Valentine Table Display

I finally got all of my Christmas decorations put away and quickly pulled out my Valentine's Day decorations.  I only have a few items, but really enjoy the simplicity that the colors of this holiday bring, especially during the dreary winter.

I had some artificial roses left over from a project I never started, so I finally put them to good use.  I used these styrofoam cubes (purchased for yet another project never started) to create a simple table display.

The roses were already trimmed from the bunch they came on and had a two inch stem.  I pushed them into the cube, making three rows of three flowers.  I put all the white roses in one cube, all the pink in another and all the red in another. 

 

I wanted to group these together, so I first rubberbanded them, then used masking tape to hold the three cubes together.

 

And last, I used a piece of scrap faux leather fabric to wrap around the styrofoam cubes, and added some coordinating ribbon for a neat finish.  I just used hot glue to attach the fabric and ribbon.  I love the way this simple display turned out!

 

Flower Prints

My kids love being outside to explore nature.  One of their favorite things to do is cut and collect flowers from our gardens, so I thought we would give flower prints a try. 

The only supplies you need are light colored paper, a hammer, and scissors to cut your flowers.

We started by collecting 6 different flowers and trimming the stem as close to the head of the flower as possible.  Our paper was cut and folded in half, about the size of a greeting card.  We placed the flower inside the folded paper, then gently tapped the paper with the hammer.

Tapping gently breaks down the flower and the color comes through the paper, creating the print.  Some flowers worked better than others.  A flower with a defined center and petals seemed to work the best.  Very fragile flowers were nearly destroyed, even with the most gentle tapping from the hammer.  And bunches of small flowers, like from our butterfly bush, just didn't transfer well and looked like a big blob after hammering.  Here are a few pics of the prints that turned out the best...

 
We let ours dry for the day on the porch, then stapled the pages together to make little books.

The kids had so much fun with this!  I think I'll be making my own prints to frame...

This activity was featured in the Nature Rocks Spring Activity Guide!

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Sun Scholars

 

Ruffled Flowers

Ruffled flowers are my all-time favorite thing to make right now.  Not only are they really cute and fun to make, but they are so easy!  And you can use them to pretty-up so many items, like headbands, skirts, tops and necklaces.  I've seen these all over the crafty blog world, and once I tried them, I was hooked!

If you haven't seen these before, here are the simple step-by-step instructions.  I guarantee that once you make one, you'll make many, many more.

The first thing you need to do is gather your supplies.  You'll need some fabric scraps, scissors, pen, needle, thread and the items you want to use to create your circles.

Start by using your items to trace circles on your fabric.  I like to do a 3-layer flower.  I used the bowl for my largest circle, the top of the cup for my medium sized circle and the bottom of the cup for my smallest circle.  Cut the circles out of the fabric.

Next, you'll take each of your circles and fold them in half three times, then cut a small part of the tip off.  Each of your fabric circles will then have a small hole in the center.

Using the needle and thread, use a simple stitch to go around the opening in the center of your fabric.  Once you get all the way around, pull the thread tight and tie it off to gather the fabric.  Do the same for your other fabric circles.

Layer your fabric circles and stitch them together.  I like to add a button to the center for embellishment.

I made a few of these, because I'm feeling very patriotic this summer.  I think I'll use them to pretty-up a headband and plain white skirt I have.  What will you pretty-up with yours?