How did I do this? circle pinwheel flowers!

I have an addiction to making different kinds of paper flowers! The other night on YouTube, I found another darling paper flower using 1" circles. Here's how.. in very few words!  as brief a format as possible (for me that's hard!)

I used vellum on this one. Gorgeous!

You can use any kind of paper, that's the glory of this cute little flower! Use either cardstock, or designer paper, one sided or double sided, pretty envelopes or pretty wrapping paper. I was going through my scraps and found a pretty envelope that I had saved for years, so decided to use it.

Here's one using old book pages. I  use a scalloped circle punch for this and love the results.

How did I put it together you say? Here's the video I watched by "putsomeblingonit" (below). If you're reading this in your email inbox and want to watch the video, you'll have to click on the title of my blog post to go to my blog.... and then you can watch the video there. 

Here are a few photos of how I glued the little circles onto another little circle.  You can use anywhere from 10 to 16 or 18 circles, depending on how tight you want the flower.

Fold your 16 circles in  half - cut an extra 1" circle and draw 4 quarters on it with a pen.

Put a pinch of hot glue on the corner of the folded circle (see below picture), with the folded side UP. Lay the folded circle, fold to the left, on the first vertical line so that the circle portion is on the right of the line.

Put glue on your next circle. Always be sure the fold is UP. Then place it inside of the first folded circle, so that the bottom points meet each other.

Add caption

 

These are nice and flat - easy to put on a card that is being mailed.

I like the thinness of these. They would be much easier to send through the mail on a card... they are much thinner than my accordian fold rosettes shown below that have about a quarter inch rise:

I have some of my paper rosettes for sale in My Etsy shop here.

If you're interested, here's my rosette tutorial for making the accordian fold paper rosettes. These are great for decorating canvas art, gift bags, picture frames or little gift boxes.

Have fun making some of these darling circle pinwheel flowers. The gal in the video glued each one to the end of a decorative straw, to make a pretty little bunch of flowers. 

ENJOY!

FREEBIE - MARCH REDISCOVER HOME-CTHM DOWNLOAD.

SORRY.... THIS POST IS NOW OUTDATED. SPECIALS ARE NO LONGER AVAILABLE. Marilyn

It's March already and time to go get your FREE Rediscover Home download from Close to My Heart!

Pop on over to my website HERE and below the big blue "Rediscover" box, click on Rediscover Home to open up the PDF of cute little spice circle printables.

Aren't these cute? This is a lower resolution copy so please got to my website link above to download the higher resolution PDF file for printing.

I even found the time to make a quick little card using some of the circles. I printed them smaller than full size so had to cut them out by hand! I think on a full 8x10 sheet of paper, you could use a 1-1/2" punch to punch them out.

I used a Kraft card, then glued on a pretty piece of rose paper (not CTMH - just a scrap I had). I glued a piece of pink grosgrain ribbon across the bottom and made a tag using our Colonial white cardstock, and did some sponging on it with our Cotton Candy inkpad. The word "sweet" is computer generated which I cut out. I stamped the words "as spice" using our  A Typeface stamp set (only $6.95) in black Staz-On ink.  By the way, I LOVE that stamp set and use it all the time for various words that I don't have on any of my stamp sets!

I then glued on the little circles that I had cut out. They were printed on glossy photo paper so have a nice sheen to them. I popped up two of the circles with foam dots. I tied a "fork bow" (because I can't just tie a bow with my fingers) and glued it onto the strip of ribbon with hot glue. Here's a good YouTube video for fork bows (you'll have to copy and paste): http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=RBza9q1rKRo

I made some faux stitching around the edge of the card with my white paint pen (which I love love love!).

And voila! a quick little card. This card qualifies as one of my 15 minute quick cards, easy peasy.  (I have another batch of my "quick cards" to post in a couple of days).

I think these little spice circles could be used on some little glass spice jars. Just glue them on using our Liquid Glass and they will stick forever! (can't be without my Liquid Glass!)

I'd love to see how you use these spice circles. Leave me a comment and tell me what you used them for. Would love to hear from you!

 

PRETTY CARDS FOR YOU.

Oh my! Is it only two weeks until Christmas? I know everyone else "out there" is probably thinking the same thing! I'm finally getting a chance to make my own Christmas cards to send out to (very select) friends and family. 

Just thought I'd post a few just in case you have run out of ideas and need some inspiration!

VERY QUICK AND EASY:  (I love glitz and glimmer - it adds so much).

I used Sparkle & Shine paper (reverse side of stripes), some red glitter paper for the little "stars" along the bottom, and our red shimmer trim.  VERY VERY EASY!

Another fairly easy card inspired by Allisa Chilton of  Rocky Mountain Paper Crafts. I LOVE working with circles! The paper is a scrap I had, same with the black and silver ribbon. I cut a 1-1/2" circle out of red, and a 1" circle out of the Sparkle & Shine polka dot, and then stamped the little candies from the Candyland  stamp set, colored them with a red Sharpie pen, placed them on pop dots, and added some glitter on top.

Inside of my "3 circle" card.

Here is my all time favorite, inspired by Card Monkey's Paper Jungle. I am so in love with our darling little village stamp sets! This little house and sentiment are also from the Candyland stamp set.

I used our watercolor pencils and blending pen to color the little house (although the red is a Sharpie pen), the Sparkle & Shine striped paper (LOVE IT!), and the gingerbread boy and candy from the Candyland stamp set, which I stamped, colored with Sharpie pens, and cut out and popped up on the card.  I didn't add any glitter to this card (hum.m.m.m.m.m. - I'd better fix that).

Last but not least, another all time favorite:

Can you tell I love this striped paper! I used it on almost every card I've made! I "lifted" this card almost exactly from Pamela O'Connor, another CTMH consultant. The deer stamp is the October Stamp of the Month and I used white pigment ink on the red sentiment tag.  Of course, there's a little gem in each corner!

I hope this has helped give you a little bit of inspiration! 

HAPPY CARDMAKING!

RUNNING IN CIRCLES - AND MORE CIRCLES.

My where does the time go? It's been a week since I posted! This time of year always passes me by and I'm always running to try to keep up!  Sometimes I feel like I'm running in circles.

Here in central Oregon, I'm still in the "Fall" mode, and we're looking at getting snow next week. We are so fortunate here not to have the horrible storms that are happening in the Northeast and along the East coast.  It seems so calm here.... maybe the calm before the storm?

I had a fun class last week making some of my beloved paper flowers, plus we made some of those delightful altered wooden clothespins, which I blogged about HERE - PLAYING WITH PINS, which everyone loved.

After my class, my crafting "mojo" kind of went dry for a few days..... I felt like I was running in circles. I just couldn't think of anything creative.  But, all I have to do is try something different, and my mojo usually comes back.  

THIS IS ME WITH NO MOJO!

I was watching a video on YouTube (those wonderfully imaginative and creative videos on YouTube really inspire me), looking at Cricut Craft Room tutorials, and happened upon some little decorated Christmas trees. Hum.m.m.m.m. I thought, those are really cute.

 Here's one from "TheFuzzyDragon1". She used ribbon folded in squares for this one. It's really pretty, but I really wanted to make one using paper.  Her YouTube link is: FuzzyDragon1.



I felt some inspiration coming on, but the ones I saw were either the rosette trees, or trees covered with lace or folded ribbon.  I wanted to make trees using paper.

Nope.. those looked like they took too long to make.  I wanted something fun, quicker and easier.  

Then a light bulb went on. Why not use paper circles! I LOVE paper circles!  I know.... you wondered where the title of this post was leading, right?

So I picked out some of my older Christmas paper and started punching a BUNCH of 1" circles. I probably punched at least 50 circles.  (Didn't want to use my good papers until I knew how this thing would turn out).

And I made a little paper cone, and started gluing the circles on, from the bottom up, kind of like you would put shingles on a roof.  You've done that before right?  

And here's my little creation!

I think it's pretty cute!  It's about 5 or 6 inches tall (I say "about" because it's in the other room, and I'm too lazy to get up and go measure it - sorry, it's late).

 

So I think I've made a full circle, from NO mojo, to a lot of mojo!  I have lots of ideas for my little trees.  I'm going to try punching holes in it and putting a little battery tea-light inside so it will glimmer in the dark.  A few sitting on my kitchen table or mantle would look really sweet.

The results of the tea-light idea will be my next post.  And I'll also do a short tutorial on how I made this.  I was smart enough to take some pictures of it as I went along.

See why I love circles?

GET OUT YOUR 1" CIRCLE PUNCH!

The other day, I was looking at some of my favorite cards that I've made, or that I've saved from other Close to My Heart consultants' blogs. And guess what? I think I like circles, in fact I LOVE using little 1" circles of paper on my cards! Here are a few of my favorites:

THREE CIRCLES on bottom right using Colonial White and stamped and edge-distressed with Smokey Plum ink.

FOUR CIRCLES along right side tucked under the ribbon. Just using plain colored circles adds a little "punch"!!  This card used the Sonoma papers.

FOUR CIRCLES on right, using Colonial White, with little brads on them. These are some old retired CTMH papers. I love distressing my little circles with ink!

FIVE CIRCLES on right, this time facing IN towards the sentiment. I also used my 1" punch for the center circle in the flower, and then free-hand cut the next size up, and used my 2" scallop punch for the outside.  These are retired Pemberly papers.

FIVE CIRCLES - four on the right using my 1" punch to punch out the little flowers on the B&T Pemberly papers.  Alot of our papers have perfect little flowers to cut out using the 1" punch!  I also used a yellow circle on the left under the pretty filigree button.

ARE YOU DIZZY YET? HERE ARE MORE..... RED circles underneath the letters. I punched 1" circles out of the Colonial White and handwrote my word "Noel" with red permanent marker, then popped them up using 3D foam tape.

THREE CRUMPLED CIRCLES on lower right. I sanded the edges and crumpled. This is a quick, inexpensive way to add some more dimension to your cards or layouts.  This card uses the current For Always papers and fabric.

 And here's one more that I didn't make myself, but lifted from  Brenda Frerichs, a Close to My Heart Consultant.  I just LOVE this one!  Thank you Brenda for all these wonderful circles! She used the sweet Chantilly papers for all those lovely circles!  I've got to get punching on my Chantilly papers!

Here are some stamp sets that lend themselves wonderfully to 1" circles:

Monogram stamps 
Perfect Fit - Birthday 
Adventure USA 
Token Alphabet 
Dream Big  (this one is from the Autumn/Winter 2012 Idea Book - still available - 36 sayings!)
Salutation Seals 
Circle Together

(Check out the Autumn/Winter 2012 Idea Book (online here) for  more stamp sets that lend themselves to 1" circles.)

So get out that 1" punch and start punching.  I keep a box full of my 1" circles to use whenever I need to add a little "punch" to my cards!  I think I also will use them on some scrapbook page layouts.

HAVE FUN!