cherishables: spring

Showing posts with label spring. Show all posts

Monday, March 19, 2012

Spring Pom Pom Centerpiece

I saw a fun pom pom centerpiece on Pinterest and just knew I would have to try. These are not the pom poms of your childhood -- all wild haired, crazy looking. Quite the opposite. I'm talking neat, clipped and very modern pom poms.

My sister says they look like Truffula Trees. That makes me love them even more.

You can find the tutorial for this project at Dill Pickle Design. Basically, it's a very closely cropped pom pom. No fancy pom pom maker needed. Just your fingers, yarn, scissors and patience.

Here's a close-up. See how closely cropped these are? I love it!

My tip is to clip these over a bowl or into your actual trash can. You're going to get yarn & lint everywhere. Don't make the mistake I did and think you can do this while sitting in your lounge chair watching TV. Actually you can, if you don't mind getting very fine lint all over your sweater. (Which is what happened when I made the green ones <ahem>)

Also, one other thing I did differently was to use fallen branches as the stems. I didn't have any floral wire around, so I looked around for something else to use. I really liked using the branches b/c they look pretty in glass vase and, in a couple of cases, I was able to glue multiple pom poms on to a single branch. Love that look!

Here is the arrangement in it's final home, on my coffee table.

Complete with sleeping kitty on the couch.

I made the pom poms in a few different sizes...up to four fingers!

Here's the version I made for St. Patrick's Day.

This project is a great way to use up your yarn stash and an inexpensive way to decorate. I hope you'll give it a try. Send me a pic if you do so I can post it.

Happy crafting!

Cherish

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Daffodils

Lately, I'm all about flowers. I've had success with my flower pins, which got me thinking about all the other types of flowers out there. First up, daffodils! After all, what's more Spring-like than a daffodil?

I looked around at all kinds of patterns. Some of the free ones were nice, and I even saved a couple. Then I found this one on Etsy:

This beautiful pattern can be purchased from melbangle on Etsy.

It's perfect! The original calls for acrylic yarn and instructions are included to make it on a "stem." I decided to make it into a pin and since I like to felt, I made the daffodil in wool.

It's funny how the flower dictates the yarn. My flower pins are made from worsted weight wool and I love them that way. They're dense and fuzzy and really make a statement. I tried making a daffodil in worsted weight wool and it looks like a dinosaur daffodil.

That's a standard size mouse - this daffodil is bigger than my hand!

Not at all what I wanted. So, I switched to fingering weight wool, and a much smaller hook. Perfection! These are petite and delicate. So far, I've made some in light yellow and a darker yellow. I also have some combos -- just like in nature! My favorite just might be the darker yellow with the orange rimmed center. Next up, white with pink centers. I'm just waiting for the yarn to get here.

I'm thinking about fixing these up as corsages, in boxes with a ribbon & everything, and offering them as an alternative to the traditional Easter corsage that needs to be refrigerated and eventually dies. They'll be in my Etsy shop soon -- in plenty of time for Easter.