decoupage

Making Mama’s Memorial Ornaments

| Flower Roberts

This will be our first Christmas without Mama. I am making memorial ornaments for me and my sister. They are pink, Mama’s favorite color.

I will share the steps for doing this. You only need plain ornaments, decorative napkins, glue, foam paint brushes, glitter and scissors.

Remembering Mama


I use paper plates to contain the mess.  This is a really messy project. That’s why I love it!

Do not sigh or sneeze PLEASE!


Used yogurt containers, Choboni flip and Qui, are great for glue and water. I labeled my glue containers M for matte and G for gloss. I have used both so you can see the difference.

Peel the back two layers off your napkins. Save these for cleaning up.

Peel off plain ply layers from the back.

Also remove the top hanger of the ornaments. Do not lose these in the mess!

I stick shewers and my fingers in the top holes to hold the balls.

Hold by the hole.

Cut out the central designs to be featured on your ornament. These go on first.  Plan your spacing and arranging.

Sometimes parts get cut off and must be replaced, like little paper Frankensteins.

Soldiers with new hat and new legs.

Then either hang or perch them on something to dry. This means leave them alone for a bit. Repeat again until totally covered.

Hung on a skewer.

If this were a Decoupage Party it would be time for Mimosas and snacks. Since I am alone, I am using the down time to write steps as I go. Pausing is hard for me.

Now use the napkin scraps to fill in the blank parts of the ornament. Overlap as little as possible. Glitter and glue will cover the booboos.

Glue more, hang to dry more.

Lastly, you cover any bare sections with custom cut pieces of plain background from the waste left from the napkins.

Let’s talk glitter. It is possible to do a perfect job of decoupage and ruin it with the wrong glitter. Very detailed designs need white, extra fine glitter. Do not use irridescent unless you want to add color, or there is a simple design, or lots of repetition or you want to cover up some ugly. Some shaggy irridescent glitter totally blocks the design

Fine white rose irridescent on left, mixed sized bling in the middle called party blend /snow swirl, white iris on the right

Party Blend or bling should be used on plain ornaments as a featured texturizer.

Party blend glitter on the left on a flat white. Flat white ornament/ no glitter on the right. Easy enough for children. Ribbon can be glued around the sides.

I usually save all residual glitter and mix it on the last ornament.  I hate the ball glitter. It rolls. Do not buy it…ever.

Let the completed ornaments dry over-night. I usually use clear spray to seal these, but don’t have any here.

Almost done.

Warning, if you sigh alot or sneeze, this may NOT be the craft project for you. I am a sigher and usually send tiny pieces of napkins and glitter all over.

Blogging and decoupaging.

FLOW

Supplies for Enduring Bad Weather

| Flower Roberts

I am thankful to be prepared for the first bit of icy weather here on the mountain. Now that my body is worth more than my car, I will not be risking a fall nor a wreck.

I have a wonderful stash of napkins. These have been carefully selected and collected. I am very particular about my napkins.

Part of a vast napkin collection

I hope I have enough glitter. I left those awful tiny balls at home. Do not buy this type. It rolls off your table and across the floor. Enough of it could cause a fall. Stick with the flakey, shiny, traditional glitter that gets stuck in your hair and carpet.

Clear and iridescent glitter work best

I usually have both matte and gloss decoupage glue on hand. This glue should be thinned with drops of water.

matte or gloss glue

I guess I should check on my food stocks. Do I have milk, bread, eggs and kerosene? Why yes! But I am more worried about boredom than starvation.

Here are some suggestions for laying up your decoupage supplies for future bad weather.

Choose napkins with all sides decorated. Some only have pictures on the front.

All panels on one side decorated.

Also, randomly scattered small pictures on light backgrounds are easiest to work with.

Small and random is easiest.

Stripes with repetition are for flat surfaces and perfectionists. Individual stripes can be cut and used around the edge or middle.

Stripes are tricky.

Large central pictures are great as features on larger items.

Great feature picture.

Many items can improved by decoupage.

Light colored items

Do not try to work with thin glass Christmas balls. I have gotten all the way finished and cracked them moving them around. Thick glass, paper mache, wooden, and plastic things are best. Avoid dark colored objects. Stick with creamy, light colors or white.

I will add links to the end for further information and ideas.

DECA DECO

Glitter, Glue and a Friend or Two

Paper Gardens

FLOW IS READY FOR ICE AND SNOW

The Last Bowl of Eggs

| Flower Roberts

I decorated just enough eggs to give away before Easter.

Then I realized that I had forgotten to take pictures of them.

So I was forced to make a few more to share on my blog.

This activity is very messy, but it is relaxing.

I shared how to do it in earlier posts. Just search ‘Easter eggs.’

Flow