the amazing super simple one handed paper rose tutorial

Fine, you're right, this isn't that amazing. But
I DID photograph it myself (as in, with one hand),
which explains the incredibly fine and well-focused
pictorial you will find here.

There are about a jillion paper flower tutorials, but
people keep asking me about the ones I made HERE.
There is probably a similar tutorial (with much better
photographs, no doubt!) somewhere, but the one I
originally read had the paper twisted, so here is how
I made mine--it is delightfully simple!

1. What you need:

Some water, a strip of paper (a nice medium weight
gives good results), some nice gooey glue like Super
Tacky or Tombow, and a scrap of paper.

2.

Wet your strip of paper, shaking off excess water.

3.

Fold the moistened paper in half lengthwise.

4.

Fold one corner down in a triangle.

5.

Begin rolling and squishing your paper flower
together.

6.

There, all flowery!

7.

Now glue the backside, and---

8.

--stick on that bit of scrap paper to keep
your blossom together.

9.

Wasn't that fast? AND easy??

But don't stop there--frost your flower with
a little paint, some glitter glaze, Glimmer
Mist, Shimmerz--whatever makes you happy!

places you have to go see for yourself.

First, if you ever wondered what a typical man thinks about
scrapbooking, you should visit Shoe. He definitely takes it to the next level.

And, should you be interested, Pamela has a pretty sweet
blog party going on--check out the
Unity Stamps,
Rusty Pickle
Jillibean Soup stamps
Imaginary Friends (this line is hilarious--don't worry, when
I call all of you my "imaginary friends," this is NOT how I
envision you!!
AND the March Kit from Scarlet Lime

PLUS a couple more--you just have to check it
out for yourself! Go on, go see!

I found out about Pamela from Ilene--one of my new imaginary friends . . .

smile!

One of my favorite photos.
Does it make you smile, too?

how do you photograph glitter?

I dunno. You tell me. These pages are for Lynna's fairy
and dragonfly themed altered book, for the altered book
round robin at Altered Pages.



There is actually a lot of shine to these pages, some
nice glittery stuff on the script pages and library
pocket card, and (of course!) on the dragonfly wings.



The pages are sprayed with an iridescent finish, but
that's not really showing, either.

That's the advantage of holding the real thing in your
hands--you get all the textures, shine, even the heft
of something adds to the whole enjoyment, at least for
me.

Can you tell I'm one of those people who have to keep
their hands in their pockets when they go to the museum?
I swear, those guards KNOW it, too. They have some kind
of weird "She's a toucher" sense, and they follow me
around. Which actually works to my advantage, because
if you ask them questions, most of them have lots of
good information.

Are YOU a toucher?

Right. That sounds more than a little creepy. Maybe
you should just say no, and move on . . . unless you
can tell me how to get a good pic of the glitter!

and now, for something completely different.

We have this big hunkin' set of poster-sized copies
of American art, including this portrait of Paul
Revere, painted by John Singleton Copley c. 1768-70:



TRYING to have a little art history lesson, but
all the kids can say is (you are probably thinking
this yourself by now, I know Lola is):

"Hey, Paul Revere looks just like Jack Black!"

isn't it nice when you like how something turns out?

Do you ever participate in swaps?

Sometimes I sign up for a swap that sounds really
great, and then I'm not sure exactly what to do
when it comes down to the actually making. So,
it's nice when things turn out, maybe not like
I'd planned, but well. Or at least acceptably.


The beads and embossing turned out better
than I had ever hoped for. The beads are
attached with Crystal Effects, which dries
clear and shiny. Like crystal, right?


The image is stamped on vellum, and applied
over patterned paper (from the Basic Grey
Blush series) that has been brushed with some
acrylic, to tone down the design. She's coated
with the Crystal Effects.

The trim is vintage--the embroidered stuff around
the side, it's such a pretty bit of ribbon. I'm
working on filling it with this and that, some
trim, ribbon, beads, buttons . . . it's an Altoid
tin, so not very large. It's something of a
challenge, finding a fun mix of things that fit.

I hope my swap partner likes it.

H is for heart inchie

Here is a teeny tiny needle felted heart,
on a bit of vintage fabric inked with
Antique Linen distress ink, and crayon
outlines.


The G is for giraffe is attached to my Altered
Inchie Treasure box. His background is from a
serendipity paper, and includes patterned papers,
stamped images, paint, etc. His little giraffe
head came from (what else??) a National Geographic.

Be sure to stop by Fiona's for more inchies . . .