Because I Said

Easy Family Activity

So one night last week as a family we watched Christmas movies and made snowflakes.  My older kids enjoyed doing this when they were younger so I thought it would be fun to show my 6 year old how.  Well it ended up that my two teens had just as much fun.  I have to say that I think my son is the king of snowflake cutting!  Sure he doesn't like hearing that, but his all turned out gorgeous!

 
These snowflakes are fun to make.  All you need is a package of coffee filters and a pair of scissors.  I'm not a coffee drinker so I had to pick some up while I was at the store, but they were only about $1.  So it's a very inexpensive project.

All you do is fold the filters in half and in half again, and then one more time.  Sometimes I will even fold them again.  Then you cut out the little shapes.  The coffee filters give you the cute round snowflakes!  To get the neat shapes on the outer edge of the snowflake you just cut an interesting shape from about the middle of the filter to the outer edge.  Hope this makes some sense.  Play with them and have fun!

After all the snowflakes were done I ironed them flat.  Yep I ironed them.  Just with a medium hot iron to get out the creases on the filters.  I wanted them to hang flat.  After they were ironed I took them to the sewing machine and just stitched right over them.  I stitched across 1 snowflake at a time and didn't cut the thread and continued onto the next snowflake.  I did strands of 3 and 5.  I guess depending on how tall your ceiling is you could make them longer.  Or you could even stitch them all together and make a garland with them. (I did snip off the strings from the bottom after I took the photos.)  Aliya wanted them hanging under the walkway to our kitchen.

Enjoy!   

Altered Flower Tutorial

I've been wanting to add some different flowers to the Christmas tree this year.  The tree isn't finished, but I was in the mood to play with these flowers finally and thought I would share it with you.

 
This is what I came up with.  I really like how this one turned out and can't wait to finish the others.  In doing this flower I wanted to see if I could take a very inexpensive flower and turn it into something pretty enough to use.  So I was at the local $ store.  Most of them around here are called the Dollar Tree.

I found these garlands and decided to give them a try.  Their were 6 flowers on each garland for only $1.  So I grabbed a few garlands and a package of the precut round tulle circles.  I found the tulle circles in the wedding section.  I believe there are 15 to a packag and they come in white. 

 

I decided to dye the flowers and the tulle.  To do this I added coffee and a bit of pink rit dye to my pot of water.  Heat the water on the stove and let it get hot. To dye the flowers I just dropped them in the water and let them sit for a minute or so.  The longer you let them stay in the darker they become.  I then pulled them out and set them onto an old towel to dry.  The tulle circles I just split the package into thirds and folded them up and using tongs I dunked them into the dye and pulled them right back out. 

This is what the flowers looked like after they were dry.  As they were drying I fluffed them a bit with my fingers.  You can either use them like this or continue on.

Next I took one of the flowers and pulled it apart.  They come apart very easy.  I don't save the stuff that keeps them together.  I just toss it.

It's hard to see in this photo, but I took some brown ink and stamped onto the petals with one of my background stamps. I then took the tulle and cut it in half to use as layers between the petals. I also tore the edges of it a bit.  Just gathering it a bit with my fingers and layering it between the layers of petals.  I also layered some vintage lace as well.  You can layer whatever you like with the petals.  I did this between each layer of petals and then used my trusty stapler to secure them all together.  If you want them a bit more sparkly it would be fun to glitter the edges of the petals as well.  After the flower was secure I just hot glued a vintage button to the center of it.  Of course there are many different things you could put in the center of the flower to personalize it!  Onto the back of the flower I glued a clothes pin.  This makes it nice and easy to put onto the branch of the Christmas tree.

This is a closer look of the stamping and layering of the flower.  These flowers would look beautiful on top of a package as well.  I hope that you are enjoying your holidays and taking time to spend it with family and friends! 

Hoping to share another quick tutorial tomorrow with you from my 6 year old. She came up with a cute idea for her gingerbread house that I will also be sharing.