LollyChops

Lolly's Secret Card Drive... shhhhhhh

A few weeks ago I quietly put out the word that I was having a secret card drive.  In order to find out what the secret was you had to email me or leave a comment and I would send you the details.

I have received the most tremendous response and I decided it's time to share the details of what we've all been up to!!

So here we go...
My very dear friend Crystal was diagnosed with breast cancer in late January of this year.  I still remember her coming into my office to tell me.  It started with a simple sentence... "can I talk to you for a second..."

If a close friend or family member has ever given you this kind of news, it's extremely humbling.  I cannot even imagine what Crystal must have been feeling after finding out...  I know I was running through a range of emotions for the next several days (fear, worry, disbelief,  helplessness)...  By the end of that first day, my foremost thought was...  what can I do to help her get through this?!?  How can I support her?!?  What can I do to keep her spirits up?!?!?  Because crafts are such a huge part of my life, I thought a card drive was in order, so I set to organizing it immediately!

It's a big task...
...and I knew I was gonna need a lot of help... and that's where you guys came to my rescue!

My goal was to get enough cards and other crafty goodies together so I could give her something every day during her treatment.  Since we work together and I get in when the rooster crows, I knew I could have something on her desk ready and waiting for her when she got in!

The beautiful creations you guys have sent me to give to Crystal have been completely amazing and too nice not to share with everyone else (plus I gotta brag on you all a little...  I mean I have the BEST readers on the whole entire planet as far as I am concerned)!

So today I'll be sharing photos of what I have received so far (Crystal has not received all of these items so I have banned her from reading this post!!!!).  I know that more cards are on their way to me now and I will be doing other posts like this one - so you can all see the lovely creations that are headed to Crystal (I am gonna be taking photos of her office with all of the cards and gifts as well...  that will come in the next Cards for Crystal post)!

Cards for Crystal

 

 

Some of the cards come sealed (I never open those).  Some come with no envelopes.  Some gals send tons of cards and some just send a simple note.  Some of you have sent her tea and trinkets and some have sent adorable silly sock monkeys that really make her smile (Sew Shy Sammich has made a home with her as well).  Some of you have left the cards unsigned.  Some of you write very personal and beautiful words. 

In every card whether plainly stated or subtly implied...  you all say the same thing.  We are out here and we care about you!!!  I know she can feel you guys rooting for her and is amazed every single day she comes in to discover who else is letting her know that very sentiment.

I know that most of you will only ever know Crystal through me and I want you to know this deep in your hearts...  Crystal is a truly wonderful person.  One of the kindest and most generous people I know.  You all have lifted her up in ways you cannot even imagine... and in the process have touched my life too.

Thank you for helping me with this girls!  I will say it again and again.  This silly little piece of my life that I share through this blog has brought me in touch with some of the most amazing people around.  You guys are pretty darn awesome!

More HUGS than you can stand everyone!

P.S.  I have enough cards to carry Crystal through about 3 solid month of treatments.  She has about 6 months to go yet and I would love to be able to continue giving her this support throughout the entire process.  Soooo, if you would like to participate in this card drive, please leave me a comment on this post or send me an email and I'll get you the details ASAP!  xoxoxoxoxo's 

O.M.T.  If you sent me a card and it's not featured here.  Let me know!  I have posted every single card I received so far!

Wall Flowers Week - Finally Fuschia Friday!

This is it folks!  The last day of Wall Flowers Week!  I have had so much fun this past week!  I cannot thank you enough for dropping by to see what I have been up to!

I have the last of the tutorials to share today AND a KILLER giveaway!!  So stick with me till the bitter end!

Today's Colors:  Pink, Pink & Pink (with some Fuschia thrown in on the side)!

Today's Featured tutorials:
MomChops - Crochet Rose & Crochet Butterfly

First off... we need to start with some video tutorials for those of you out there who don't know how to crochet!  I double DogChops dare you to learn!  If you cannot figure it out from the videos, hunt down a local yarn shop...  they will teach you!  ...and if that doesn't work, come on over to my house this Saturday for a craft room clean-up party/crochet lesson!  Doesn't that sound like like funsies?!?!?!

Learning to Crochet...
I tracked down what I think are absolutely fabulous crochet tutorials!  They are clear, nice and slow (perfect for beginners), beautifully shot and very very well explained!  These videos cover all of the stitches you need to make these two projects!

1- Slip Knot & Chain - HERE
2- Single Crochet - HERE
3- Double Crochet - HERE
4- Triple Crochet - HERE

Give them a watch and practice your hearts out!  I know that those of you who are desperate to learn to crochet can do this!!!  Lolly believes in you girls!!!  Keep me posted on your progress!

Let's get started with the crochet rose first!

GET YOUR PATTERN:  You can download the PDF pattern for the crochet rose HERE.

Leaving a 10” length for sewing, chain 57.

Row 1
In sixth chain from hook, double crochet, chain two, double crochet, *chain 2, skip next 2 chains, then double crochet, chain two, double crochet in next chain; repeat from * across.

This is what your first row finished should look like.
Rather shellish.

Row 2
Chain 3, turn, 5 double crochet in first chain-2 space, single crochet in next chain-2 space, (6 double crochet in next chain-2 space, single crochet in next chain-2 space), 5 times.  (With your beginning chain 3 and 5 double crochet “shell” you will have a total of 6 of these shells.  Then (9 double crochet in the next chain-2 space, single crochet in next chain-2 space), 5 more times (you will have a total of 11 shells made).  Then 12 double crochet in the next chain-2 space, single crochet in the next chain-2 space, across until complete.  You should end with a single crochet in the last chain-2 space.  Finish off leaving several inches for sewing and tying.

Once you are done you will have this lovely pile-o-curly-crochet mess.

Get yourself a mega needle with a blunt end (it's not too sharp and really thick).
I also use one of those needle threading things cause there is no way this Lolly can work yarn through a needle eye.
Regular thread is tough enough.  Yarn is nearly impossible.
That is unless you are MomChops...
She never uses a needle threader thingy.
She has mad crochet skillz!!

Thread yarn needle from 10” length at beginning of your original chain...

With right side facing, and beginning with first petal made, roll your petals, sewing as you go.  Once together, gently tie the two ends together and clip OR use the ends to tie on pin or barrette backs to your rose.

Tie off your bottom...  this is what the underneath side of the rose will look like and...

This is what the FABULOUS side of your rose will look like!!!

Moving on...  Crochet Butterfly!!!

GET YOUR PATTERN:  You can download the PDF pattern for the crochet butterfly HERE.

Chain 5 and close with a slip stitch to make a ring (or make a magic ring)
Chain 3, then make 3 treble crochets into the ring (yarn over twice)
Chain 3 and slip stitch into ring.

ummmm....  I am not sure where we are in the process here...
Sew...  download the pattern!
...and call 1-800-Mom-Chops for moral support...
I know.  What help am I!?!?!?!?!?

MomChops did all this fancy stuff.
I am just over here doing what she tells me.
...and she's not here to hold my little baby hand (with the horrid cuticles) to walk me through this...

See...  it's craft magic!
It's the sweetest green butterfly EVER!
(download the pattern...  that should help)
(honest to peanuts)

There you have it!
The little butterfly even has teal antenna!
I heart that little fella.

Now for the wall part of the post...

MomChops made ALL of the roses for this frame!
We simply used some Cosmo Cricket - Material Girl - Measuring Up patterned paper as the background.
We hot glued the roses directly to the paper.
We punched and inked several leaves using the ever faithful MS leaf punch
(those leaves were in half the projects this week!)
We then strung some #10 crochet thread through a bunch of buttons...
...and hot glued them to the outside of the frame...
Once they were on there good and dry, we tied little double knots with the thread and cut them nice and short.

Here is a little closeup so you can see the details a little bit better!

...and fast as you please...
You have a nicely framed perfectly pink project!

Almost lastly...
I wanted to share some of MomChops creative process with you guys (so you can see where my insanity comes from). 

I sent MomChops a link to Crafty Diane's website about two weeks ago asking her if she could help me figure out how to make some of these lovely creations.

Since MomChops was not able to drive at the time (that whole knee replacement thing keeps you from driving for 6 whole weeks)... she called RonChops (he's CEO of "Craft Emergency Shopping Shuttles, Inc.") and asked him to take her to the store so she could pick up the thread she needed for these experiments.

So within about 3 days time MomChops had busted out TONS of examples from free patterns she had found online.  The woman is a crochet machine!

I love how she made one up sample, pinned it to the paper and then wrote the details about the needle, thread weight and what the flower was supposed to be.

On some of them she simply printed out the patterns and pinned the samples to them directly.

This is a fantastic way to keep samples together with your patterns for future use.

What she doesn't know is that I plan on breaking into her house this weekend to steal ALL of her samples to use in future craft projects.  Just don't tell her I was the guilty party.  She might think RonChops stole them all to use in his man crafts.  That's believable right????

So last to lastly...
I wanted to share some of YOUR projects from this week with everyone!

Michelle from Life Made Creations made these beauties!

 

AND

Bookette from House Full of Monkeys posted these flowers!

 

AND

 

MomChops made this pretty one!

 

Tiff with Dogwood Lane Designs made these lovelies too!

 

AND

Thanks for sharing your beautiful creations with me girls!
I loved seeing them all!!

So time for the big giveaway!
I was contacted by Diane from Wise Gal Designs about doing a giveaway of one of her jewelry pieces this week (you MUST go check out her shop...  she does beautiful custom work)!  Diane told me she would create a custom piece with LollyChops readers in mind!  Of course I jumped at the chance...

I asked that she design it with 3 bits of inspiration:
1) Flowers
2) Teal
3) ...and HUGS...

So guess what she made!!!!

Don't you just LOVE it to pieces!!!!
Holey teal flowery hugs batman!

How to win!
If you want a chance to win this beauty, all you have to do is leave me a comment letting me know which of the Wall Flowers days this past week was your very most favorite!  Were you digging Teal Tuesday or Yellow Wednesday...  or perhaps you were really into the Orange explosion from Monday???  I'll leave this giveaway open until Sunday April 4, 2010 9pm CST!

That's all she wrote!  Thanks again to each and every single one of you for stopping by this week to leave me some love!  I had fun and I hope you did too!

HUGS!!!

 

P.S.  I am going to work on responding to your comments this weekend!!!!  I have read them all, I just haven't had time to write you guys back yet!  xoxoxoxoxoxoxo's!

O.M.T.  After this I am done...  I promise.  I just had to share this one last picture...

Guess where RonChops is standing with the treat bag wrastling in his hand????
Have you ever seen a more attentive and patient bunch?!?!

P.S.S.T.  If you are interested in buying some crochet flowers... CraftyDiane (the source of the original inspiration for all of these crochet flowers today has an Etsy shop...  you can go check it out HERE)!

Was that the longest post ever or what!?!?!  Whew.

Wall Flowers Week - Sea Foam Green, Marmalade and Teal Thursday!

I really wanted to have a Totally Teal Thursday today (two teals in one week is not too many teals is it???)...  but I figured you guys would up and leave me if I attempted that sly move... so I decided to mix it up some and throw in some sea foam green with a side of marmalade (in addition to the teal of course)!

Today's Colors:  Sea Foam Green, Marmalade & Teal

Today's Featured tutorials:
LollyChops - Pom-Pom Trim Flowers
Distressability - Fringe Flowers
CraftStylish - Simple White Paper Flowers

Let's get started with the Pom-Pom Trim flowers first!
Since sea foam green and teal are cousins (sea foam green's mom is teal's dad's sister)...  I think it's fitting that we start with the cool cousin first before we roll into the "other" one...  Right?!?!

I know what you guys are thinking...

ummm... Lolly...  that's orange, hon.

Bear with me.
(rawrrrr)

Slight Tutorial Detour
Warning:  This next image is not for the faint of heart.

Notice the manicure emergency???
You'll be seeing a LOT of that in this post.
I apologize in advance for any disturbances this may cause you.
Thanks,
The Chops Management

Now back to our regularly scheduled tutorial!

Simply roll the pom-pom trim into a little circle.
Apply a generous amount of hot glue to the bottom to keep everything rolled and tidy.

These guys again!?!?!
Honestly...  they are spotlight hogs!

I made up a fabric flower from this tutorial HERE.
(featured earlier this week... ummm...  several times...)

I placed a piece of My Mind's Eye - Abby Road - Sisters paper as the background to the frame.
I glued Juliana's fabric flower down to that and then placed a Prima paper flower on top of it.
Then I glued that little pom-pom trim roll I made to the center of that!
It kinda reminds me of a marmalade and teal sunflower!
That's totally possible...  right?

Moving on to the next project...
Fringe Flower

This is a really easy flower to make...
Check out the tutorial HERE.
(oh and MS makes some scissors that totally cut the fringe for you)
I want them soooo bad.
But I am trying to be sensible about these things.
Do I really NEED scissors that cut fringe???

Wait!!!!!
Did I just turn up my nose at a craft supply????
Someone call the doctor!!
I must have a bad case of craft pox!!!!
(you would think so from looking at those cuticles)

Moving on....

I quickly want to share an option for the inside of the flower...

I took one of those little pom-pom trim balls...
Separated it from it's brothers and sisters...
And floral taped it to a piece of floral wire.

Then I stuck that little pom-pom ball stem through the hole in the fringe flower...
...and dolloped some hot glue to the bottom of that so it would seal up the rolled up bottom of the fringe flower...
...and keep the pom-pom ball in place!

I'll show you the finished flower in a sec...
We need to take a little crafty side road into the next project real quick...

Simple White Paper Flowers
The tutorial for this flower is HERE.

A few tips...
To get the best curves on the petals use a button or something round to trace a nice curve.
I tried just cutting it free hand and my flowers were all weird looking.

This is the line you cut around.

Once you open it up and cut out what you are supposed to cut out.
(Did I actually just type that???)

Glue it together and ink the edges!
I think inking the edges makes them so much more special!
I also used the end of a crochet hook to curl the petals...
I did not do the pinching thing like in the tutorial...
I just rolled them over the that crochet hook and got these nice rounded petals.

I used bridal sprays as the centers of each flower!
I poked a hole in the bottom of each one...
...then put the spray stem through the center...
...and used floral tape around the base to hold it all together... 
(I found the sprays at Michaels in the bridal department)

You can see the bottoms better in this pic.

Once I had a nice assortment of flowers in different sizes and types...

I twisted them all together....

...then taped them with floral tape and made a little boutonniere of sorts.

I hot glued the little cluster to the inside front of a frame I had lined with paper.

Oh and just to let you know...
I started with a brown/tanish picture frame and swirled some white paint over the top of it.
Easy cheese.

Thus enters MomChops...
The Bow Making Arm of this Operation
She's CEO Of Bows
(those are her lovely hands up there)

..and you cannot even see the bow...
sigh

I should win some sort of crafty lameness award for the pictures this week.
Let's not even talk about my poor sad baby cuticles...

Anyhoot...

There you have it!

Somewhere in there is a bow.
You're just gonna have to trust me!

Sew...  let's review!  Today we had:  Marmalade.  Sea Foam Green....and Teal.  See...  Lolly can branch away from teal when she wants to.  As long as there is some teal in there somwheres...  it's fine.  She doesn't need teal ALL the time.  I mean teal is totally fine and all but there are other colors out there too right?  

(Dear girls,
Please don't tell teal I said that.  He might leave me for his cousin.
Love,
Lolly)

Lastly...  I am wondering if anyone out there wants to come over to help me clean up my craft room!!!  It looks like a preschool class dropped by and had recess in here!  You can barely see the floor (I think there are dogs down there napping but I can't see them through the ribbon, paper, fabric, scraps, and hot glue remnants that are strewn about).  Please.  Anyone?  Desperate Lolly here!

So we only have one more day to go!!!!  Are you guys ready for this mad mad week of flowers to be over?  Tomorrow we'll be doing crochet.... and it's not teal either.  OR marmalade.  OR yellow. OR green. OR sea foam green.  Nope.  hehe.

Thanks for dropping by this week you guys.  You have made this the best theme week ever!

More HUGS than you can stand!

 

P.S.  I decided to pick a few more girls from the comments yesterday to win more crocheted flowers!  I think all of the winners this week should come over to help me clean...  don't you?  The winners are:  EdithChops, NancyChops and MonikaChops.  Congrats girls!

Oh and tomorrow I have the most special giveaway of all!  An Etsy seller has made something extra special just for you guys.  I'll give you a few little hints.  It's sterling silver + teal... (of course)  ...and has something to do with HUGS!  hehehe...  Just wait till you see it!  You guys are gonna love it!

P.S.S.T.  I want to give an extra special thanks to my beloved MomChops.  She saved the day more than once with this flower extravaganza.  I had a really bad migraine on Friday night and nearly all of Saturday and I could not have made it if she had not come over to help me finish up all of the projects Sunday!  I love you moms.  xoxoxo.

Wall Flowers Week - Yellow Wednesday!

Hi everybody!  Can you believe it's already day 3 of Wall Flowers Week!  I am totally shocked that it's going by so fast!

Today I decided to go with a color I admittedly don't use very often...  and after crafting with it for these two projects I have to say that I am rather smitten (which by the way is evidently my word of the week).  I'm sure I'll be using a LOT more yellow in my crafts!  Esp since it seems to go so well with teal!

Today's Color:  Yellow

Today's Featured tutorials:
Bella Dia - Pom Pom Tutorial (I know what you guys are thinking...  what in tarnation is she doing now!?!?!)
Amber - Die Cuts R Us - Rolled-n-Glued Ribbon Rose

Let's roll right into the pom poms!
When I first saw this tutorial I admit that I did not have flowers on the brain...  I was really just looking for some cute embellishments for another project...  however... a bolt of craft lightning struck me (happens so often I hardly feel them anymore)... and KABOOM...  I figured these pom poms would make excellent flower heads!

This lovely lady has the absolute best tutorial and I only want to add one small tip...

Use a crochet hook to get the string through the wound yarn (both times)
It's a miracle device for this creation as there is no way your finger is getting in there to pull that string out.
Unless you have midget fingers.
Which I totally don't have.
I tried leaving the string in there as I wrapped the yarn around my fingers and the confounded thing kept getting stuck and was driving me batty.

Notice the yarn switcharoo...
MomChops came over Sunday and asked to see me make one of these puppies!
I whipped together another one in about 3 minutes and 47 seconds flat (give or take a second)...
Just ask her.  She can vouch for me here!

When I got to this step she started giggling and asked me how in the heck THIS was going to turn into a pom pom...
I just told her to hang in there and wait and see...

Now we are doing the ole switcharoo...
I am basically not going to show you the finished pom pom and will start talking about the project.
(what I am really trying to say is that it's dark and I don't have any plain ole pom pom pics)

I took a shadow box frame and drilled some lovely holes with a drill bit I twisted in my fingers.
I perfectly spaced 3 holes within the frame.
Just ask MomChops... she helped me with the measurements.
She would have eyeballed it.
Me...  I have to measure.

...and suddenly ALL of the elements for this project JUMPED into the box!

It was a miracle folks!!!

Ok I am kidding.

Have mercy on poor ole Lolly.  I was tired.  It was late and I did not take enough pictures.
Basically I smell.

So really... I took some of those wrapped floral stems from yesterday and stuck a pom pom on the ends.
I jammed in there but good.
I then stuck those stems into the little holes I had hand drilled.
I dolloped some glue in dem der holes first so they would stay nice and tidy.
For the leaves, I used glue dots and adhered them to the stems (the same ones from yesterday too)...

Lastly...  I cut out two butterflies from the paper I used for the background.
The butterfly background paper is from Hambly Screen Prints (found HERE).

LOVE THAT PAPER!
(I have been hoarding it for MONTHS...  it almost broke my heart to cut into it)

I glued one butterfly to the top of a pom pom...

...and stuck the other one to the paper in the back and bent the wings to give it some dimension.
(If you squint really hard you can see it back there)

Sorry these pics are so bad...  this fella was incredibly difficult to photograph!
Whew...

So moving on...

Amber with DCRU did a tutorial on these next flowers a few weeks ago and on the same day I saw them one of my craft buddies (Just Jingle) saw them and immediately made one!
(she totally beat me to it...  it's just not fair!)

All I can add to her fabulous tutorial is that I had better luck using stiff felt for my circles.
I was burning the living daylights out of my fingers with the regular stuff...
MomChops saw the blisters.
It was NOT pretty.

...just so you know...
Making one of these takes a teeny tiny bit-o-practice!
(but evidently not for Jingle as she nailed it on the first try...  SHOW OFF!!!!)

So yeah...
This one looks a tad on the OCD I MUST make the coils perfect side.

So I tried again...

...and yeah...
This one was even worse!

More perfect coils AND I made it even bigger.

Way to go Lolly.
YAY!

So I had a cupcake, cracked my knuckles, got more cranberry juice and water and...

...tried one in teal and the craft stars came into alignment...
It was the teal that did the trick!
Honest to peanuts.
Teal makes the world go round.

No really...  what happened is that I turned off my OCD light switch and rolled the ribbon and tucked and twisted a LOT more.
You gotta loosen up when you make these.
Trust Lolly.

So back to yellow!

So here I go again with the magic craft fairies...
Suddenly the project just finished itself.
I think when I was on the yellow projects... I was one tired out Lolly.
I was in GO GO GO GO GO GO GO mode and totally forgot to take pics!

I used 3 rolled flowers from today's tutorial, MomChops crocheted flowers AND her crocheted butterfly and the fabric flower technique from Monday (it's the mega big one with the green button...you can see it HERE).  Oh and I used more of those felt leaves from Felt-O-Rama...  and oh lastly...  I also used a dreamy yellow piece of Crate Paper as the background for the frame (Brooke Collection - Sunshine)!

Sew...  that's it for today's projects!  I know EdithChops stopped on her way home from work last night and raided the dollar store for frames...  anyone else out there hitting up the dollar and thrift stores for frames and scouring the planet for felt and fabric scraps?

You guys got any guesses on tomorrow's color???  I am going to be a mean bean and not even give you a tiny hint.  It's totally gonna be a surprise!

I love surprises don't you!?!?!

P.S.  Thanks again from the bottom of my little teal colored heart for leaving me so many wonderful comments this week!  You guys have really blown me away!  So this time I drew TWO names from the comments yesterday and will be sending you both one of these TEAL crocheted flowers.  The lucky winners are Jing-JingChops and CatherineChops!

P.S.S.T. More HUGS than you can stand!!!!!

Wall Flowers Week - Too Much Teal Tuesday!

I bet you guys thought the color today was gonna be Tampico Punch Orange!  You are shocked beyond all belief that it's TEAL right!?!?  Frankly, I was a little surprised myself.

So here we go!

Today's Color:  Teal (Hello teal, this is Lolly...  I'll be right over for my daily dose of cupcakes and sunshine!) 

Today's Featured tutorials:
Julie - Inkcredible Stamping - Felt Flower
Make It. Do It. - Wire Ribbon Flowers
LollyChops - Flower Buttons

Let's get started with the felt flowers from Julie...
This is what we call a curve ball.  Julie left me a comment yesterday around 4:30 letting me know that she had posted some of her flower creations to the Wall Flowers Week Flickr group.  You can see her creations HERE.  So of course I went to go look and low and behold...  I knew I had to make one of them eeeeeemeediately!

Without moving my computer even... I busted out my teal felt, my Sizzix Circles #2 die (the very one I used yesterday) and within 15 minutes I had a totally fabulous flower!  I don't even have it framed...  I just made it cause it was totally awesome and totally EASY!

If you don't have a Sizzix or this particular die...  the size of the circles you need are as follows:  2 inch, 1.5 inch and a 1 inch.  5 of each one. 

As my finishing center, I cut a 1 inch circle, beaded around the outside of it and glued two buttons (one on top of the other)... and KABOOM!

Helloooo Dolly!

sigh
I love it.
Just make one flower.  You won't be sorry!

So for the next tutorial we are going to do quick and easy wire ribbon flowers!
(remember... follow the link above to see the real tutorial...  this is just a fake tutorial)

Pull one side of the wire away from the ribbon (creating a mega gather).
Make sure you don't pull the wire out the other side.
I did that... ummm... a few times too many.
I also only used about 1 yard of ribbon for my flowers.
Sometimes a yard and a half... max.

You roll up the gathered side and sew as you go...

I made a few different ones using different colors of teal ribbon...
I tucked a few felt leaves from Felt-O-Rama in there too...

...and used some American Crafts patterned paper as my background
(Letterbox - Respectfully)
I glued everything down with hot glue and was all done quick as some cheese!

A few folks have asked me about the frames I am using...
...So I thought I would do a little demolition demonstration real quick...

Most of the time I use picture frames...
But every now and then I use decorative frames that are ready to hang...

Like this dollar store beauty here!
(how totally fitting that there was a rose picture in there right???)

I usually have to peel off the protective paper backing to get to the guts....
This is picture frame surgery folks.
Don your craft snorkel and dive right in!

This leaves me with a nice frame, mat board and glass if I need it.
I got this one for a dollar.
Not even kidding!!!
(there are candy bars that cost more than this frame!!!)

Nextly... let's check out some button crafts using that same frame...

These could NOT be easier.
I simply stack buttons, crocheted flowers, felt flowers, fabric, etc...
You name it and I'll stack it up and make it into a flower!

I like to tie off my buttons with #10 crochet thread (like this stuff HERE).

I leave the string kinda long so I can hold the smaller button by the string as I glue it into place.
Plus this helps tack down the string so it does not come loose....
...and it makes for tying the knot soooo much easier!

For this project I took some stiff floral wire...
...and wrapped it with some nice bright green floral tape.

I took the "stems" and simply tucked them into the recess in this particular frame.

Then I glued the button flowers I had made to the tops of the stems...
...and punched some leaves using THIS Martha Stewart leaf punch.
I inked the edges, curled them up some and glued them down.

There ya have it!
Simple and pretty framed flower picture!

Thanks so much for hanging out with me!  I hope you are enjoying the flowers and feeling inspired!

I'll be back tomorrow with another set of projects (any guesses on the color for tomorrow girls???)!!

P.S.  Since you guys were so nice to leave me so many comments yesterday, I randomly picked one of you to win a little crocheted flower!  Marla from Sincerely Home is the lucky winner...  you never know what might happen around here during Wall Flowers Week...  you had better keep your eyeballs peeled girls!!!!

P.S.S.T.  XOXOXOXOXO's