Spring is finally here.  Coral is the color of the moment.  The additions of coral tissue poppies and the doublette crepe paper spider mums, add freshness to our wall display.  New colors of crepe paper are in the store, put your own spin on flower in bloom.  I will be teaching a class at Le Reve bakery on Friday, April 27 from 1 to 3, to coincide with their monthly tea.  It is located on the top of Queen Anne. hope you can join us. 

off to NYC

I am finishing the last incredible edibles event for the store and am off to NYC. I am excited to be one of the 8 finalists in the 2011 Scotch most gifted wrapper competition being held on Dec 2 at Rockefeller Center. woo hoo, packing my bags to win this event. NYC for Xmas, who needs to sleep. I'm dragging one of my girlfriends along for a little moral support, and to eat, drink and be merry.
The girls at work will follow the contest and post on facebook the details, so keep your fingers crossed. Happy Holidays.

endless summer

In a previous post, I used my Fabriano Italian cardstock to create little birds toppers for wedding favors. I love the creamy stiff paper and decided to create a paper flower bouquet.
I began cutting 3 (4") small teardrop shaped petals and 5 large(6") teardrop petals. Using my scissors, I cut a 2" splice into the bottom edge and brought the two cut ends together with a slight overlap. Using a small hole punch, I punched a hole to run my florist wire through. First layering the small petals and then layering the 5 large petals. To finish off the flower, I cut a 2x8" rectangular piece of Fabriano and fringed one edge down the length. I began to roll the strip into a cylinder and notched the non-fringed edge a 1/4" and clipped and tucked inside to create a surface to apply glue. Press glued surface to the center, creating a stamen. Finish off with a 12" length of fringed cotton curl in ivory to stuff inside your flower center.

a little birdie...

In culling through several paper books, I came across a template for a curly tailed bird from the paperback book, "Papercrafting in no time". I decided to create favor boxes decorated with these darling little paper birds. The Fabriano creamy ivory color paperstock worked well against the crisp white and green floral paper. I love the Italian Fabriano deckled edge paperstock. With scissors in hand, paper punch and mat knife I began to build my table set. Using a 4.5 x 4.5 Fabriano card stock, cut 2 curly tailed birdies and began to nest them atop each 2x2 favor box. Using 2 yards Cream City Cotton curl, I cut the length into 3 24" pieces and randomly shred and curled the ribbon lengths. Swirled the ribbon into a loose nest and nestled the birdie inside and secured with tacky tape to the top of each box. The next project framed the menu of the day, with 14 birdies cut and taped along the edge of a 8x8 white hi-wall lid, intertwined the birdies to playfully curl around to frame the menu. The flowers are crepe paper flowers in sap green, placed into a hi-wall box (4 x 12) with the softness of Cream City cotton curl, cascading down the side of the box. What a great table set for your next shower or girls luncheon.

quilling it

http://www.creamcityribbon.com/gallery.php

Hooray the holidays are over, Spring is just around the corner. Decorate with a little color, oranges, red, green and chocolate brown. I pulled out an old Martha Stewart article on quilling, popular in the early 80's. Cream city cotton curl ribbon is perfect for my latest project. I'll be teaching a class on quilling in Seattle on Saturday, February 26, 10:30-12:30 and in Redmond on Saturday, March 5, 10:30-12:30. Learn simple techniques to create your own masterpiece.

Cotton Curl

Recently I created a new holiday project for work. It was a wreath using some paper ribbon that the PS stores sell. One of my fellow coworkers thought to send it in to Cream City Ribbons, whose paper ribbon I used to create the wreath. They liked it so much they had featured it on their website for the holidays.

 1 roll of Cotton Curl in Red with White Stripes (50 yds)
    enough to make four wreaths
 6" Embroidery Hoop, separated
 scissors
 one yard ribbon to hang wreath

Cut approximately 12 yards, into 8" loops (approx 54 lengths).  Using 1/2 of the embroidery hoop set. Begin to wrap the 8" lengths around the frame with a flip tie, curl both ends with the blade of a scissor. Continue to load until the frame is full, hang with your favorite yard of ribbon.  Simple!

Hang from your kitchen cabinet, or adorn the top of your holiday gift. Can be set along your table, as a base for a candle or clear vase filled with flowers or candies.

April showers bring...

Along with intermittent showers, and bursts of sunshine, Spring is here and flowers are in bloom. In looking for inspiration on the web, I found a pattern for crepe paper sweet peas. The pattern is simple and combined with the paper twist cording they would look adorable hanging in a window or wrapped around a package. Four simple materials are needed for the this DIY project; green paper twist cording, floral tape, crepe paper rounds and waxed twine are all you need to create these floral wraps.