More Tissue Paper Flowers

Here is another great tissue paper flower you can make, complete with templates. These are a little fussier than the first tutorial I showed you, but they are well worth the effort. The thing that makes these so fussy is cutting out all of the individual petals, so if you want to avoid that, I'd stick with the first version for now. You could also make these from a patterned paper with more heft, these are definitely very delicate from tissue.


To make these flowers you will need:

Tissue paper in colors of your choosing
floral wire
large glass seed beads in color of your choosing
petal template (below)
floral tape
glue
small hole punch (I used a 1/16" hole punch)*
scissors
needle nose pliers (for twisting wire, also optional, I find using my fingers works just as well, but if you are doing a large number of these you may want to give your fingers a break)

*hole punch is optional, you could also use a small needle to poke holes in the center of your petals before fanning


To start, print out the following template. I have included several different sizes of the petal shape I used so you can make different sized flowers, or make a flower with petals grading from large on the outside to small on the inside. You can further change your petal size by manipulating the image in your favorite image program, or changing the size on your printer (provided your printer has a scaling function).

Trace your petal template onto your tissue paper and cut out your petals. For my flower I cut out 7 petals, all of the largest size. It can be faster to layer several sheets of tissue paper together, but if you feel you can not cut all of the sheets evenly you can do each petal separately.

Once you have all of your petals cut out, stack them together so the centers match up. They do not have to match perfectly. Use your hole punch to punch a hole through the center of all of your petals. This will be where you thread your wire stem through all of the petals.

To create a wire stem, take some floral wire and a large seed bead (I chose purple glass seed beads, you could use plastic beads or beads in another shape if you like) bend your wire in half and feed a bead onto one end. Push the bead to the center and twist the wire around the bead tightly as shown below.

Continue twisting your wire together to create your stem. I use 26 gauge floral wire when making my flowers, so I find that twisting it together allows me not only to add beaded "stamens" of my choosing, but also gives me a thicker more stable stem for my final project. Twist all of your remaining wire together until your stem is complete.

Now, thread your petals onto your stem. If using several different sizes, make sure that the smallest petals are threaded on first, followed by the larger ones.

Next, fan out your petals to create the final shape you want. Use a tiny bit of glue to hold each petal in place. You may bend and fold your petals to give more volume and shape to your flower as well.

Once your glue is dry, use floral tape to cover your wire stem. I generally overlap my bottom petals a bit, pushing them against the beaded center and making my petals "pop up" a bit more. Wind the tape tightly around the entire stem to cover all of your wire. Now your flower is done and can be put together into a bouquet or vase, or you can twist the wire around your wrist as a corsage!

If you want longer, thinner petals I also have this template: I would recommend using more petals, as these will not cover the same area when fanned out.

Happy flower making!

Easy Thank You Notes

The holiday season may be well behind us, but it's not too late to make sure you send a heartfelt thank you for all the goodies you may have received! These thank you note cards are super easy, bright and cheerful! They are also quick to make, and of course you can customize them with stamps, cutouts and more!


All you need to make these cards are:

X-Acto blade or other cutting blade
a ruler
Cardstock or scrap booking paper for decorative card face
Cardstock or paper for main body
glue (I used mod podge, but I have used glue stick before with great success as well)

I had a couple 8"x8" cardstock stack books sitting around, so I decided to make several 4"x4" cards. When mailing square cards, you may want to go ahead and put them into rectangular envelopes, the postal service charges extra for squares as they are an "irregular" shape. Here is another envelope making tutorial you could use!

To start, I cut my cardstock into my 4" squares. I chose several colors that coordinate so I could make some "sets" that I can gift to friends if I ever need a quick little gift. Don't you think these would look cute tied up with baker's twine, with matching envelopes?

Next, I cut out paper in 4"x5" rectangles to use as the main body of my cards. You can use cardstock for this as well, and if you don't want to be able to see the seam, you can certainly make your rectangle 4"x8". I folded over a 1" flap and glued it to the decorative card "cover". Once dry, you are ready to write out your thank you notes, or further embellish your cards with stamps or cut outs. I decided that with such pretty paper, I liked my cards to stay plain.


I'm a huge thank you sender, particularly to my grandmother. I always feel if I can't take the time to send a handwritten note, that I didn't deserve to get a present. I'm weird like that. She sure appreciates it though, and who wouldn't have a brighter day from getting one of these glittery fun cards? :)

Friday Food Craft: Bacon Wrapped Dates

The husband and I didn't go out for New Years, we stayed home. Mostly because I had to work at 2am the next day, but we aren't much for going out to fancy parties either. We like chilling out at home and making delicious treats. Queue these delicious bacon wrapped dates. They are super easy with only 3 ingredients (although stuffing the dates is a little fussier than I typically get) and yummy! You can use whatever kind of cheese you like (or leave it out if you wish), add almond slivers or anything else your heart desires.

To make these beauties you will need:

Bacon strips, cut in half* (a full strip will be far too much for one date, so cut in half or ever in thirds if you think that would be sufficient)
Pitted dates
Cheese of choice**


*I went with thick sliced bacon, if you use something thinner you will be able to cut down on the cook time a little

**I used Blue Cheese, and while delicious, it was kind of a hassle to stuff the dates. I think a Manchego would have been lovely, you would just have to cut it into small "sticks" that fit into the date.

Start by partially cooking your bacon. My trick to cooking bacon is placing it on a wire cooling rack, on a cookie sheet (jelly roll pan, actually--make sure your pan has sides so the grease doesn't drip into your oven) in the oven and baking it at about 375 degrees for 30 minutes. To partially cook the bacon so I could wrap it around the dates, I only baked it for 10 minutes. I think the thicker bacon could have used more like 15, as I ended up cooking round 2 of these little guys a bit longer to crisp them up more.

Once your bacon has cooked for 10-15 minutes, take it out of the oven and let it cool so you don't burn yourself wrapping the dates.

While your bacon is cooking, stuff your dates with cheese. You can use any cheese you really like, and add almonds if you wish as well for a nice crunch.

Once your dates are stuffed and your bacon is cool enough to touch, wrap each date in a slice of bacon and stick a toothpick through it to secure it during the second baking step. Place these back on your cooling rack/cookie sheet setup and return to the oven for another 10-15 minutes until the desired amount of crispness is reached on your bacon.

Remove from oven and serve warm. These are a great appetizer or party food, especially since they already come on a toothpick right out of the oven. Enjoy!