Book Page Eggs

One of my favorite spring decorations for my home are these fun book page eggs. It's easy enough to make a handful of them, so they are sprinkled around in a few different displays in my home.

I also made a bunch last year and made them into a wreath, which I shared in my Framed Book Page Egg Wreath post. I just love it!! It's my favorite way to say "spring" or "Easter" without screaming it. Isn't it fun? Want to make your own?

I started off with a bag of tiny Easter eggs from Hobby Lobby for $.67 each, and there were about 25 in a bag.

I picked out a few old books with varying degrees of page yellowness, tore out some pages, cut the length a little longer than my eggs, and the width just long enough to wrap all the way around the egg. I used Mod Podge to glue the paper around the eggs and then set them aside to dry for 5 minutes or so. (I learned the hard way, that if you try to glue the paper on the whole egg all at once, the egg slides around in the paper and you get air bubbles. Don’t do this, you will become annoyed very quickly.) I had a little assembly line going with my eggs, which was a good way to give the eggs a little time to dry in between the steps, and helped me not to waste any of those precious naptime minutes.

Once the middle section was dry and could be a sturdy base, I cut slits on each end of the paper, and pushed them down so that one side of the egg was exposed.

Make sure that when you are pushing down the slits, that you peel them down just a bit further, ripping the paper a little. This ensures that they will lie flat when you are smoothing them down against the egg, and there won’t be any air pockets.

Otherwise it will look like this in the end. Not so pretty.

Once the paper is pushed down, smear the top of the egg with a good bit of Mod Podge. I used the Matte finish, so it didn’t matter if it got all over the top of the paper. Use your thumb to push down a few of the pieces at a time, smoothing them so that they lay flat and overlap a little.

Top with more Mod Podge, and smooth down the next few strips, working your way around the egg.

You will end up with a nice little overlap, and if you’ve been smoothing it out with your thumb as you go it will look great!

And there you have it!! Make enough to sprinkle them around your home. They're neutral enough to go with any type of decor and add a bit of fun whimsy to your Easter decorations!

I'll be linking to these fun parties this week, so check them out!

Also, I'll be posting on Tatertots and Jello this Wednesday, so drop by to say hi to Jen and see what fun project I'm sharing there. And I'll see you back here on Monday!

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30 Minute Scrapbook Valentine Wreath

I made this little wreath months ago to hang beside my front door, and though it's simple I really love it. The secret is that it was so easy, quick and inexpensive to make.

I started off with this fun piece of scrapbook paper with cursive handwriting all over it. I'm not sure what is says, but it looked sweet and a bit romantic so I grabbed a few pieces, and started cutting them into 1 inch wide strips with my paper cutter.

I got a round floral planter from the dollar store, cut it in half and started wrapping the strips around it. The glue didn't stick to the planter very well, so I wrapped each strip around the planter and used hot glue to secure each strip to the one next to it.

The back looked a little choppy...

but the front was perfect.

I then made a few pearl adorned book page flowers to attach to the front, similar to the Pearl Adorned Paper Blossoms I did months ago. I cut the scrapbook paper into a bunch of circles in various sizes, and did the same thing with a few pages from a book that I use for my book page crafts. I made sure that the circles were very rough so that piling them on top of one another would be more interesting-looking, meaning that some that were more oval than circular, and several had straight edges or points. Once I had a good stack of circles, I grabbed my brown and black stamp pads and inked the edges.

I then stacked a pile from largest to smallest, trimming up a few circles and sliding some of the “petals" out of the center a bit to make them stand out more. I poked a hole through the center of the flower and twisted the different circles around until I liked the arrangement.I then removed the push pin and replaced it with a brad to secure the blossom. I also added a little pearl embellishment to the brad to dress it up a bit.

I wanted to blossom to have a little bit of a 3-dimensional aspect to it, so I took a few of the blossoms, cut a tiny slit from the edge to the center, pulled the two pieces together until they overlapped slightly, and glued them together with a glue stick. This gave that layer of the flower the slightest “cone” look and made the whole blossom pop.

I then layered the book page circles with the scrapbook page circles until I had a fun little blossom. I hot glued a push pin to the back of each blossom and stuck them into my planter wreath.

I attached a short strip of brown twine to the back of the wreath with 2 push pins to hang the wreath from.

Then I was done!

My intention for this wreath was that it would change with the seasons. The planter base gives me the flexibility to change up the blossoms regularly, because anything that you could attach a push pin to becomes the new temporary embellishment. I could also change out the short twine for something longer and hang it from a frame or in front of a mirror.

But I haven't changed it yet, not once. I'm just so in love with those little blossoms, I don't want to take them off! The addition of the book page paper helps them to pop from the background and I just really like them. Hopefully you'll have more imagination for your wreath, but if not, you'll still really love this one!

I'm linking to these incredible parties this week. Hope you'll check them out!

Also, we have some incredible giveaways these next few weeks that you won't want to miss, so be sure to check back with us! You won't regret it!!

See you next week!

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Book Page Necklace

Now that I've gone through all of my parties so far, I thought I'd try my hand at a necklace. I love statement jewelry pieces. I find any occasion to wear them.


During recent travels, I saw this antique necklace worn by historic royalty. I thought I could definitely try my own version.


I found the 1 1/2 inch and 1/2 inch wooden beads along with satin ribbon at Hobby Lobby for 40% off, so I knew this was the project for me! I had tissue paper at home along with spray paint. I stopped by Half Price Books to find a fashion book on the clearance rack to use the pages. I pulled out my Mod Podge and got started.


For the book page beads, I used Erin's tutorial for her book page egg wreath. That was very helpful in knowing the best way to attach the pages to the beads. It was somewhat of a tedious process, but well worth it. I glued the center of the pages to the beads, then cut slits on both sides, and wrapped each piece trying my best to smooth them down.


As for the accent beads, I wanted to use a bold color. I love all things turquoise, plus I had turquoise tissue paper on-hand, so it worked out nicely. I ended up spray painting the beads a blueish color first just so the wood part wouldn't show through since the tissue paper was so thin. I wanted to add the tissue paper pieces to give more texture. After cutting the tissue paper into small, random pieces, I used Mod Podge to glue them on. I used a gloss Mod Podge at the end to coat both the accent and book page beads to give a shiny appearance.


I spray painted the 1/2 inch wooden beads black to use as spacers. I laid out the beads making sure the words on the book page beads were all facing out, so they would be the same direction when wearing the necklace. I used black satin ribbon to string the beads together and left the ends longer, so I could tie a nice bow in the back. You may notice I ended up with fewer book page beads than I originally laid out--this is because once I strung them together, the necklace seemed quite overwhelming. I took out a few beads to make it more of a choker-style (or as my husband refers to it as "Wilma Flintstone" style).


It was definitely a fun project to do and now wear. I'll be linking to these great parties this week. Check them out and see you in 2 weeks!

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Blah to Beautiful Votive Covers

I imagine that I'm not the only person who has developed quite a stash of these over the years. Clear votive holders and a variety of tea light candles are common party favors at weddings, showers and everything in between, so I have plenty of non-matching sets sitting around. I do love the twinkling that a few votives can add to a setting, but as far as presentation, they can be a bit of a dud.

So I made myself a few of these.

I originally set out to make all of my votive covers like the blue one pictured above. But once I got working, my plan just kept evolving and I thought of different and "better" ways to do it as I went. I thought I'd share the basics of how I made these 4, and you can copy the method for the cover that you like best, or come up with an even better version.

To start off, I blew up a balloon so that it was slightly bigger than my votive holder, and this would be the base of the votive cover. Since the balloon was a bit lopsided, I used the top of the votive holder as a guide, and made circles around the top and bottom of the balloon with a sharpie. This gave me a guide as to where exactly to wrap the strings, and also ensured that my votive cover had a flat base. I made the bottom circle (the base of the cover) a little smaller since that is where the votive would be sitting, and made the other end (the top of the cover) relatively wide, so that the heat from the candle could escape easily without setting anything on fire. A necessary precaution, I think.

I then turned to my Mod Podge, using a few different methods to get these results I was hoping for.

1.) Paper Painting.

For this first votive holder, the white one, I used white crepe paper and white cotton twine. I started off by cutting several strips of crepe paper about 5 inches long, and in half lengthwise.

I used the Mod Podge as glue to stick the end of the crepe paper to the balloon. I stretched out the paper until it was pulled relatively taut, and then gently painted the Mod Podge over top of the strip, smoothing it down as I went. I had tried dipping the strips, but this kind of paper is so delicate that it kept tearing before I could even get it onto the balloon. Painting on the Mod Podge worked much better, and I covered the balloon strip by strip.

When the crepe paper was dry, it seemed too delicate and like it needed a bit more texture, so I added some cotton twine using method #2.

2.) Twine Dipping.

For this votive cover I wanted a bit of color, so I first soaked some white cotton twine from my stash in watered down blue fabric paint. I let it sit for an hour, wrung it out, and let it dry. I then cut the twine into long strips (about 4 feet long each), dipped into some Mod Podge that I had in a bowl, and started carefully wrapping it around the balloon, wringing it out as I went. I wrapped 2-3 long strips around the balloon, let those dry completely, and then went back and did a few more strips just to try to cover as many of the gaps as possible. This cover took me 4 different sessions of wrapping 3 strips of twine at a time. (Don't worry, it dries out pretty quickly in this hot Illinois heat!)

3.) Twine Painting.

For this votive cover, the brown one, I wrapped the ballon tightly with one long strand of jute twine, tucked the end under, and then painted the Mod Podge onto the threads. It was so easy!

4.) Paper Dipping.

For this one, the newspaper cover, I simply shredded newspaper into 3 inch strips, dipped it into the Mod Podge, and wrapped the strips around the balloon a little at a time. I liked this method because it was easy to cover any little cracks with tiny pieces of newspaper, and kept the translucent look that I would have sacrificed if I layered the paper on too heavily. It was a bit more time consuming, but much easier to work with than the crepe paper.

So which one was my favorite? The grand prize winner goes to...

The newspaper cover!! I'm a sucker for book page crafts, so this one might have had my heart from the beginning! The newspaper is durable enough that I don't feel like it is about to rip, but is thin enough that the light still shines through with a bit of a funky glow.

Which one do you like? I'm sure you have some great ideas on how to improve on this project, and I'd love to hear them! I still have many more clear votive holders floating around the house...

Also, I feel a bit obligated to say, if you do make one of these, please make sure that the top of the cover is wide and higher than the flame. They are made out of paper and string, so, as with all fire items, please do not leave your candles unattended, even if they are outfitted in beautiful new covers!

I hope you like these and they can help banish a few of the boring votive holders in your home. Please check out the link parties hosted by these amazing ladies here, and I'll see you next Monday. Happy Memorial Day!!

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Pearl Adorned Paper Blossoms

I made these little paper blossoms a few months ago and have been toying around with them ever since, trying to decide which wreath, box or other item to attach them to.  I finally decided that they were cute enough to make a simple little display of their own.  What do you think?

 

I started off by taking one of the books that I use for all of my book page crafts and cutting out a bunch of circles in various sizes.  I made sure that the circles were very rough so that piling them on top of one another would be more interesting-looking, meaning that some that were more oval than circular, and several had straight edges or points.  Once I had a good stack of circles, I grabbed my brown stamp pad and inked the edges.

I then stacked a pile from largest to smallest, trimming up a few circles and sliding some of the “petals" out of the center a bit to make them stand out more.  I poked a hole through the center of the flower and twisted the different circles around until I liked the arrangement.

I then removed the push pin and replaced it with a brad to secure the blossom.  I also added a little pearl embellishment to the brad to dress it up a bit.

 

I wanted to blossom to have a little bit of a 3-dimensional aspect to it, so I took a few of the blossoms, cut a tiny slit from the edge to the center, pulled the two pieces together until they overlapped slightly, and glued them together with a glue stick.  This gave that layer of the flower the slightest “cone” look and made the whole blossom pop.

 

I used the same technique with the blue blossom, I just cut out circles of a scrapbook paper that I love in addition to the book pages.  Since the scrapbook paper was sturdier than the book pages, I crinkled the edges of the biggest blossom between my fingers just to give it a little bit more of a ruffled look.

I then pulled out an old round frame that I had picked up at a yard sale, covered some cardboard in linen and popped it into the frame.  I hot glued the blossoms and little pearl embellishments on for stems. 

 

Ta da!  Very easy and very cute, I wish I had thought of this earlier, these have been sitting unused in my craft room forever!!

 

I am linking this project to these fantastic blogs.  Please take a moment to scroll around and see all of the talent and great ideas that are willingly shared by these ladies!

 

Also, be sure to stop back by next week as we’ll each be revealing some of our best home solutions.

 

Have a great week!

 

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