iLoveToCreate Retrofabulous Crafts: Spring Peepers Easter Topiary

Spring Peepers Topiary Margot Potter for iLoveToCreate

Straw Flower Topiary Copyright 1963 Better Homes and Gardens Christmas Ideas Magazine

iLoveToCreate Retrofabulous Crafts
Spring Peepers Easter Topiary
Margot Potter
"These are your grandmother's crafts...ya gotta problem with that?"

I love topiaries.  It's true, I do.  Yet, inexplicably, this is my very first topiary craft!  There are a plethora of handcrafted topiaries in my stash of vintage craft magazines, mostly Christmas themed like the one above.  I've been meaning to make one and well, the time came.  Two years ago Avalon and I bought these little Easter chicks on super sale at Michaels after Easter.  We thought we had a lifetime supply, until this idea popped into my head.  I ran out of chicks mid-project and had to make an emergency tiny chick run to Michaels, thankfully they had more. What made me want to put tiny chicks on a styrofoam ball? I can not say.  But I love it so much it's staying in the living room until after Easter. 

This is so easy and fun to do.  Aleene's Tacky Glue Dots make super quick work of attaching the chicks.You can either use a pot that is already decorated or just mix up some fun colors with your Crafty Chica paints, add some fun trims, toss some Easter grass and either pre-made eggs or jelly beans on the top, add a bow and instant cute!  I love this as a centerpiece for Easter, you could make a couple more smaller ones for either side to make a trio.  I'm a big believer in the rule of threes.

Spring Peepers Topiary Materials

Materials
3" Styrofoam ball
8" Wooden dowel
Approx. 115-120 3/4" fuzzy chicks
4.5" Clay pot
Coordinating clay pot saucer
Easter grass
Glittered foam eggs or jelly beans
Styrofoam block for inside of pot
Decorative ribbon for pot rim
Ribbon to tie beneath topiary ball
Coordinating scrapbook papers
Coordinating button
Layered flower die-you could use a pre-made flower here if you prefer
Crafty Chica Paints (I used green and yellow mixed and red and white mixed)
Aleene's Acid Free Tacky Glue
Aleene's 3/8" Tacky Glue Dots

Tools
Die Cutting Machine
Scissors
Foam brush

Paint the pot pink and the pot rim and dowel green.  Allow to dry.  

Use glue to adhere ribbon trim around rim of pot.  I used super thick rick rack trim.

Die cut layered flower and adhere to conceal spot where ribbon ends meet using Aleene's Tacky Glue.  Use a Tacky Glue Dot to adhere button to center of flower.  Allow ribbon and flower to dry.

Take a chick and press it's feet on a Tacky Glue Dot.  Press the chick on the styrofoam ball.  Work from the center out, making a ring of chicks all facing the same direction.  Work to the center on one side (this will be the top of the topiary) and the center on the other leaving a space for the painted dowel.

Once pot has dried, cut styrofoam to fit inside.  Add some easter grass to hide foam.  You'll insert the dowel into the bottom of your topiary ball and insert that into the center of the foam in the pot.

Tie a bow around the bottom of the topiary ball.

Make some coordinating decorations to dress up the table...and if you love carrot cake...get the recipe for these Easter Bunny Nest Coconut Carrot Cake Cupcakes today on Your Grandmother's Crafts!

iLoveToCreate Retrofabulous Crafts: Dazzling Dahlia Dimensional Canvas

Dazzling Dahlia Dimensional Canvas Copyright Margot Potter 2012

Pop Art Pillows from Christmas Helps 1966 Family Circle

Christmas Helps 1966 Family Circle

iLoveToCreate Retrofabulous Crafts
Dimensional Dahlia Canvas
Margot Potter
"These are your grandmother's crafts.  Ya gotta problem with that?  I didn't think so."

The idea for this canvas came from a fabulous pillow project featured in this 1966 Christmas Helps magazine from Family Circle. I LOVED these pop art pillows and plan to make some of my own, but these Anna Griffin vintage patterned papers were so yummy, I thought why not make a canvas using the same idea? I am a huge fan of Lilly Pulitzer’s vintage fabrics and these papers have a very similar appeal. Think about making a series of two or three of these using the same color scheme but slightly different patterns (maybe a full flower, half flower and butterfly.) Use recycled paper or fabric remants if you like; this could be stunning using say Coca Cola can boxes or old book pages. This was super simple to create using Fiskars ShapeTemplate™ tools and the new Aleene’s Dry Adhesives! For a final touch of whimsy, I added some dimension using Tulip Beads in a Bottle. I am knee deep in the winter blahs, so this is a cheerful reminder that spring is on the way! (If you want more precision, mark and measure placement with a ruler before layering petals.)

Materials
10x10 mini canvas
Anna Griffin Carmen Collection scrapbook paper pack
Saturated pink and yellow cardstock
Aleene’s Tacky Dot runner
Tulip Beads in a Bottle sparkly pink and pale yellow

Tools
Fiskars ShapeTemplate™ Circles
Fiskars ShapeCutter™ and Mat

1. Cut out 22 patterned yellow and pink floral paper 2” circles and 11 yellow and 12 pink 2.5” paper circles using the Fiskars template, cutter and mat. You could also use circle punches or trace and cut by hand. I am impatient, so anything that makes it easier works for me!

2. Layer the patterned circles in the center of the solid color circles and adhere using Aleene’s Tacky Glue dots runner.

3. Begin on the outside, I found it helped to lay this out first and then reassemble just to get a sense of the layout before I committed to it permanently. The flowers overlap slightly and work around in a circle and repeat on the inner layer overlapping slightly.

4. Tape just the right side of your petal and start making a circle overlapping on the outside. Continue this process until you reach the final circle, which will get full tape runner coverage. Repeat for the inside layer. There are 14 petals on the outside and 8 on the inside. Finish with a large pink petal in the center.

5. Use Beads in a Bottle on the solid color edges of the petals in a color that coordinates. I used sparkly pink and pale yellow and found that the sparkly beads were a skootch less puffy than the solid color, I like the slight variation. You can take great care and put the exactly same amount of dots on each petal, but as I mentioned earlier I am impatient and simply thrilled I made it around every petal without a craftastrophe. It’s the little things.

6. Allow to dry overnight before touching or hanging!

Mandala Flower Copyright Margot Potter 2012

(PS: I love this flower so much, I am going to use it on some other projects as an image! Too fun!)

Retrofabulous Christmas Craftabration...Operation Smoky Mountain Christmas!

Victorian Snow Day Canvas Margot Potter for iLoveToCreate Copyright 2009

Operation Smoky Mountain Christmas has begun at Casa de Potter. I obsessive compulsively collected purchased a few (cough, cough) vintage Shiny Brite ornaments a few years back. You can find them on eBay, but the really spectacular ones cost a small fortune. I settled for the semi-spectacular due to budgetary constraints and the knowledge that breaking something that expensive and that old would be tragic. I'm what you might call...a bit spastic.  Quel suprise.

Vintage Shiny Brite ornaments in clear glass jars (got the jars at Michaels last year)

Various and sundry greenery and stuff...methinks this needs some garland and lights yet...

It's part of that whole impatient thing, which is not just a gimmick. It's truly who I am. So here is a sneak peek of where things are at the moment. There is more to come for the tree, I will share when it is complete. We have garland to drape along the loft and stairs. You know if I had my way the entire house would be dipped in glitter, but I shall show some restraint. There are so many vintage ornaments, I am running out of containers, but I shall soldier on and find more places to display them. We are on a budget this year, so I gathered some ever greenery from outside and spray painted some gathered twigs gold.

Tree in progress...

My husband insists the tree is filled with ornaments, but really, there are PLENTY of branches yet to adorn. As you can tell, the dogs completely agree with me.

Hmmm...not sure we like this holiday decorating hub bub...we will get back to you after this nap.

The Retrofabulous vintage inspired canvas above was a project for iLoveToCreate a few years back. I collect vintage post cards and this spectacular image is from the turn of the last century. I just plopped it into Photoshop and sized it to fit the canvas. Then I attached some broken rhinestone jewelry, vintage lace and vintage buttons. You can get the instructions to make something similar here, you can find vintage postcards on eBay. If you don't need them to be perfect, you can get them for a song. I just fix any flaws in Photoshop. Oh and I am a big, big fan of mini canvases!

Until next time...craft on with your bad selves!

Cheers,
Madge

Retrofabulous Christmas Craftabration: Upcycled Holiday Gift Boxes

Retrofabulous Upcycled Holiday Gift Box Copyright Margot Potter for iLoveToCreate 2011
Inspired By:

Images Copyright McCall's Magazine

(Anyone who knows me knows that I love all things retro. I have been thrifting since I was 19 and have a rather large collection of old paper. I have post cards and magazines dating back to the Victorian age and all the way up to the 1970s. I love old fonts, ads, images...it is all intriguing and wonderful to me. I did a series on my blog called Retrofabulous Craftabration a couple of years ago and now I’m teaming back up with the folks from iLovetoCreate to bring you a dose of retrofabulosity on the first and third Monday of every month.)

Retrofabulous Craftabration: Upcycled Holiday Gift Box
Margot Potter for iLovetoCreate

This project was inspired by a 1968 McCall’s Christmas magazine. They took old shoe boxes and upcycled them into festive holiday gift packages. How funny are these?! Also, whatever happened to that awesome thick yarn?!  It totally makes me want to make pom poms and hair bows!  Note to self: get awesome super thick yarn....stat.

To update this idea, I used some scrapbook paper, sparkly trim, a sentiment cut from a vintage greeting card, odds and ends from the studio and a favorite vintage pic from a 1964 calendar combined with the new Aleene’s paper craft friendly dry adhesive glues to create a kitschy upcycled package. This is a great way to reuse old boxes and to give a gift a fellow crafter can use for festive storage in their studio. You can use wrapping paper, fabric, scrapbook paper, newspaper, magazines, catalogs...add paints and dimensional embellishments... I’d love to see what you do with this idea, if you make a retrofabulous inspired upcycled package leave a link in the comments here!

Materials
Image (I scanned and sized mine)
Old sturdy box
Paper or fabric (I used scrapbook paper)
Trims
Embellishments (buttons, beads, old broken jewelry bits...)
Aleene’s Tacky Line Rolls
Aleene’s Tacky Dot Singles
Aleene’s Quick Dry Tacky Glue
Aleene’s Tacky Double Stick Sheets
Tulip Beads in a Bottle Glitter Paint (I used pink to coordinate with my papers)
Double sided craft tape

Tools
Scissors
Pencil
Decorative edge punch (optional)

1. Select a box-it should be sturdy enough to be used as a gift package and later as storage. Begin by covering the box with paper or fabric. I traced the box panels on paper, cut paper and attached the sheets to each panel using Aleene’s Double Stick Tacky Sheet. Just attach sheet to back of paper, cut to fit and then peel backing off and adhere paper to panel on box. I covered the entire box.

2. To hide the corner edges where papers meet, use decorative trimp. I ran double sided tape along each edge, and attached the trim folding it along both sides of the edge.

3. Add an extra layer of trim on each side of the edges. Measure trim to fit and cut. Place along the Aleene’s Tacky Line and cut glue to fit. Peel up trim and attach to box. You will need to put trim along all of the edges on all five exposed panels. I used two styles of trim, one for the side panels and another for the top panel.

4. If you want to add more paper embellishments to the top of the box, attach them using the Aleene’s Double Stick Tacky sheets. I added an image and also a decorative trim using coordinating paper and an edge punch. This also gave me a place to tuck a sentiment that can be removed later.

5. I had some wooden scrapbook embellishments that coordinated with the project and worked perfectly to conceal the four corners where the trim met on the top of the box. You can use buttons, old jewelry components, scrapbook embellishments, bows...whatever you like. Just one Aleene’s Tacky Dot Single does the trick.

6. I like sparkle, so I used a thin schmearing of Tulip Beads in a Bottle in pink on the background paper on the top of my box. You could also use Collage Pauge in Sparkly to get the same effect. While it is drying the paper will bubble up a little, do not freak out. It will flatten again, I promise!