Comic Book Rose Wedding Bouquet

On Tuesday, I shared how to make paper roses, using measuring spoons to form each petal. Today, I am sharing how to turn those roses into a unique and beautiful bridal bouquet -- Dr. Who style!

To create the bouquet, I ordered a couple of Sonic Screwdrivers from Amazon, and bought a couple of Styrofoam spheres from a local craft store. I bought two sizes of each item, because I wasn't sure which would work best. After some experimentation, and consulting with the bride, I chose the larger Sonic Screwdriver and the six inch diameter Styrofoam sphere. The "screwdriver" would be the bouquet's handle, and the sphere would be the base of the bouquet.

The comic book page roses would be adhered to the base, using hot glue.

I started by flattening one side of the styrofoam base. This was done by carefully pressing one side of the sphere against a hard flat surface. Next, I took a steak knife and "drilled" out a hole for the top of the "screwdriver." Since the screwdriver actually opens up and lights up, I was careful to insert the handle so that the part that opened could open, and the part that lighted up could be seen from the top of the bouquet.

Next, the roses were attached to the styrofoam, starting at the bottom, and working up.

The bride wanted plain blue roses interspersed with the comic roses, so those were added, as well.

I was careful to use all predominately orange petals, or all blue petals, etc, when making each rose, and was mindful of how the colors were distributed throughout the bouquet.

After all the flowers were in place, the bottom of the bouquet needed to be addressed, as flattened Styrofoam is not terribly attractive.

I cut wide grosgrain and satin ribbon into six inch lengths and glued them into loops, as shown above.

These loops were then glued to the bottom of the bouquet, in alternating layers. To give the piece a nice finished look, I punched a large scalloped circle from a piece of the blue paper and cut a circle out of the center of the punched paper the same diameter as the collar of the screwdriver. A slit was cut into one side of the circle, so it could be slipped over the collar. This piece was then glued into place to cover the raw edges of the ribbon.

The bride loved her bouquet.

There were even enough extra petals to make the groom a matching boutonniere!

The wedding was beautiful, and the happy couple, a year and a half later, are the proud parents of a sweet baby boy!

This lovely couple may not live in the pages of a graphic novel, in their day to day life....

But they are definitely living their happily ever after.

If you enjoyed this post, you might also enjoy this post about how to make a flower garland.

If you enjoyed this tutorial, please subscribe to House Revivals in the sidebar, so you won't miss the fun projects we have scheduled. Find us on Facebook, too, so you can catch all the "in between" stuff, and see what I'm working on daily on Instagram. Feel free to link today's post to your favorite social media sites.

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Amanda

Make These Comic Book Roses!

Happy New Year to all my readers. I hope your holidays were joyful. In spite of being taken out for most of the month of December by a nasty flu bug, ours was still a joyous Christmas. Our oldest son proposed to his girlfriend on Christmas Eve, and she said yes!

Needless to say, I have weddings on the brain, going into 2019, so I thought I would share a tutorial for paper roses that I used to make a wedding bouquet for the daughter of a dear friend a couple of years ago.

Make This Easy Last Minute Advent Calendar

Here is an easy last minute Advent Calendar that anyone can make. This project uses vintage book pages, but you can use pretty scrap book paper, as well.

It is so easy to create these pretty little advent envelopes.

Easy Thanksgiving Greeting Card

Sometimes, it's a good idea to pull out old craft supplies, and look at them with new eyes. For this card, I used a decades old Stampin' Up Thanksgiving stamp.

The rubber was still in perfect condition, and it stamped perfectly. I paired the stamp with this adorable fox paper. The paper is from a couple of years ago, but the colors are still a fresh take on Fall.

Library Card FREE Printable Template

I love the library.  I have great memories of pouring through the Nancy Drew titles as a girl, making my selections, and checking out. My friends and I liked to read the names on the library cards to see if we knew anyone who had checked out our books before us. Usually, we found each other's names.

Library cards are becoming a thing of the past, but nostalgia keeps me coming back to them. On our trip to India this year, we visited some beautiful places that I wanted to commemorate with some new designs. A series of library cards came out of this. This library card set is named after Kerala -- one of the loveliest places on this earth.

Make Special Ornaments From Greeting Cards

My son and his new wife had a sad assortment of Christmas ornaments -- a couple of hand print ornaments from a little niece, and a half dozen plastic spheres. It hurt my heart.

Both my son and his bride are busy software engineers, with a forty-five minute commute to and from work, so they don't have a lot of time to shop for Christmas decorations. After their wedding last September, they brought me all their leftover invitations, thinking I could "do something" with them. I could. I did. I combined them with some of the greeting cards our family had received over the years, and some scraps of card stock to create these pretty paper ornaments for their tree. They were delighted.

These are made using the same "triangle-within-a-square" technique that our grandmothers used to made paper spheres from old greeting cards to decorate their Christmas trees, except these are two sided, instead of spherical. My beautiful daughter-in-law is from India, so I wanted to create something colorful and elegant that had an Asian feel.

To make these ornaments, you need a circle template and a triangle template. Normally, I would have drafted the templates in CAD, and printed them out, but my printer was out of ink, and I am impatient. I decided to use a two inch hole punch that I had in my stash (here's an affiliate link to a two inch punch), and then hand draft an equilateral triangle to fit perfectly inside it. Except, I didn't have access to my drafting tools.

I tried holding a piece of paper to my computer screen and tracing a 60 degree angle, but that was less than perfect. Then, I looked around the house for a triangle. I also began looking around for a flat piece of plastic to cut a sturdy template from. When I found the plastic lid to my dishwasher pod container, I also found my equilateral triangle! As is turns out, that little recycling symbol is an equilateral triangle, so I was able to get my sixty degree angle. I drew two legs of the triangle the exact same length, then connected them.

I made my triangle slightly small -- the points don't quite reach the edge of the two inch circle. This was because I wanted to account for the thickness of the plastic.

Side note: this technique will also work with your scalloped punch. Just make sure the number of scallops is divisible by three. My scallop punch, from Fiskars, has fifteen scallops, so it works perfectly. (Fiskars scallop punch affiliate link)

For each ornament, you will need to punch ten circles. Place your sturdy triangle template on top of the pretty side of your card stock (or upcycled greeting card), centering it. Carefully fold the card stock up, using the edge of the triangle as a guide. Some folks use the triangle as a guide to carefully score a fold line, but I like my method better, because it's so fast.

 Do this on all three sides, being careful to keep the triangle centered.

Fold the sides completely over, to get a nice crease. You will now have a triangle with three rounded tabs. Each tab will be glued to a tab on an adjacent triangle to create your ornament.

Glue five of the triangles together, radiating out from a central point, for the first side. Repeat, for the second side. Glue the front and back together. You can glue a ribbon hanger into the top of the ornament at this time. If desired, punch a hole in the bottom of the ornament and hang some fibers to create a pretty tassel.

I must warn you, these ornaments are addictive. You will find yourself scouring your house for old greeting cards and card stock to make more and more and more!

My son and his beautiful bride love the fact that pieces of my son's past Christmases were used, as well as mementos from their wedding.

While I was digging, I found a lovely old Christmas card from some dear family friends. The card had pictures of their kids when they were little, as well as a letter talking about the family's interests at the time -- all printed on lovely card stock! I was able to make an ornament for them using their old card. They were thrilled to receive the memento. There was nothing this couple needed, as a gift -- they have had successful careers and can buy anything they want, so giving them something sentimental and handmade was perfect.

I hope this post encourages you to dig out those old greeting cards and create your own special mementos.

You might also like this post about making paper mach Christmas ornaments.

For another easy ornament DIY, you may want to check out this tutorial.

If you enjoyed this tutorial, please subscribe to House Revivals in the sidebar, so you won't miss any of the fun projects we have scheduled. Find us on Facebook, too, so you can catch all the "in between" stuff, and see what I'm working on daily on Instagram. Feel free to link today's post to your favorite social media sites.

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Amanda

Gift Box Printable With Wild Rose Template

Here is another version of the gift box printable I shared a couple weeks ago. The last printable featured an aster embellishment and a kaleidoscope inspired design.

Today's printable features a sweet wild rose, gift tags, and a simple floral pattern for you to color.

How to Make Coloring Card Gift Sets

The struggle is real. What in the world do you do with all those coloring books? I love them, the art is beautiful, and they are fun to color, but if I start coloring now, and color till I die, I will never get them done.

When people find out you're crafty, they give you coloring books. I've got soooo many coloring books, I buy them, people give them to me, and I even had a craft company send me an entire box of the SAME coloring book by mistake.

Make a Nautical Inspired Baby Card

I had the privilege of attending a baby shower this week, for a sweet mama who is expecting her second baby boy.

The night before the shower, I realized I didn't have a card, so I pulled out my box of "card kits" to find a suitable envelope.

Make Pretty Cards {from materials that don't go together}

Have you ever wondered how to pull together lots of different components that don't seem to go together, to create something pretty?

Sometimes you just need to let go of preconceived notions of what "goes" and what doesn't go.

Pulling Together a Color Coordinated Card

When you're pulling together an assortment of elements to create a card, it's a good idea to choose the elements based on a theme.

A favorite theme I like to use is color. Sometimes I do a "one color" card, like I shared in this post.

Today, I will share how I choose color coordinated card elements.

I start with one main color -- in this case, the apple green background in the floral printed die cut, above. Then, I choose a second print, with the same apple green. This is the turquoise die cut, with the apple green embossed flourishes. From there, I began grabbing elements that went with that pairing, including pink washi tape, yarn, pink paper, and a scrap of embossed paper, which I distressed with an apple green stamp pad.

I also chose a gold polka dot washi tape. Gold goes with just about everything, and the white part of the thin washi tape "disappears" when you use it in your projects. The dots in the washi, referenced the dots on the pink paper.

The pale turquoise color of the yarn repeated the background color of the second print. By repeated and referencing colors or patterns, you can achieve a cohesive look.

I don't worry too much about things matching. Instead I focus on coordinating, or finding things that look great together. Do you have any tricks or tips for creating coordinated cards?

You might also enjoy this tutorial about making a filigree card.

If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to House Revivals in the sidebar, so you won't miss the fun projects we have planned. Find us on Facebook, too, so you can catch all the "in between" stuff, and see what I'm working on throughout week on Instagram. Feel free to link today's project to your favorite social media sites.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

~Amanda

To Make the Impossible Card....

Have you seen these "impossible" cards? I'm not sure whose brainchild they are, but they are super fun.

If you receive one, you will be left scratching your head, wondering how in the world it was made.

Quick and Simple Birthday Card!

Sometimes it's nice to use premade materials when making a card. You get something that looks very professional, but is still unique and personal.

You can often find boxes of fifty card bases, with envelopes, for around five dollars, on sale or with a coupon. You just can't beat that price!

Make These Impossible Paper Spheres {FREE Printable}!

While doing some random internet research, a few weeks ago, I found some gorgeous paper spheres at the lovely blog Hattifant.  The editor of Hattifant also found the form while searching the internet, and suspects it is of Scandinavian origin. I was immediately intrigued by the form, and decided to play around with some paper and figure out how to draft my own templates.

After some trial and error, I figured out the math to make these little paper spheres, first making them from vintage book pages. I shared them on my Instagram account, at the time, but I couldn't get the concept out of my mind. I decided to transfer the measurements into CAD, so that I could print out very accurate templates, and experiment with coloring designs.

Make a Framed Filigree Card

The thing I love best about card making, is that you can create something beautiful in a short amount of time. We are all busy, but we want to be creative.

You can easily create this card while the kids are napping, or in the evening after work. To make this card, you will need a frame die, and a filigree die. You can see that my frame die had a fancy shape.

Creating With Premade Card Bases

I'm lazy and I love card making, so I love, love using premade card bases (and embellishments) when it comes time to create.

I know  that a lot of card makers turn their noses up at premade printed bases, but I'm here to try to convince you to give them a chance.

Make These {Easy} Snowman Hat Ornaments!

These adorable little snowman hat ornaments are easy and fun to make, using recycled cardboard tubes and boxes.

Last year, on a trip to Arizona to visit family, I wanted to bring my sister-in-law a set of handmade ornaments with her kids' names on them. Of course, they weren't finished when it was time to travel, so I brought supplies and finished them when I got there.

Upcycled Altoids Tin Travel Spicy Farkel

A good friend was recently visiting from Colorado, and she gifted me with a Spicy Farkel game. This was the same friend who gifted me with a regular Farkel game a few months ago. I loved that game, and decided to alter a little round mint tin to make a travel Farkel game.

When my friend gifted me with the Spicy version of the game, I knew it needed it's own travel tin, as well.

Make These Easy Beautiful Fire Starter Gifts!

A year or two ago, my sister-in-law, Carinae, turned me on to Scentsy products. I was explaining to her that sometimes our beach house gets a slight musty, closed-in smell when we haven't been there in a while. While we do keep it heated and dried out all winter, and keep the air circulating all summer, it's hard to shake that hint of  Pacific Northwest mustiness.

Carinae explained that Scentsy wax pots are heated by those tiny little nightlight bulbs. Well, I leave nightlights on all the time, especially when we have guests, so I ordered several. Carinae recommended some scents that she thought would be a great counter to the musty smell.

The Scentsy does its job well. When we walk into the beach house, we now smell something refreshing and citrusy, or something cozy and piney, or something Christmasy!

Make This Pillow Box -- Free Print Out!

Mother's Day is just days away! For a special way to package gift cards, homemade cards, or treats, get this free pillow box printable template, below.

What mom wouldn't love one of these sweet hand made gift boxes?