friday Flowers: Franken Flowers

by PEACHES 24 Comments

Silk flowers are a controversial subject.

Not since the OJ Simpson verdict has a nation stood so squarely divided.

Some people loathe silk flowers. They write them off as tacky, dusty, dated, and only acceptable in conjunction with gravestones and in funeral parlors. In their minds, silk flowers are best relegated to the dead.

In the other camp, there are those who worship silk flowers for their joyful appearance and economical price tag. Silk flowers last forever and are readily available in dollar stores, craft stores, and most anywhere off-brand toothpaste is sold.

Me?

I like silk flowers. Nay, I love silk flowers.

But I didn’t always feel this way…

I went through a snobbish phase in my early twenties when I disliked anything that was not organic and otherwise wholesome. Man, that was annoying. At one point, while sitting down to lunch to meet my then-boyfriend’s older sister, Juanita, a woman 22 years his senior, with eyebrows like caterpillars and fingers like overcooked hot dogs, I remarked on the restaurant’s decor and their over abundance of silk flowers. With tremendous confidence I declared, “Aren’t they just so tacky? Who wants to eat food right next to these dusty old things? They probably absorb all the food odors and bathroom grime off everyone who has ever walked through here. Gross. Gross. Gross! Don’t you agree, Juanita?”

Juanita shot me a look that could curdle milk.

I spent the rest of the lunch attempting to make friendly small talk, while Juanita donned her cat eyed reading glasses and buried her nose in her menu. Every once in a while I would see her staring daggers at me, which I wrote off as the leery eye of a concerned older sister. Typical, right?

Six months later, when I was invited to her home to celebrate a family birthday, I discovered that Juanita’s entire home was covered in silk flowers, including, I might add, a rather impressive dining room ceiling bedecked in a carpet of dangling silk wisteria.

Oh crap.

No wonder she gave me the stank eye.

Oh look, here is Juanita now…

Now she is giving you the stank eye. Yield to her power: embrace silk flowers!

As the years have passed, silk flowers have grown on me. But I don’t really see them as a decorative item as much as a supply source. They are so much more fun when you take them apart and use them for other purposes.

I decided to call these Franken Flowers because they are composed like Frankenstein; by taking parts and pieces from multiple places and meshing them together.

Frankenstein is also what I called Juanita when she wasn’t around.

Sorry Juanita.

Materials:

A variety of silk flowers
Cupcake liners (optional)

Wow. That was complicated.

Start by taking your flowers apart. I have found that silk flowers from the dollar store come apart very easy, while nicer, fancier flowers from decorator stores can sometimes have glue blobs at their base (something to check before buying). Be sure to keep the green plastic stem things holding the flower together, which shall be known as “little green things” hereafter.

The more flowers you take apart, the more flowers you can put back together. This project would work just as well with two kinds of flowers as, it would ten kinds, but I suggest, whatever you choose, look for contrast in color and a variety of sizes to help each layer stand out.

For this sample, I pulled six individual layers of petals and laid them out in alternating colors. Then starting with the smallest flower, I slipped each layer back onto the little green thing and finished with one of the big green discs.

I apologize for my lack of technical terms here. I’m hoping the pictures do the talking for me. If someone has a better term for little green thing and big green disc, feel free to chime in here.

End result looks like the flower above. Neato, huh?

I think is pretty darn cool. But, just to pump up the jam, I’m going to go back and add in a couple of cupcake liners for extra oomf.

The cupcake liners make the flowers seem a little less like Frida Kahlo’s Taco Stand, and a little more like Pippi Longstocking’s Cupcake Truck.

For the record: I like tacos AND cupcakes. Don’t anyone write me emails about that. My diplomacy knows no bounds.

And that’s it! No glue, no mess. For very little money and effort you have a colorful bouquet that will last for years to come. Go ahead, try it out! What do you have to lose? Listen, if you decide you don’t like it, you can always give it Juanita.

Happy weekend 🙂

Wrapping Paper Statement Wall

by PEACHES 25 Comments

If I had to guess, I would say 30% of the people I know have a room in their house with a big empty wall.

And not empty like Let’s Embrace Our Buddhist Calm Space empty, I mean empty like Dude Don’t Distract From My Totally Awesome Big-As-A-Car Television With That Thing You Bought At Marshall’s empty.

Back when we all had square TV’s we would put them in entertainment centers or sandwich them between bookshelves, but now that flat screens are all the rage, they usually end up sitting on a narrow credenza on the largest wall in the room. You probably know somebody with a similar set up. Let me guess, it looked like this:

The TV above belongs to Kiki, who would like to everyone who read last Friday’s post to know “I DID NOT REJECT YOUR PURSE. TELL THEM I AM A NICE PERSON. TELL THEM!!” …which I can confirm: Kiki is a nice person. She just prefers boring purses. Thank goodness she does not feel the same way about her walls (or this post would be really boring).

So, Kiki wanted to snazz her TV situation but couldn’t find the right fit. Big art just competed with the screen and little art just looked too dinky next to machinery and heavy wooden credenza. It wasn’t a good choice for an accent paint wall, and wallpaper was out of the question….

So we went to Paper Source. Found a couple of sheets of Japanese wrapping paper and put them in them in two simple Ikea frames laying around the house. It looked like this:

Dinky. Nice, but still not big enough to balance the heavy TV and the giant expanse of empty wall around it. So we went back to Paper Source, found the most awesome floral gift wrap ever, and back to Ikea for more frames. Then we got to work:

If you are the fancy type, I would suggest using spray adhesive and an exacto knife to adhere each piece of wrapping paper to the cardboard, making sure the pattern seams match between each frame. But since neither Kiki or I are fancy, we just folded each piece and slapped on some masking tape. This ain’t rocket science.

Originally, we planned on hanging these with 2″ gap between the frames creating more of a grid. That idea was ditched because some of the frames were slightly warped –not enough to notice on their own, but to stick out like a sore thumb in a grid formation. Also, if you are doing this project, I suggest hammering right through the frame as to avoid any wiggle room that comes with using picture wire.

Be sure to use a level, especially if you are using cheapo frames with wonky/warped edges. You will be staring at this wall every time you watch TV –if these are not hung straight, you will notice the imperfections every single time you look at that wall. This process will require some patience. I suggest working along to a movie that will periodically demand your attention in ways that will require frequent breaks. Tonight at the cinema: Brigadoon.

And that’s it. Now stand back and admire your work!

Who would have thunk a few cheapo frames and some wrapping paper would make such a big difference?

Yentl, Kiki’s cat, who has very discerning taste, offered her seal of approval. Thanks, Yenni 🙂

PS: On the topic of home decor –any Apartment Therapy folks out there? Apparently I am up for the 2012 Homies. Take a second and vote for me, wouldya? And while you are over there, click around and see what other folks are doing –I just found ten new blogs to follow. Cool beans!

Rejected: Felt Flower Purse

by PEACHES 23 Comments

Kiki went to a charity event this week and needed a purse to wear with her sweater dress. Nothing too sparkly. Nothing too casual. Just something to add some sass to basic black dress. I thought she should take this – an old purse I covered with felt flowers made from old sweaters a few winters back—but she went with something plain black and boring.

Snoozeville, Kiki. Snoozeville.

Oh well. I’ll find an excuse to use this purse again sometime before sweater season is over. It’s been in storage for years now, so even if I don’t wear it myself, I’ll feel better knowing its had a moment in the sun by sharing it here with you guys.

Sometimes I think having a blog is sort of like shoe shopping with thousands of friends; we all look at each others stuff and say “Shut. Up. That is so cute!” then scamper off to find a different pair of our own. And then, even if neither one of us actually buys or wears the shoes in question, we still had fun looking at what the other person picked out.

If anyone goes shoe shopping this weekend and sees some shoes to match my purse, holler back!

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