Whip It Up Wednesday: Ribbon Christmas Bauble

Time for another Christmassy installment!

I've made a few baubles for the tree this year. It's so much fun making shiny, pretty things! I look forward to the day when I'll have kids of my own to do this with ^_^

What You'll Need:

* 1 Styrofoam ball

* Ribbons in Christmas colours (I also used sequin strings)

* Pins

What To Do:

Take one end of your ribbon or sequin string and pin it to the top of your Styrofoam ball. Wrap the ribbon all around the circumference of your ball and pin down the other end. To secure the ribbon further, pin it at the bottom and sides as well (3 more pins).

Repeat this with another ribbon or sequin string. You can do this at a 90 degree angle to the first string like I did, or you can add the new ribbon just slightly overlapping the first one. The approach you take depends a bit on the pattern you want to achieve :)

Repeat this process, building up your pattern and switching ribbon types as you go.

 

When you've covered all of the white Styrofoam, you might want to wrap a final ribbon around the 'waist' of your bauble to hide all those side pins. Alternatively, you could use pins with pretty pearl-look heads :)

Finally, pin a loop of ribbon to the top and hang it on your tree :D

 

Merry Christmas!

Whip It Up Wednesday: Sequin Christmas Baubles!

YAAAY! I can finally give in to my Christmassy feeling! :D

Honestly, I usually dread Christmas because it's so BUSY and I get stressed out, but this year I've decided to chill out, take it easy and I'm SUPER excited! I've been in a Christmas mood for weeks - crazy!

So, here's my first of many Christmas tutes - sequined tree baubles!

I remember making these in primary school, so they bring back memories!

So pretty...!

You Will Need:

* A Styrofoam ball

* Sequins

* Pins

* Ribbon 

What To Do:

These are pretty straight forward and you really can just pick up a ball and pinning sequins on whichever way you like, but I'll share my approach ;)

First I use some ribbon to section the ball. I wrap one length around the whole circumference of the ball, pinning at the top, bottom and half way down each side (4 pins total), then repeat with a second piece of ribbon at a 90 degree angle to the first so the ball is sectioned into 4 parts, like so:

Then I fill a section with sequins! Pin them on, overlapping each sequin slightly and making sure they are tucked under the ribbon so you don't see any white. You could also paint or colour in the Styrofoam before pinning to be extra sure the white was covered :)

  

Since I've got 4 sections, I did two in red and two in green.

Nearly done! Just take a piece of ribbon, tie a knot in it and pin the knot to the top of your bauble.

Hooray! A sparkly, shiny, pretty and best of all handmade Christmas bauble!

Merry Christmas!

Whip It Up Wednesday [Guest Post Repeat]: Doily Embellished Fairy Lights

About a month ago the wonderful Steph from The Silly Pearl let me guest post for her! 

In case you missed it, here's the tutorial I shared!

Paper Doily Embellished Fairy Lights

What You Need:

* 1 string of fairy lights

* 1 paper doily for each light on your string 

(I used 1/2 small and 1/2 medium sized doilies)

* Clear sticky tape

* Double sided tape

* Scissors

What To Do:

Take one of your doilies and make a cut from the outside to the centre. Put a little bit of double sided tape on the back of one of the cut edges, overlap that edge over the other to make a cone shape. Secure the other loose edge with another small piece of double sided tape. 

 

Now make one of these for each light on your string of fairy lights ... 

Right, time to put it all together! 

Snip the tiniest bit off from the tip of your cone, just enough so you can push your fairy light through. When the light has been pushed through, take a small piece of clear tape and wrap it around the bottom of the cone to hold everything in place, like so:

Repeat with a new doily cone for each light on your string.

Viola! It doesn't get much better than lacy fairy lights!

Easy peasy and super cute!

Tip: You could also attach doily cut-outs, tissue paper pom poms or other embellishments in between each light to fill out your string even more!


Tip #2: You could hot glue gun these together instead of taping them to make them more sturdy!


Thanks so much for letting me guest post Steph! <3

Whip It Up Wednesday: Easy Paper Lanterns

Here's another super quick, easy and fun party decorating idea! 

I whipped up a stack of these for our engagement party - what fun!

What You Need:

* Scrapbook or craft paper

* 2 split pins/brads

* Optional: LED tea light candle

Hole punch, scissors.

What To Do:

Cut strips of paper that are equal in length and width. About 2cm wide seems to work well. The length will determine how big your lantern is. I made mine in varying lengths, from shorties at 10cm to ones almost 30cm long. 

Tip: Bigger lanterns will look 'fuller' and better with more strips, smaller lanterns need fewer strips. 

Experiment and see what works for you.

Use your hole punch to pop a hole in both ends of all of your strips. If your hole punch is strong enough, stack all (or half, whatever works) of your strips and do them all in one hit. This has two benefits - 

1) It's fast! And I'm lazy so fast = a very good thing

2) It ensures that your holes are in the same position on all of your strips.

Stack all of your strips and put a split pin or brad through the lot of them.

Secure the strips, then repeat at the other end.

Now, gently spread your strips out to form a ball! 

If you have one handy, you can pop an LED tea light candle inside! 

It looks very cute in real life, sorry I fail at photography, you'll just have to trust me ;)

To hang them up, just tie some wire or fishing line around the split pin/brad at the top.

These are SO easy you'll be able to make a stack of them really quickly, and they look very effective hung together in groups of mixed colours and sizes!

Happy creating!

Whip It Up Wednesday: Paper Roses

These paper flowers take a bit longer to make than some of the others I've shared but are totally worth the effort! They're not hard, just need a leeeettle bit more patience :)

What You Need:

* Coloured paper (scrapbook or craft paper works well)

* A wooden skewer

Scissors and a glue gun

What To Do:

Cut out a bunch of petal shapes! As usual, I winged it and just took one thick strip of paper, folded it up a few times and then cut a petal shape out. I forgot to take a photo of this step using the purple paper, but here's an example in pink (I cut rounder petals for the rose too, see the picture below!)

To make a rose you will want to make a few large petals and a few slightly smaller.

When you've got your petals it's time to shape them. First, roll the petal up from the tip to the base and then unroll it again. This makes the petal more pliable and gives it a bit of  shape.

Now gently roll the top edges inwards diagonally, like so:

Do this for all of your petals.

Time to assemble our rose! Take one of your smaller petals, run a bit of glue along the bottom of the petal and glue it onto the top of your wooden skewer, rolled corners facing outwards:

Now take another petal and repeat the process, attaching the second petal opposite the first one.

Continue using this method to add petals and build up your rose. For your first layer we just used two petals, but each layer will need more and more petals. 

Stagger the petals so they slightly overlap at the edges. Use the smaller petals first, then the larger petals for the outside of the rose. Shape the petals as you go.

Just for comparison, here's the pink rose I made using the same technique but 

without rolling or shaping the petals before attaching them: 

I think you'll agree that the rolling/shaping of petals is worth it!

Happy flower making! :D

Whip It Up Wednesday: Crepe Paper Poinsettias

I originally found these sweet Crepe Paper Poinsettias on Martha Stewart's website and now I love them! You'll love them too because they're just SO easy to make!

What You'll Need:

* Crepe paper

* Wooden skewer

* 3 small beads for the centre

Scissors and a glue gun

What To Do:

Cut a diamond shape from your crepe paper. Mine is kind of square-like... :-/ Diamonds are better ;) Also, try to make sure the grain of the crepe paper goes from top to bottom (again, unlike mine!) as this will make twisting and shaping your petals much easier.

Bunch your diamond in the middle and give it a twist to hold it in place. Make 3 of these.

Don't you love my imperfect petals? Oh dear! But actually the flower turns out really well anyway, these are very forgiving! Glue your three sets of petals together like so:

Glue three beads in the centre of your flower:

Now we're going to attach our poinsettia to a wooden skewer. 

Grab a small rectangle of crepe paper and your skewer.

Run a strip of glue along the bottom edge of your rectangle and then roll it around your skewer. 

You should end up with something like this:

Use your scissors to make three snips in your crepe paper, then pull the edges back

Place glue on each of the three 'tabs' you've just made, then press it into the back of the poinsettia.

Now you're done! Nice work ;D