Michaels Free Class: Sunflower with Colored Pencils on Wood

Last week we had a free Michaels class using wood and colored pencils.  R and K arrived at the class at just the right time.  It was wonderful to have people come to the class.  Particularly it was nice that R and K came to class.  They are lovely people.  Our evening together was just great.

Here is R's sunflower:

She chose this wooden frame that appears to be made of balsa.  It was a fine surface for the pencil work.  If you could see the picture close up, you would be really really impressed.  She is a wonderful artist.

K drew and colored a "hobbit door".  It, too, was wonderful. So intricate and perfectly drawn so you felt you could just lift the latch and go on in to meet whatever hobbit was at home.  I am so sorry I did not take a picture of it to share.

This was the wooden plaque with pencil coloring on it.

R suggested laying down more color to improve it.

I think she was right about the extra color.  In fact, when reading over the instructions for the class again,  they did mention layering many layers of color.

Michaels Free Class: Quick Easy Stretchy Beaded Bracelet

Michaels' free classes are pretty interesting Tonight was a quick make-a-bracelet class.  We used two different kinds of glass beads...round and faceted.  Other supplies were 12 mm split rings,  Stretch Magic .7 mm cording, and various charms, though I only used one kind as the "mixed stars" called for were not visible to me anywhere in the store!

To make the bracelet you make a lark's head knot over the split ring with the stretch cord doubled.  It was very tricky to keep the stretch cording ON the split ring.  One thing I learned while checking out YouTube about Stretch Magic and Stretch Bracelets is that you are supposed to stretch the elastic BEFORE you do anything else.  Apparently some brands of stretch elastic forget where they are supposed to be and do not snap back to their original length.

After tying on the lark's head knot, you string on your beads.  You do not need a beading needle to do this, just thread the two strands of the elastic through the beads.  When you like your design (you should measure around your wrist before cutting your elastic so you have a sort of estimate of length...remember: doubled!...and add an extra 1.5 to 2.0 inches for tying off at the end.) you can then use a "surgeon's knot", well, two surgeon's knots to tie off the other end of the beads to the split ring.  If you do it right, you can give a little tug on the elastic and pull the knot into the beads to hide it.  I cannot tell you what that way is because it was a fluke that my effort worked.

At this point you can use jump rings on whatever bangles you want to add. I only added the one but they look pretty cute with multiple bangles.  The jump rings give them a little  room to "jingle jingle jangle"

Michaels Class: Paper Flower in a Pot for Mother's Day

We had a class on making a flower for Mom at Michaels.  It was another easy craft.

Needed items:  flower-colored card stock paper (I used Recollections Brights colorway), 2-inch clay flower pot, acrylic craft paint, hot glue gun and glue sticks, pencils with eraser ends, scissors.

The first thing you do is cut a strip of the paper 2 inches wide and start wrapping and overlapping it around a pencil to make a tube.  At the end of the tube insert a little hot glue on the inside of the flap and hold it down until it dries.  BE CAREFUL.  It really is hot, thus the "hot glue" in the title.  Remove the tube from the pencil and let dry completely.  You are going to glue the petals around this tube.  My tube was around 5 inches long.  For this size plant pot, you don't want it much longer, and maybe want it an inch or more shorter.  Give it a try. If you make one, let me know what worked best for you.

Cut out 3 long-ish, thin petals and fold them in half.  Using the hot glue on one end of each petal, insert them alternately into one end of the tube.

First try at making this flower.  I may try again to make it more full.  You can barely see the decorated pot rim.

Cut out 16-20 larger flower petals  Run the petals  through your thumb and index finger or around a pencil to make them curve.  With hot glue on the non-curved end of each petal, attach them, staggered, around the tube.  You will do a better job than I did.  The more petals, the fuller the blossom will be.

Final step is to cut 3 leaves from green paper.  These are similar to the large flower petals, but cut them a bit larger and have one end be blunt...maybe half an inch wide.  Curl these three leaves as well and glue to the bottom of the flower "stem".

Put some acrylic craft paint into a small palette or on a plate.  Using the eraser end of your pencil dab a little paint onto the eraser then daub it onto the rim of the plant pot in whatever pattern you like. I chose three colors and put them on in order around the rim, one color at a time, leaving room for the other two colors.  It would probably be smart to let the paint dry between colors....

Michaels Free Flower Arranging Class

Tonight we had another flower arranging class.  There was one student.  Here is her arrangement.  I thought it looked pretty nice.  The one I made was rather "stuffed in", so I am not showing it to you!

Papercrafting: Giant Paper Flowers

We had a papercrafting class at the local Michaels' store this week.  I had made a sample flower in purple.  To make the project as easy as possible, I photocopied the templates onto card stock.  This worked but had some disadvantages, i.e. the instructions showed on the petals and I didn't think to turn the petals the other side up.

When we actually had the class I drew around the templates that I had cut out from the card stock.  This worked well until putting together the petals I failed to erase the pencil marks or turn the petals over. Oh, well.  Still a nice enough flower.

For this flower I made a loose pompom for the center of the flower by way of embellishment.  I also attached a ribbon for a hanger.  When I took the picture, the glue was still wet so I could not put hang the flower to show it off to good advantage.

First Attempt: Floral Arranging

Michaels Stores have free classes.  (Just go to their website to see what class is at your closest Michaels Store.)   This week there were classes on finger crochet and floral arrangement.  I was there for both of them.

This is the arrangement I made:

Not stunning, but fun to do with two other ladies.