Saturday 28 May 2016

Butterfly Wreath

Good Morning and thank you so much for stopping by again. I hope you are well and have a good Bank Holiday weekend. Well I have something completely different using stamps from Leonie to share with you today, So I am hoping that you will like it.


I have lots of grape vines here, when they are pruned, there are lots of long lengths to get shot of. A lot of them go into the stove, but I thought it would be nice to find a different use for some of them at least. I decided I would like to try and make a grape vine wreath.

After some research online, I found out that it is in fact fairly easy to do, I took three equal lengths of vine and formed them into a rough circle shape. Then brought the ends through the centre, wrapped and repeated. Before running out of length I added some more until the wreath was about the right size, any loose pieces can be tucked in or trimmed back with pruning sheers. I was really please with the finished result, at the same time cursing, thinking about the money I had spent in the past buying them in the past. I put this aside while I got everything else ready.


There are quite a lot of elements to the wreath, so It's best to go through them one by one.


I cut about 10 x 1 1/2'' strips of calico, approximately 36'' long and when bunched together I concertina folded them and tied them together with garden twine about 2/3 of the way up. I dyed one part with Slate and one part with Lavender, Quick and Easy Dyes from Forest Fibres on ebay. When they were dry I cut them in half and rolled them into roses. I will do a post on this at some point soon, to show how. There were a couple of strips left over that I tied into messy bows.


On a separate piece of calico, I stamped some of Leonie's stitched hearts from the new collection with archival waterproof ink. I stamped inside the hearts with 'Love' & 'Dreams', again with black Archival Ink. I dyed half of them in Slate and half in Lavender at the same time I dyed a square of calico in Slate to become my backing. Once they were dry, I roughly cut out the hearts and backing and stitched around leaving a gap for stuffing. I then stitched up the gap and frayed around the edges.

I took some 2'' strips of hessian, approximately 18'' long and made 3 large roses. I wrapped some garden string around paint brushes 3'' long, secured with pins at either end, covered in PVA and left to dry.


Then I made a few Paper roses, I took half a sheet each of Tim Holtz Core-dinations cardstock, Tattered Rose and Dusty Concorde from Crafters Companion. I cut various size circles, using my circle cutter, then run them through the Textures Leaf Vein embossing folder by Crafters Companion. I then sanded them back to reveal the core colour. I cut these into spirals, wound them to form roses and secured them with Cosmic Shimmer Glue.


Taking an MDF tag, I coloured it using Cornflour Blue Nuvo Embellishment Mousse by Tonic Studio's. I applied 2 coats and polished it once it was dry. Then using Indigo Blu Flitter Glue, I used a sentiment stamp from Leonie's New Stamp Collection and covered it with Gilding flake.


Finally I assembled the wreath, using a hot glue gun. I  started off by placing the MDF tag and building up around 3/4 of the wreath leaving some bare vine.


I have really enjoyed making this project and I sincerely hope you have enjoyed the step by step. I know it was a long one but I really thin it is worth taking the time to make such a nice piece. Thank you so much for your continued visits and wonderful comments, I do read everyone of them and try to answer. Thanks for your support. Take care xx

9 comments:

  1. Think that it is great to be able to make your own wreath from your own grape vines. Don't have any in the garden so that is out! So many different elements to this that you have made yourself which is amazing,as is taking the time to talk us through it all. It would be good to have a post on how you dyed and made the calico roses,have as I no idea how to do this.
    Thank you for sharing and hope that you have a good weekend Nick.
    We have the brother of our border collie coming to live with us today. He has had anxiety issues and the family he was with have not coped and were going have him put him to sleep as they could not find a home for him with his "issues". We are "rescuing" him,so fingers crossed. Nicola x

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    1. Hi Nicola, I hope that the new addition is settling down okay in his new home, it's good that you have saved him. I am going to share the rose demo as soon as I can. Thank you so much for your comments, they are lovely to read.Take care xx

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  2. There is no end to your talent Nick you do realise you will probable be inundated with request for your handmade Vine Wreaths now.
    It is an amazing home deco creation and look forward to the tutorial on making the calico roses. Hugs Janet xxx

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  3. There is no end to your talent Nick you do realise you will probable be inundated with request for your handmade Vine Wreaths now.
    It is an amazing home deco creation and look forward to the tutorial on making the calico roses. Hugs Janet xxx

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    1. You make me Blush Janet, There are many, many things that I am either hopeless at or worse. Everyone has to have something they can do and mine is crafting.lol Thank you so much for your support and lovely comments, they really mean an awful lot to me.Take care xx

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  4. What a great use of the old vines! Love the colour tones you have used, Jane :) X

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    1. Thank you so much Jane, sorry for the delays in answering I have been so busy. I am really please that you like this project, the dyes I have used really are lovely to use and give the most lovely colours, Thank you again and take care xx

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  5. Great project Nick. Thank you so much for sharing this with us.

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    1. You're more than welcome, its a pleasure to share with you.I am very please that you like the project.Take care xx

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