In the Craft Room: Watercolored Tissue Flowers

Happy Spring! It’s arrived alongside the cheery yellow daffodils, the purple hued crocuses and the robins bustling about. Gosh, and Easter is next weekend, too. This season seems to be flying by and if just arrived! We’re so looking forward to a number of exciting events, a fresh blog look {you know we love rolling out bits and pieces each spring to accent the blog – this one is going to be stunning, we must say – and here’s a peek, shhh} and quality family time savoring our favorite things to do in Seattle in the spring:

 

 

We’re entertaining for Easter as well and, in dreaming up a sweet centerpiece idea, we created these water colored tissue flowers perfect for your Easter centerpiece. Water coloring is one of those pastimes we remember as kids and, painting as adults, it was relaxing and calming. We highly recommend it! Here’s the scoop on today’s how-to:

water colors | floral wire | tissue paper | a paint brush | scissors

Step 1. layer white or cream tissue paper by folding into a rectangle so it’s about 6 sheets thick {most tissue comes folded like this} and brush wide strips of watercolor in whatever colors you like. Go crazy! 

Step 2. gently unfold the entire sheet once the paint is dry and cut in half.

Step 3. fold the two pieces back together into little rectangles. Editor’s Note: take note here – the first ones we made were a little too floppy for our liking. They were cut from about 6″ x 6″ squares. We folded these down again to 4″ x 4″ squares.

Step 4. once you’ve folded the sheets down to your squares cut out a rounded edge from one end around, making a curve. You can choose to scallop the edges or leave them as-is.

Step 5. take the whole corner of the tissue flower and insert one end of the floral wire through, pulling nearly to the end. Take the second end and do the same so they meet like a stem.

Step 6.  fluff up you tissue and you’ve got blooms! Here are our first beauties. While we love them they were just a bit too floppy so we trimmed them down and scalloped the edges.

…and we made a little stem wrap. We couldn’t resist!

Here are the scalloped babies. So springy and fresh, right?

Photos and DIY: Valley & Co.

We hope you enjoy this project as much as we do and whip some up for your Easter table. It’s a really fun project and when replicated en masse these tissue flowers would be so magical!

Our Taste of Home with Moen

We’re making ourselves at home in our {new} 1920s home in the Green Lake area of Seattle and we’re loving it. The home has so much character and we’re mixing its old charm, like black-and-white checked kitchen floors, with our mission-style furniture, metal marquee lights, bar carts and coastal panache. Sounds eclectic, right? Just how we like it. Each bit represents us and our experiences together, like our prints from our travels, kitchen gadgets from Italy and seashells and sand collected from our favorite beaches.

One of the projects we’re going to tackle first is our main bathroom. It’s not been touched in ages and we plan on sprucing it up with new fixtures, like Moen’s Boardwalk Spot Resist bath faucet, which has the sleek look we’re craving, it’s spot resistant {yes!}, fingerprint resistant and WaterSense compliant. What could be better? The angles from this faucet are modern, yet have a classic feeling, which will make it a perfect focal point to our 1920s sink.

Boardwalk Spot Resist bath faucet

Are you thinking about sprucing up your home for springtime? What are some projects on your mind? Some of our key tips for changing a look or feeling of your home for a new season or a remodeling undertaking:

• go streamlined with fixtures that will be timeless years from now
• purchase quality products that will last
• prioritize projects that have the most impact, like new bath or kitchen fixtures or paint
• once projects are tackled accent them with fresh towels in bright colors, accent pillows or a patterned shower curtain to complete your look

 

You can find the Boardwalk line at Lowe’s. So, friends, what are you waiting for? We encourage you to THINK SPRING and spruce up your home! You can connect with Moen on Facebook or Twitter for the latest in their products and tips, too!

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Moen, Incorporated for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

In the Craft Room: DIY Fabric Garland

For a recent sweet market-inspired wedding we crafted {and Nick built} to our hearts’ content. One of our projects was this fabric garland that adorned the metal staircase at Melrose Market Studios. It’s much bigger than shown and made a darling impact. Want to know how to make your own? It’s your lucky day! This is a very simple project anyone can create with fabric, scissors and twine or jute. Here’s how:

 

Step 1. cut your fabric into strips the length that you desire. Ours are between 6-8″ long and about 2″ wide. Use sharp scissors to score the fabric and then gently tear to create a more breezy and effortless look.

Step 2. lay out your twine or jute or suspend from the ceiling or laundry lines to make assembly easier. Take the ends of a fabric strip and hold them together around the back of the twine. Take the loop around the other. Bring both ends of the fabric through the loop and pull tightly into place. The twine should be secured.

Step 3. repeat! We told you it was simple, didn’t we?

Resources: Tiny flower fabric || Yellow shirting fabric || Pink flowers || Orange seersucker || Scissors || Jute

 

We could see so many endless ideas and uses: birthday parties, nurseries, dessert tables…how would you use our fabric garland?

 

Many thanks to Fashion Fabrics Club for hosting this post. All opinions are our own.

In the Craft Room: Découpage Easter Eggs

Yesterday we shared our Pot o’ Gold tutorial for St. Patrick’s Day so it feels slightly rushed to share an Easter egg tutorial the next. Nonetheless, Easter is one of our favorite springtime holidays and we’ve got hundreds of fun memories hunting for be-speckled eggs nestled in the bushes, opening sweet Easter baskets created so thoughtfully by our parents {um, we mean the Easter Bunny!} and enjoying brunch with our families: honeyed ham, local delights and all sorts of traditional Easter fare.

Over the years we’ve become quite accustomed to making creative Easter eggs to display nestled in grasses or tissue: last year we made those popular Ombre Easter Eggs, before we’ve bedazzled them {okay, Nick sat that one out}…this year we wanted to give découpage a go. Découpage is a method of taking something like paper or a sticker, etc. and painting with layers of glue. Here’s what we made:

Modge Podge | sponge brush | paper flowers, bunnies, etc. {can be cut out from paper or napkins} or stickers} | boiled eggs that are cooled and dry

Step 1: place your cutouts on PLASTIC {don’t place them on paper as we did or they can stick!} and gently brush the Modge Podge to both sides.

Step 2. place the cutout atop the egg, adhering as best as possible.

Editor’s note: you may see that if it’s a longer or wider shape the cutout will start to bubble. We remedied this by cutting those bubbling edges gently with an Exacto knife. Just score a little and then fold in the sides.

Step 3. place a last coating of Modge Podge atop the cutout once it’s dry.

Step 4. place some crumpled paper or plastic baggies at the bottom of a vase or julep cup and surround with greenery. Nestle your egg and you’ve got a darling Easter display!

Photos and DIY: Valley & Co.

How do you decorate your Easter eggs? We’d love to see your favorite links to Easter recipes, projects or your own photos…please share ‘em below!

In the Craft Room: St. Patrick’s Day Pot O’ Gold

This weekend was one of those ah kind of weekends. After last weekend’s stunning urban market wedding a few days to kick back was quite welcomed. We socialized with a dear college friend departing on a round-the-world adventure for at least a year, sipped on wine and some new favorite cheeses {Grand Margaux was amazing – a cross between a triple cream brie and a Camembert, but with more flavor}, dined with good friends last night and tinkered in our new work spaces on Sunday. It rained a bit {drizzled, actually}, which was remarkable for our newly planted asparagus ferns, ranunculus and anemones…a nice bit of gold from Mother Nature.

Speaking of, a little leprechaun tells us St. Patrick’s Day is just around the bend. Aleah’s been to Ireland and claims she’s spotted one {okay, not really} and growing up my parents would create incredible green eggs and pancakes and encourage my brothers and I to hunt for leprechauns in the green shrubs. My memory tells me we caught one…..so today’s little St. Patty’s Day DIY is nodding to those fond memories. If you’re looking for sweet treats to give to the kiddos, teachers or neighbors, today’s project is perfect. You only need a few elements to turn an old jar into a pot of gold brimming with chocolates or cookies.   

Modge Podge | a jar with lid | sponge brush | gold glitter | a shamrock, leprechaun or other St. Patrick’s Day figurine

Step 1. take a clean and dry glass jar and lid and prep your Modge Podge {or 1 part glue and 1 part water}. Spread a thick layer on top of the jar’s lid.

Step 2. sprinkle a heavy dose of gold glitter atop the glue and jiggle until it’s evenly spread. Shake the excess off.

Step 3. once glittered nestle the figurine in the middle of your glitter. Depending on how heavy your fun piece is you can secure with hot glue or a heavier duty glue.

Step 4. fill with treats! Yum!

After seeing our first version we decided to embellish the jar a bit with copper tape and gold Bric-a-Brac {secured with glue}…details, details!

Photos and DIY: Valley & Co.

We can think of so many ways to use these as gifts: a new version of Easter baskets, cookie jars with glittered toppings….and our holiday woodland creature jars. How would you use our darling jars?