Fun Flower

I like it, I like it, I like it! Earlier this week I found a little picture tutorial for this flower and I like it, A LOT! It was a little tricky to figure out how to do because the directions were in some sort of foreign language but I think I kind of got it.  Although today I figure out a better way to do the fold in the middle so it looks nicer. I was folding them over and you need to just fold under! The reason I added the glitter in the center was to hide the ugly uneven lines. Now I wont need that! 

I'm excited to try and make some of these and hang them on my wall. I got the idea from this blogger, My Bohemian Summer. She is amazing, all her stuff is great. She is actually the person who inspired me to make paper flowers for my wedding and now for everything else. 

- Katie

Cassie

This is a card I made for my sister, Cassie. She is so crazy. Most of the time 

she just stares at you with her eyes of judgement but when she lets loose she 

is a pretty funny individual. I don't even know how to explain her personality, 

she is just a serious person AND like me, she is a "topper". We are brats

and always need to be the best. I am working on that trait though!!

Here are two examples from the road trip we took to Wisconsin Dells of 

her "topping" trait.

1.)Me: "LOOK, I FOUND THE BIGGEST CHIP EVER!"

Cassie: *looks at the chip with her Cassie look* and says,"I've seen bigger."

2.)Timmy: Good job Katie, you did a harmony!"

Cassie:"I bet she didn't even do it on purpose."

If you know cassie, these little stories will crack you up! 

My sister told me this after she received the card. I thought it was pretty funny so I wanted to share it! 

"This homemade card came in the mail from Katie Nelson today. 

Funny thing is I picked a bunch of lettuce and spinach from our garden today 

(it's growing like crazy!) and I was thinking how great it is to have my salad

spinner. Inside the card she wrote, "I can't believe it was already two years

ago that I gave you that salad spinner! And you said, "blah, blah, it's too big! HA!" hahaha Two years later I thank you for it!"

Any who, this card is a great example of how most of my projects are created. I always sit down with one idea and I just create around it. For this project I knew I wanted to have these mini flowers and I just worked around that. 

This is what the card was SUPPOSED to look like. I was just going to 
take one  piece of paper and put these five flowers down in the corner.
 But I decided that is TOO easy. 

Then I decided to make a flower out of my flowers. but I did not like

 the black border so I took some scraps from the flowers I cut out 

and made the finished border. 

The End.

 I like this card BUT it is not my favorite. I don't really like the

 color combination but oh well, I will keep practicing!

"I can make that"

...then one night I decided to make paper and here is what happened...

To make paper you need a deckle, that is what makes the shape of the paper. And you also need some screen to strain the water from the paper paste both of which I didn't have....so I improvised.

For our wedding we registered for a three pack of strainers (that I think Danita bought for us! -not positive.) and it is just unnecessary to have three I have learned. So anyways, I choose to somehow get the wire from one of the strainers we don't use and use it for my deckle! It took me about 20 minutes to rip it from the metal border thang. I had to use a hammer to force it apart and a hair dryer to try and "melt" the glue-which i don't think even worked, it only make the metal so hot that it burned my hand when I touched it.

Then I used two pie tins for the actual deckle. BUT I could not find anything to actually cut the shape out of my pie tin so I had to use scissors. And with the scissors I I could only make a weird circle and an oddly shaped square.

Also you need to force the two tins together on both sides of the wire when you are running it through the water, so that none of the paper mash gets between the two tins. Most people use close pins, which I did not have. So i had to use bobby pins and hold it together with my hands. That did not work too well. So that is why I made dumb shapes.

After you strain all of the water out and the pan, you put the paper in-between two picecs of felt and use a rolling pin or you own strength to get the rest of the water out. Then bam, you have some paper and you now just have to wait till it is allll dry. It was pretty fun and super easy to do.

I tried to use beads to make little flowers. It was not easy,
 the paper kept ripping and well I am just not good at sewing!
 But i think for my first time it turned out pretty nice.