A Fanciful Twist

Hi there!

Hope you're doing beyond fab!

I did some playing around with those crepe paper hollyhock buds I made...

Remember them here?

Since brooches are all the rage again I decided to make one for myself.

Not that I care about trends because I always love brooches.

But it inspired me.

So, tea + lemon bars + brooch making = bliss

At least I think so.

:-)

I wanted to stay with my granny chic found in a old drawer look for my brooch.

I got out some vintage bits and baubles for the project.

I cut out a roundish piece of cardboard and covered one side with fabric.

I used my hot glue gun for the entire project.

It was so beneficial to have the flowers on pipe cleaners as they held really well when hot glued because of the fuzz.

I used an old rhinestone button as my center piece...

And then just picked vintage beads and earrings randomly.

Squeezing little pearls in here and there.

I always keep brooch backs on hand that you can buy in a big bag a the craft store.

I hot glued one to the back, sort of high for balance when wearing.

And voila.

My own granny chic shabby sorta vintage brooch was happy.

I wore it with a candy pink cardigan.

I really love those Marie Antoinette shades of pink and blue.

Then I lent it to my mannequin for safe keeping.

It's always so much fun to do an easy happy project.

It's a great way to get the mojo going and have a good crafting time.

I highly recommend making one.

Do it, do it, do it!

I was going to give mine away, but I wanted to wear it, so I decided to keep it.

Now I have to get busy and work on some projects and deadlines.

Also, the mad tea party is coming soon.

Soooo much going on this summer for us all, yippeee!!

How are you doing out in your neck of the woods?

Love, Vanessa

Mother's day is around the corner, oh my!

There are lots of freebies I've made over the years to choose from.

Let's plunge into a Mother's day freebie round-up, shall we?

These are all printable pdf's from me to you.

You just open them and print at home, fun right?

Here are some cupcake toppers that you can glitter up.

Don't they look fun all sparkly?

Below is what the whole set looks like.

Simply...

Click here for Cupcake Toppers Printable PDF.

I also have this Mother's day card below.

There are two per sheet.

They print up so colorful and pretty.

Simply

click here for printable Mother's day Card.

And last, but surely not least...

Some super fun little cardlettes.

You can use them as gift tags or cards on their own.

The one on the top right hand side is for moms of furs or winged creatures.

Mustn't forget us moms of non-humans.

As our kids mean the world to us as well :-)

Click here for printable pdf of

Mother's Day Cardlettes.

I hope all moms have the most bestest of weekends.

Relaxing galore.

That is what I think moms should get to do on their special day.

Put their feet up and be cozycakes to the t!

 I'll be relaxing and taking my fur kids out for cheeseburgers.

But not before cocktails and shopping with my own mom.

 Happy Happy to all moms out there!!

 See you soooon!

Have a smashing weekend!!

Looove, Vanessa

When you grow, collect and look at flowers a whoooole lot...

You start to get the funniest ideas.

You start to see things.

Like seeing zinnias in pine cones.

Then all of a sudden flower ideas burst out of your head.

And, it's almost like eating potato chips.

After you have one, you want more and more.

Until you've eaten the entire bag.

After you make one flower, you want all sorts more.

Especially when some of the flowers look so much like paper.

Then you realize it's almost mother's day and ideas start to swirl out of your head.

I happen to like simple crafts.

Instant gratification.

I also happen to looooove crepe paper streamers for crafting with.

It's an extra bonus that they carry rolls and rolls at grocery and drug stores.

So the more I looked at the hollyhocks, especially barely unfurling blossoms or closing blossoms, I thought crepe paper streamers!

I took a piece of streamer, folded it sort of into an accordion, then unfolded it and regathered it in a circular motion, until it looked like a little hollyhock bud below.

The image on the left is paper, on the right is an actual bud.

I think we have an imposter in our midst!

Then I just took some green pipe cleaners and twisted them around the base of the paper bud to hold it together.

Simple.

Nothing fancy.

But pretty.

I showed Mister Lovee and he couldn't tell the difference.

The only thing giving them away was the fuzzy pipe cleaner.

You could get really detailed and build the bud bottom with green crepe paper if you wanted.

But I'm okay with pipe cleaners for now.

I think I want to make a sort of vintage looking granny chic brooch for mother's day.

Stay tuned to see what I decide to do.

But I thought I'd share them as they are for now.

So simple, but really pretty I think?

I decided to hide mine in a real hollyhock.

They do disappear in there don't they?

Hiding away.

Acting like they belong there.

So, now I'll go play with some old pearls and bits and bobs of this and that.

Like I said, I have a granny chic brooch in mind, we'll see how that goes.

I love vintage crafts and this feels like it could go in either direction.

So, I'll be over here with butterfly brains.

Hot gluing my fingers together and such.

Haha!

I need to get more pipe cleaners in green so I can make a big bouquet too.

They could also double as carnations really.

Don't you think?

You see, these are the things I get myself into.