Tutorial: Recycled Paper Daffodils

I love turning scraps into decor items... paper, for example.
Whether it's leftover gift wrap, an old magazine, or a book of vintage sheet music,

I love looking at it and asking myself 

"OK, what can I do with THIS? (besides pitch it into the recycle bin)."

I did that today, and here's what resulted:
Happy Spring Daffodils, 
made from recycled paper!

How about a tutorial, you say? OK!

Materials:
scissors. masking tape . glue stick . bamboo skewers . paper

 .

 Step by Step:

1. fold sheet of paper (music, construction, magazine page) in thirds as shown.

2. fold in half where the two sides meet in the center.

3. draw half a flower shape with four, five, or six pointed leaves at the double -folded edge of the paper.

4. cut the flower shape out - this will create TWO flowers because of the double fold.

 5. cut a strip of another kind / color of paper - @ 1" wide and 4" long.

6. fold 1/3 of the strip toward the center, lengthwise.

7. unfold the folded third of the strip, and cut slits into it (creating a thick 'fringe').

8. roll the strip over on itself @ the size of your finger, and glue the rolled portion to the flat portion.

9. continue rolling and glue the end of the strip to the roll to secure it.

 10. fold the fringed ends together and glue into place.

11. then add glue to the outside of that end, and 

12. place the rolled section in the center of the cut-out flower shape, with the glue down. 

press to secure.

Now you have a daffodil!
You can glue this to a magnet or card, or shadowbox frame.

To add a stem and leaves, continue....

13. and 14. from the leftover scraps after cutting out the flower shape,

cut a circle about the size of a quarter.

15. secure the back of the daffodil to a bamboo skewer, using a small piece of masking tape.

16. glue the circle you cut out OVER the masking tape, using the glue stick.

 17. cut a leaf-shaped strip from the leftover paper scraps.

18. push the bamboo skewer 'stem' through the paper leaf.

19. put glue on the leaf and wrap it around the bamboo skewer once.

20. wrap the other end of the leaf around a pen or pencil to give it a curling shape, 

like a real daffodil leaf.

 display and enjoy your paper daffodils!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here's another method for making them that should remind you of elementary school:

 when you get to step 5, 

use a cupcake or bonbon paper liner instead of rolled paper for the flower's center!

[ I cut and glued a second circle shape INSIDE the paper cup on this one ]

 using colorful cupcake papers & pages cut from magazines 

results in bright, happy flowers!

Go to Where it's Spring!

it's been said that 

"If Spring won't come to you, 
then GO to where it's SPRING!"

since so many of us are SO READY for Spring,
 I thought this might just be the perfect time to share some inspiration...

last Spring, my sister and I took a short trip.
[i'll share where at the end of this post-
and it's not where you expect from these images!]
while there, we viewed enchanting outdoor scenes of a windmill, bike, and boat...

we also saw these very happy daffs and bees.

these oversized sculptures of daffodils were @15 feet tall!

it felt very 'Alice in Wonderland'-like to be standing beneath them.
those 'Bumble Bees' were made of chrysanthemums, making the bees look fuzzy!
[the bees were as big as three people]

 and then...

I was stunned to walk around a corner and see this floral masterpiece...

the 'painting' on the easel was approximately 10 feet wide and five feet tall!

[The easel itself was ten feet tall or more!]

This was created entirely from flowers, to replicate Claude Monet's

'Fisherman's House at Vargentville'

Above is an up-close detail shot of the floral painting...
I love the texture and the way that they have captured 

Monet's impressionist paint strokes using flower petals.  

Amazingly creative! 

Below is an image of the actual painting by Monet:

[ image found on www.canvaz.com ]

 these beautiful floral creations were not found outdoors.

nor were they at a flower & garden show.

nope.

they were inside the atrium at 

the Bellagio Hotel in LAS VEGAS!

you just never know where you are going to find inspiration, 
so keep your eyes open for beauty like this in unusual places...
large resorts & hotels, flower farms, and home & garden shows
are all possibilities!

Spring is out there. Go find it!

Last Minute Spring Tablescape

have you ever thought you really had a handle on things, 
were totally prepared and ready for something...

and then all of a sudden you realize there is something very VERY wrong?

 i once FORGOT all about the table decor for a family Easter dinner.

Easter Sunday arrived and the food was in full-swing prep mode. all was well in the kitchen.

and then, i walked into the dining room - and stopped dead in my tracks. 

THE TABLE WAS EMPTY!
i had no decor. no nuthin'. and the family was coming in an hour!

i have no defense. i was just busy, and forgot all about it.

 so after i started breathing again.....

i kicked into 'search and recover' mode.

whatever decor i was going to use had to be toddler-grandson proof. 

he was 16 months old and in that stage of climbing, 
pulling on tablecloths, and grabbing at everything. 

[it's ok, i didn't mind that he did - 

it's kind of a boy's job to investigate everything at that age!]

i just wanted to eliminate the chance of damage to him - or anything else.

 in the days leading up to that, i had been cleaning out my office

and came across a page that i had saved from a Martha Stewart Living Magazine  
ages before. like.... YEARS before.

i still don't know why it was sitting on the top of a wire filing basket that week, but it was.

and on Easter Sunday, an hour before guests arrived, Deb had a flash of inspiration:

 photograph from Martha Stewart Living Magazine 200?

that photo ^ from Martha's mag saved my hide.

this 'last minute idea' meant that i grabbed some packing tape and scissors, and 

i wrapped the tabletop with white wrapping paper!

 [nothing was hanging over the edges for lil' man to pull on]

if you  want to do this but don't have white wrapping paper,

TURN YOUR WRAPPING PAPER OVER!

almost all of them are white on the back side. 
[no one will know that rudolph or birthday balloons 
are on the side of the paper that faces the table]

i used green felt pens to draw charger and flatware outlines at each place setting, 

along with a drawn-on placecard.

[this is not detailed fine art here, like Martha's -

it's a fast solution half an hour before everyone arrived!]

i popped 3 dozen yellow daffodils (from my birthday the week before)

into 3 cylinder vases wrapped with antique velvet ribbon

and ran them down the center of the table, along with some tea lights in clear glass cups.
[WELL out of a little somebody's reach!]
 

 the china has a light sage green border that matched the linen napkins

and it was a perfect way to add color to the crisp white table setting. 

 the whole look is very simple, contemporary, and un-fussy

and i did it all in thirty minutes!

and incidentally, the photo of that 'last minute' table that you see at the top of this post
is one of my all-time favorite shots of my spring decor!
sometimes the easiest solutions really do make the most impact

for me the important part wasn't the decor, though...
the BEST part was this lil' guy peeking through the daffies at me:

shared online:

Saturday Night Special #178 | Funky Junk Interiors

$4 Spring Wreath Makeover!

Springtime! it's time to break out the greens and yellows...

last fall, i shared a few quick tips for a wreath makeover here

why not re-visit that idea for spring?!

you can find wreaths for next to nothing at thrift shops,

but you probably have one shoved on a shelf somewhere in your garage, right?

it's dusty and maybe some of the flowers are missing...

but for less than $5, you can give a wreath a fresh new look for spring!

this wreath actually had pink roses on it when i found it

[languishing on a hook in the garage, behind the washer...]

but the roses were faded and just didn't seem very 'fresh'. so i pulled them off.

some yellow fake mums from a nearby bunch were easily popped onto 

some of the stems that the roses had been on.

if the roses hadn't been faded, i'd have left them on

and then gone on to the next step:

two bunches of fake daffodils from the dollar store ($1 each) got the same treatment - 

pull off the flower heads and pop them onto the stems already attached to the wreath.

[of course you can just shove the daffodil stems into the wreath, too,

just like we did with the fall leaves in the tutorial here]

a small piece of wire holds a cute little pair of green polka-dot garden gloves ($1) 

and a packet of seeds (4 for $1) - you could do more than one packet,too!

the dollar store usually also has small metal watering cans,

small clay pots, and metal gardening tools

that could be wired onto the wreath, as well...

shared online:
 
Thank you to the DIY Village for including this post in THEIR post!

 

Dancing with the Daffodils

 to me, spring is heralded by daffodils blooming

so i can't think of a better way to kick off the spring season here on HOMEWARDfound

 daffodils have always been my favorite flower...

it all started when i first saw the Disney cartoon version of Alice in Wonderland as a child:

the happy goofy silly 'daffy-o-dills' just made me smile!

 and every spring since, the nodding, bouncing, golden heads of narcissus

have been my spring flower of choice.
[image source]

when we moved from Southern California up to Seattle years ago,

we drove up to the Skagit Valley, North of Seattle, in March. 

as we crossed the river and drove in to the farmland,

 i saw a sight that quite literally took my breath away:

Fields of Golden Daffodils

 i was completely surrounded by
hundreds of acres filled with nodding, swaying, happy daffodil blooms!

i had never seen anything like that before... and i was in my own little heaven.
in april, those same fields are home to hundreds of acres of tulips, for the world-famous Tulip Festival.

but to me, the daffodils are the stars...

I wandered lonely as as a cloud

    That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

    A host of golden daffodils,

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

    And twinkle on the Milky Way,

They stretched in never-ending line

    Along the margin of the bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced, but they

    Outdid the sparkling waves in glee: --

A poet could not but be gay

    In such a jocund company!

I gazed, and gazed, but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought.

For oft, when on my couch I lie

    In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

    Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

 ~ William Wordsworth

whether you get them at a farmstand, a garden center, the grocer, or your own yard,

a bunch of daffodils is a simple and inexpensive way to bring spring home
even before spring gets here!