It's like Christmas when the boxes arrive on our doorsteps! Our mission now is to create something with what we received. I had a wide assortment of products to work with, but was immediately drawn to a bag full of product from Little B, especially since there was a sample of their award winning Pull Flowers.
I'm sure you know by now, that anything to do with "flowers" has my immediate interest. We all love quick'n EZ PZ, so you'll understand why these were such a hit at the show. All you have to do is cut a length of the ribbon then pull the thread on each end and voilà you have a flower. They are so pretty! Now I need something that is just as easy to put them in and here is what I came up with - perfect for Easter and Mothers' Day.
Here's what you'll need:
1. Pull flowers from Little B
2. 3 half inch Smoothfoam™ balls
3. 3 Craft picks
4. 3 Green Straws (the bendy ones)
5. Yellow Flower Soft™ Sprinkles
6. White glue
7. Cool temp glue gun
8. Glass bottles
9. DecoArt® acrylic paint - your choice of colors
10. etchall® Dip'n Etch etching liquid. (Enough to fill the inside of the bottle.)
And this is what you do:
1. Prepare the glass bottles following instructions on the container of dip'n etch. Pour the etching liquid into one bottle.
Let sit for 15 minutes, then pour the liquid from the first bottle into the second one. After 15 minutes pour the liquid from the 2nd bottle into the 3rd. Let sit for 15 minutes then return the liquid to the container. This product is REUSABLE, so you can etch a lot of glass with it.
2. Rinse each bottle thoroughly then dry with a soft cloth.
3. Now let's add some color. Because the glass is etched on the inside, it now has "tooth" (a rough surface), so you can use regular acrylic paint for this technique. I poured about half of the paint into the bottle then carefully, holding the bottle on its side, I turned it around slowly until the inside was completely covered. Pour the excess paint back into the paint bottle. I love to experiment, so I used Patio Paint to color the blue bottle. Patio paint has a thinner consistency, so it was easy to work with. The pink and yellow bottles were coated on the inside with regular acrylic paint. This paint had a much thicker consistency, so I thinned it with a little water before using. Both paints worked well. Let the paint dry at least 24-48 hours and DO NOT fill with water. These are intended for decorative purposes only. In case you're wondering, I tried glass paint with this technique on unetched glass, but the coverage wasn't quite as even as I would have liked.
Now that you've colored the bottles, set them aside to dry while you make the flowers.
1. Cut 18" of each color of ribbon. Pull the thread from both ends to gather then tie the ends together in a simple overhand knot.
2. To make the center, push the end of the craft stick into each of the Smoothfoam balls. Smoothfoam is very dense, so you may need to make a pilot hole with the tip of a craft knife first.
3. Using the craft stick as a handle, coat the surface of the ball with white glue. The surface is nice and smooth, making it easy to work with. When the surface is covered, sprinkle with Flower Soft sprinkles. Let dry.
4. Push the craft stick thru the center of the flower, then secure with cool temp glue at the base of the covered ball.
5. Trim the craft stick on the the under side of the flower to 1" then glue the end of the straw, over the craft stick, to the base of the flower. The "bendy" part of the straw will allow you to position the flower if desired.
Really easy, right..... I was going to add a "collar" of the corrugated cardboard trim around the bottle and a bakers' twine or jute bow around the neck, but sometimes less is more and I like the way they look just like this.
If you like my project, you can vote for it here: www.favecrafts.com/contest/blogger-contest Thank you!
I have so many other ideas using these techniques, I'll have to do another blog post, so y'all come back now.............. Enjoy!
Yours truly,
Julie :)
