The party's over . . .

I want to show you the bouquets and flowers for Mara's wedding on a beautiful late spring day with perfect weather and perfect everything else too.

I had been making centerpieces for my daughter’s wedding, and her and her maid-of-honor’s bouquets as well, for about 3 months. This has been my pleasure and privilege. Thank God I retired on December 1, 2013.

finished flowers

I had to learn new things. How to make a flower, for one. Internet sources were my saviors: Etsy shops for ideas, and Google is my best friend. What kind of paper do I use? Origami or scrapbook (I used both)? Hot glue or white glue (hot). What kind of wire stems to use – fabric-wrapped or plain think green ones (I came to prefer the wrapped, and recommend them if you try it out),

I am not going to present a tutorial of my own, because if you enter “kusudama” in your search box, you will be graced with pages and pages of them. But I would like to share with you the link from Facebook that grabbed me, and how I did some of the outlined origami flower bouquet steps along the way.  But do check out this one: http://www.capitolromance.com.

First, the paper. Origami paper is expensive, and fragile, and susceptible to creasing and crumpling if handled too much. I found that thin scrapbook paper works best,  or even printer paper, which comes in lots of designs. One paper artist even uses 3x3 Post-Its, which I did try, and solved the stickiness problem with baby powder.  It’s cheaper to just use colored printer paper. Vellum makes gorgeous semi-translucent flowers.

bouquet flowers before pearls

white printer paper

For glue I used a standard hot glue gun (my next best friend after Google), and went through glue sticks like water. The advantage to hot glue is that it sticks fast, although Scotch Tacky Glue would be a good second choice, especially if you are working with kids. Another advantage to the Scotch glue: no gossamer strings that you have to get rid of! I may go that way next time.

After assembly I glued an embellishment onto the center of the flowers. For the bouquets. Boutonnieres, and flowers for my daughter’s hair, I used stick-on embellishments carefully gleaned from Michael’s and Joann’s clearance racks over the years. For the centerpiece flowers, I used buttons.

How to assemble? First, I joined two flowers using floral tape. This is a sticky business and it took me a while to get comfortable with it. Then I joined the two-flower stems gradually to others for the bouquets, but for the centerpieces just used two-flower stems stuck into the filler. I finally wrapped the bouquet steps in cotton ribbon, fastening it at the ends with corsage pins. Google, bless you, and long may you reign.

Tomorrow I'll tell you about the invitations. And the favors. Doable by anyone.

Anne

Kusudama Mama

I am just having a great time making origami kusudama flowers for my daughter Mara's wedding on May 24. She sent me a pin on Pinterest and when I saw the photo I thought I would NEVER be able to do that. Well, about 200 flowers later, I am probably done.  But I can't stop! I am addicted and I crave folding the square, gluing it, assembling the five petals, then sitting back in admiration and awe at my own awesomeness! Why didn't anyone tell me it was going to be this satisfying? I would have retired sooner.

Stop me before I am buried.

A sea-change

I’m at the gym and I realize I’ve forgotten my earbuds. Surprisingly I don’t care (much). A couple of years ago I would have had to return home to retrieve them. At that point in my life I simple would not have been willing to step onto that treadmill without Usher,  Lady Gaga, or the Black-Eyed Peas.  The driving beat, the tempo (3.5 mph for my short legs), and yes, the fading words and spirit of youth.

Dancing, sweating, lusting youth.

But this aging baby-boomer body no longer needs the Party Rock Anthem (but at times I do want it!) I work at convincing myself that I would feel worse if I skipped the gym than if I actually pushed myself to go. I heed the angel-voice and ignore the pitchfork guy. Closing my eyes imagining a young me slinking onto the dance floor, performing perfect body rolls while walking nowhere or torturing my glutes and quads on the elliptical,  no longer works.  Reality interferes, and I’d rather be elsewhere than on the dance floor trying to be young.  I’d rather accept my age, and dance to the oldies (and with them!).

Today I didn’t think Oh, no! but instead Oh well,  and proceeded to the recumbent bike, knowing something else needed to be exercised along with my heart and puny muscles hiding under ample adipose.

Is that why I said to my husband during a long car trip last month Don’t they have an NPR station around here? Or asked Where’s PBS? I’m missing Call the Midwife.Or proclaimed We need a blue-ray player with internet access for the new TV so we can watch TED talks and documentaries.

I need to use my MIND instead of climbing into the front car of a rollercoaster and going along for the ride (though Lost was a great ride, andHomeland  and Game of Thrones still are!).

A fight against the downward spiral or preparation for the next adventure?

Yes, both. Though the latter is kinder and gentler. 

Seems Like Old Times

Look at all of these tea bag holders. Probably 75 of them, at least. Every one folded, taped, glued, and beribboned in my studio, by Hannah and me, this afternoon.

It reminded both of us of doing crafts together when she was little--those bead things you iron and make an I-don’t-know-what, maybe a coaster?—stringing pony beads into hideous necklaces, or sculpting Fantastic Plastic into free form shapes to glue onto a pin and call a brooch.

Laughable to us now, it was wonderful to spend that time together.

The pony bead necklaces, not so much.

In the studio, a shriek (of excitement!)

The latest project from my craft room is a tea-bag holder, many of them, designed as a take-away for my daughter's book signing/launch party on August 3 in for her book of poetry entitled, as you may have guessed, In the Kettle, the Shriek.


She and I wanted to keep the kettle/tea theme going, and I found this wonderful card stock at Joann's. Unfortunately, there were only two sheets of it in the book, so we decided to mix patterns in the same color palette.

Here are the steps we took.

First, we cut out the basic shape using the Cricut Tags, Bags, Boxes and More 2 cartridge. Yes, there is actually a shape called "tea bag holder."

The Cricut also cuts the score lines, making it easy to fold in the right place. I use a bone folder to create the crease, apply double-sided tape, and adhere the back flap to the side flaps.

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Hannah and I together chose the fonts we used for the title of the book, printed out two columns on card stock, and used the EK Tools punch shown.

A couple of strips of double-sided tape on the front anchor the silver ribbon simply wrapped around the holder.

Two turquoise brads decorate the label, and the label is affixed with double-sided tape.

Insert tea bag, and there you have it.

Good morning!  I am up much earlier than I need to be this morning, and rather than spend time watching CNN, which is never a good way to start my day, I am here.

I spent some time at the Columbus Arts Festival last year. There are so many creative people in the world, and some of their work brought tears to my eyes, and some a little envy, I have to admit.

There was a multimedia artist named Karyn Debrasky whose framed art drew me into her booth like a magnet. She used textured papers and jewelry findings, foil, buttons, and what looked to me like a lot of the stuff in my own studio. Please check out her website at www.karyndebrasky.com or find her on Facebook: Karyn Debrasky Design, LLC.

Talk about inspiration for a card maker like me! My younger daughter Mara asked me to design something for her that she could hang on the wall, and I'm now taking this as an artistic challenge. My older daughter would also like something, and this was music to my ears. Wow. Create something that would not soon be discarded (hopefully in the recycling bin).

The spirit of her work gave me such hope and I am so grateful to her. And I felt a new connection to mixed media. Could this be the start of something beautiful that could last?

I dunno, but I am open to it. And I've found that once a person says "yes" to a new thing, a lot of times, and a new door opens, well what do you know, in enters the opportunity and creativity to do it

From Russians with love

This afternoon, out of the blue, a patient of mine from Russia appeared at the front desk of our office with some large packages, two for me, and one for my doctor. Though they speak even less English than I speak Russian (read: nil) nevertheless the message was clear: thank you. And then the man crossed his hands over his chest and said "I love you."   The colors and shapes of the tea set and table are rich, and like Proust's memory provoked by the swelling of a crumb from a madeleine dipped into his cup of tea, I hope inspiration for color and shape will develop from my teacup, merely by having them steep for a while.