Tutorials
Make a Crepe Paper Flower Instead of a Bow! Vintage Style DIY Gift Topper
With Mother's Day coming up, and wedding season back this year, you might be wrapping some lovely gifts this spring! A few years ago I designed these giant crepe paper flowers for a friend's wedd...
Read moreMaking Vintage Style Clothespin Dolls! 1960s Kitsch Craft Project
Today I'm making these retro ladies, inspired by some clothespin dolls my mom picked up at a holiday bazaar in the 1970s. I like the quaint look of the long dresses and hand-drawn faces. For this...
Read moreBraided Bread Dolls with Hard Boiled Egg Faces
Today I am creating a pair of lovely braided bread dolls inspired by a baking project I did with my mother when I was small. I can't remember now what kind of bread we used then, but I do remember...
Read moreSpun Cotton Spring Birds with Coffee Filter Bonnets and Ruffs
I love combining spun cotton with pipe cleaners. It immediately makes a decoration look vintage! For these happy spring birds I picked out paint colors that matched some pastel pipe cleaners, and...
Read moreVintage Style Spun Cotton and Paper Lantern Ornaments
I have always loved the vintage lantern ornaments that were made in Japan for export in the 1950s. There were several different types made of paper, as well as the heavy painted glass bulbs for...
Read moreTissue Paper Puffy Heart Valentine's Window Decoration - DIY Papercraft
For this Valentine's day project, I borrowed a papercrafting technique that I learned back in gradeschool! Does anyone else remember applying squares of tissue paper with a pencil eraser to make ...
Read moreMake a Crepe Paper Flower Fairy - DIY Craft Tutorial
These whimsical flower fairies are made of some of my favorite materials: spun cotton, crepe paper, and pipe cleaners! I had some extra-skinny pipe cleaners that I used for the arms and legs, but...
Read moreDIY Paper Shamrock Corsage for St. Patrick's Day
Here is a shamrock pin for St. Patrick's Day that's so pretty, you'll wear it every year. It's simple to make with just paper and pipe cleaners, but the result is very elegant. You can use any gr...
Read moreHow to Dye Pipe Cleaners for Crafts - DIY Tutorial
Extreme crafters rejoice: you can dye your own pipe cleaners! I was wanting some pipe cleaners in various pastel shades for my spring craft projects, but I was disappointed by the limited selecti...
Read moreSimple Craft Project: Make a Delightful Pipe Cleaner Heart Garland!
This is a wonderful low-tech, minimal-supply craft project that has a beautiful end result! By simply forming old fashioned pipe cleaners over a template, you can make a lovely chain of linked h...
Read moreBasic Macrame Knots: Simple Square Knot Tutorial + Adding Beads
If you lived through the 1970s, you might remember this! One of the most basic macrame knots is the square knot, and it's actually very versatile. This tutorial shows how to tie square knot in ...
Read moreGiant Paper Flower for a DIY Wedding Backdrop - Craft Tutorial
I recently had the chance to make some wonderful large crepe paper flowers for a friend's wedding. They were to be part of a backdrop installation, so we needed to make a lot of flowers that fil...
Read morePlants on Pink Easter Eggs - Painted Spun Cotton Eggs
Today I'm making some handpainted Plants on Pink Easter eggs! These fun eggs are inspired by the @plantsonpink Instagram sensation. There truly is something irresistible about that combinatio...
Read moreMossy Fairy House DIY Tutorial
This is a darling cottage-style mossy fairy house. It's simple to make using a paper mache house as a base. After wrapping it in sheet moss, I'm putting on a rustic roof made out of corrugated c...
Read moreTechnique: How to Make HOLLOW Polymer Clay Beads Using Spun Cotton Balls
Ever wondered how to make HOLLOW polymer clay beads? With this technique I'm making some fun marbled beads to string up on a ribbon. They are perfectly round and smooth, and it's great to be abl...
Read moreSpeckled Spun Cotton Easter Eggs DIY Tutorial
In this tutorial I'm making speckled spun cotton Easter eggs. These are so darling. I did a similar project last year, but this time I've added a coat of clear glass glitter. You can paint them ...
Read moreAssembling a Wax Flower Hair Comb Tutorial
In this tutorial I'm assembling a wax flower hair comb with the pretty picks I made in the last tutorial. This romantic hair comb would make a beautiful bridal hairpiece. Instructions for making...
Read moreMaking a Wax Flower Pick DIY Tutorial
In this tutorial I'm taking the wax flowers and buds I made in the last tutorial, and wrapping them together to make a pick for a hair comb. You can use embroidery floss or wire to do this bindin...
Read moreIn this tutorial I'm making DIY wax flowers with a romantic Victorian look to them. The buds are made of spun cotton, and the wax-dipped flowers are crepe paper. You need to make the paper flowe...
Read moreSimple Paper Flowers DIY Tutorial
These simple paper flowers are made out of one-size petals applied to spun cotton eggs. They look like little wild roses or spring blossoms. These are the type of blossoms that I use to make my ...
Read moreTutorial: DIY Concrete Flowers
This tutorial is from a few years ago, but it's a goodie! These concrete flowers are inexpensive to make, and look stunning when they're done. They look like carved stone, and are really elega...
Read morePaper Mache Easter Egg Diorama
So I kind of feel like this is the year of the diorama. I'm pretty much obsessed with them at this point. This paper mache Easter egg diorama would make such a lovely display on a side table or bu...
Read moreTutorial: Spun Cotton Quail Eggs
I love the look of quail eggs, and I love all things made of spun cotton, so here I'm combining the two! These spun cotton quail eggs would make the most wonderful spring decorations. They would b...
Read moreThese adorable retro spun cotton birds were inspired by some Christmas ornaments that were made in Japan in the 1950s. I've sold a bunch of them, and they often came in blue, teal, and white. Th...
Read moreTutorial: Make Giant Paper Flowers
Back when my Storybook Rose tutorial went viral, I started experimenting with different materials for flower-making. I found that the same rose technique could easily be scaled up, and so I start...
Read moreTutorial: 5 Minute, No-Sew Lace Lavender Sachets
For this project I'm using vintage lace trim to create simple lavender sachets. You can also use lace fabric cut into strips. It's a good opportunity to use scraps and remnants of things you hav...
Read moreTutorial - Glowing Crepe Paper Waterlily Luminaries
This is a tutorial I originally produced for 100 Layer Cake, which you can view here. These waterlily luminaries are a real showstopper! Great decoration for dinner parties or outdoor events. De...
Read moreTutorial: Plaster Fairy Mushroom Picks
It seems that so many amazing crafts originated in Germany. These plaster fairy mushroom picks were inspired by some vintage German-made ones, and would make great embellishments for lots of proj...
Read morePaper Flower Tutorial: Storybook Paper Roses
I originally did this tutorial for 100LayerCake.com, and it remains one of my favorite projects. Here I'll share the original post, plus some extra photos and details about how I make paper roses...
Read moreTutorial: Crepe Paper Easter Baskets
Lovely crepe paper Easter baskets! These frilly pails look lovely grouped together for a centerpiece, and make sweet packages for gifts. Imagine walking into work and seeing one of these on your d...
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