Two Magazines to Check Out

I used to love Martha Stewart's Living, but in recent years, the magazine seems to have lost its way. I wasn't able to find a good alternative, until I accidentally stumbled upon Sweet Paul. 

Sweet Paul had everything I felt had gone missing from Martha Stewart's magazine: great lifestyle and decorating articles, yummy food and fun, crafty projects to make. The graphic design was inventive and the photography was amazing!

A print subscription for Canada was a bit prohibitive, but luckily enough the digital version was very affordable: four issues a year for $9.99

This is the Spring issue, which celebrates the magazine's 5th anniversary. The cover is an artwork by artist Helen Hoverkamp. To make her photographs, Ellen's Hoverkamp painstakingly arranges plant specimens facedown on the glass of a large format flatbed scanner. Love her work!

Wonderful food photography from the Spring Issue of Sweet Paul Magazine.

The Spring issue also includes: artful Easter eggs, cocktails and cakes, copper pipe crafts, green and fresh spring flavours, and more artwork by Ellen Hoverkamp among other things.

The Sweet Paul blog is also worth looking into.

A good friend told me about the next magazine. Covet Garden is for those of you who like quirky,"undecorated" interiors. Each issue features the home of a single person or couple. It's not a big magazine, but then size isn't everything! I find I enjoy each issue.

The best news is that a digital subscription is FREE! You sign up by email and a link to the latest issue arrives in your email inbox each month.

The magazine also has a blog and a book in print. Go check it out. You have nothing to lose!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Upcycled Easter Baskets

I am fully convinced that many decorative household items are given away because they are an ugly color and people can't see past that. 

Such was the case for the first Easter basket in this post. It looked ugly because, the decorative metal edging and chicken wire were painted black. 

To give the basket a new lease on life, I spray painted an Antique White. The basket came with three tin pots which I elected to leave just the way they were.

Add in some pansies and a rusted Easter bunny silhouette and suddenly the whole thing 

looks vintage and rather pretty.

This next project started with a lined wicker basket that I got at a charity shop for just under a dollar. Charity shops are a great place to find old ceramic containers and baskets that were once used for floral arrangements. 

The only thing the basket needed in this case was a few flowers.

To make this next arrangement I used:

• 3 small pots of mini-daffodils

• a small pot of green ivy

• sheet moss

• yellow ribbon

• bird's nest

• 3 candy or plastic eggs

• 2 birds

• hot glue and glue gun

• a couple of tooth picks

Directions:

Remove the daffodils from their plastic pots and place them in the wicker basket. 

Fill in where needed with a bit of trailing green ivy.

Cover any visible soil with pieces of the green sheet moss.

Chip on the first little bird to the basket handle. 

Use hot glue to attach the second bird and some eggs to the bird's nest. Using a couple of tooth picks, attach the nest to the moss.

Add a bow.

This final basket was again a sinister shade of black, so I spray painted it Antique White.

To make this next arrangement I used:

• wire basket

• a bottle (or glass vase)

• green sheet moss

• pink hydrangea flowers

• several pieces of green ivy

• pink ribbon

Directions:

Place a bottle in the centre of the wire basket (you could use a small glass vase just as well). Place large pieces of the green more sheet moss around the outside of the bottle to hold the bottle in place. The moss also helps to disguise the container/ bottle for your flowers.

Add the flowers, trailing pieces of ivy making sure they are in the water.

Tie up the basket with a pink bow.

Happy Easter!

Decoupage Easter Eggs

Easter is almost here and it's time to do a little spring decorating. Making Easter eggs is always fun and like try out a new technique for creating them each year. 

This year I made decoupage eggs using tissue paper and paper dinner napkins.

This is an easy project, but a little messy, so when I say easy, I don't mean a project you might want to try to do with the kids. You are likely to have sticky fingers and Mod Podge everywhere!

To make this rose covered eggs I used tissue paper that I found at the Dollar store (the kind of tissue wrapping paper that is generally used to stuff gift bags).

For this project you will need:

• tissue paper or paper napkins 

• scissors

• a brush for applying the Mod Podge

• a flat sided brush

• Mod Podge

• styrofoam eggs

• Varathane (I used a latex, Satin finish Varathane that cleans up with water)

Here is the only tricky part: Most tissue paper and Japanese paper napkins are perfect for decoupage. Dinner napkins are however, 2-ply and are composed of two thin layers of paper bonded together. For decoupage, the thiner the paper the better. Fine sheets of paper allow the edges of your cutout motifs to blend into one another better. So to begin, you want to pull apart the two layers of paper on any dinner napkins you might want to use. 

Start in the corner and work the 2 plys separate with your nails. Once you have worked the 2 pieces apart in the corner, it should be easy to pull the two sheets of paper apart.

Keep the 1-ply with your floral motif and discard the 1-ply of plain backing.

Cut out pieces of the decorative motif you've selected with your scissors.

Apply some Mod Podge to the side of your styrofoam egg with a brush. 

Place your cut out floral motif on the egg and work it flat into the wet Mod Podge using your fingers or a flat sided brush.

Apply further pieces until your egg is covered with flowers. Don't worry about the overlapping pieces of paper. This decoupage method is very forgiving and the edges disappear.

One last step! Finish one half of the surface of your eggs at a time with the latex Varathane. You can skip this final step if you don't want bother, but making the extra effort to finish the eggs will allow you to wipe them off with a damp cloth if they get dusty.

To make my little egg arrangement, I filled a little blue bowl with wood shavings and then placed a white chocolate bunny in the centre. To hold him upright, I surrounded him with foil wrapped chocolate Easter eggs. 

I tied a bow around the bunny's neck, added my decoupage eggs and a few faux apple blossoms.

 I used a Japanese paper cocktail napkin to make this butterfly egg. 

The hyacinths in my floral arrangement are real, but the lily of the valley are faux flowers.

The Japanese paper was very thin, so it was great to work with. I picked up the bird nest 

from Michael's Craft Store.

Next I tried using a dinner napkin with roses and blue butterflies.

 The two white ceramic Easter bunnies were found at Walmart for under $10 each. 

I dressed them up with blue bows. 

I've has some really pretty blue and white dinner napkins stashed away in the back of the cupboard for years. 

I figured this was the perfect time to dig them out and do something creative with them.

Boxed up with a pretty bow, I thought they might make a nice gift.

By the way, these pale pink and mauve hyacinths smelled positively divine!

Happy Spring decorating!

Bluebird and Red Berry Evergreen Wreath How-to

To make this wreath you need:

• basic store-bought evergreen wreath

• sharp scissors or pruners to cut branches

• wire cutters

• light gage florists wire

• floral pics

• white craft paint and small artist's brush

• low heat glue gun and glue sticks

• faux red berry branch (I used one large branch)

• boxwood cuttings about 6" in length (I trimmed a few boxwood sprigs from my garden even though this is not a great time of year to be pruning box. You can also often find swags of boxwood in stores during the holidays.)

• 6 pinecones

• dogwood branches of assorted lengths 

• 3 clip-on bluejays and 3 tiny bluebirds

• birdhouse ornament

• spool of blue satin ribbon ( 4 yard spool of 1.5" wide ribbon)

How-to:

Insert some boxwood sprigs, dogwood branches into your store bought wreath and allow them to catch in the mix of evergreens. 

Take a large stem of faux red berries and cut the stem into several smaller branches. (I made mine 6-10" in length)

Take some white craft paint and dry brushed "snow" onto the pinecones. Allow the paint to dry. 

Cut a length of light gage florist's wire (approx. 10-12"). Wrap the florist wire around the base of your pinecone and twist a knot to close the wire around the pinecone's base. 

Take the extra lengths of wire and poke them through the evergreen wreath. Twist the loose ends of wire at the back of the wreath into a knot to fix the pinecones to the wreath.

Removed the rope hanger from a little cardboard birdhouse ornament, poke a hole in the bottom and inserted a florist's pic. Add a dab of hot glue to secure the pic onto the birdhouse. 

Then insert the birdhouse pic into the wreath and allowed it to catch in the evergreen mix.

 Clip 3 bluejays and 3 little bluebirds onto the dogwood and berry branches. 

(Keeping it real- these little birds are not meant for high winds and rain. Your wreath will need to be hung indoors or in a sheltered location like a porch or on the inside of a screen door.)

Make a bow. Turn it over and run a length of florist's wire through the bow's centre knot. 

Poke the ends of the wire through the wreath and twist a knot on the wreath's reverse side to fix the bow in place. 

Trim away any excess wire with your wire cutters. Turn the raw ends of wire back into the wreath so 

you won't get cut hanging your wreath. 

Create a wire loop to hang the finished wreath and enjoy the holidays!

(Return to the main blog post.)

Fruit and Berries Evergreen Wreath How-to

To make this wreath you need:

• basic store-bought evergreen wreath

• sharp scissors or pruners to cut branches

• wire cutters

• light gage florists wire

• floral pics

• white craft paint and small artist's brush

• low heat glue gun and glue sticks

• faux red and faux orange berry branches (I used one large branch of each)

• boxwood cuttings about 6" in length (I trimmed a few boxwood sprigs from my garden even though this is not a great time of year to be pruning box. You can also often find swags of boxwood in stores during the holidays.)

• 6 pinecones

• faux mini red and yellow mini-apples (found at Michaels craft store)

• spool of red satin ribbon (4 yard spool of 1.5" wide ribbon)

How-to:

Insert some boxwood sprigs, dogwood branches into your wreath and allow them to catch in the mix of evergreens. 

Take a large stem of faux red berries and cut the stem into several smaller branches. (I made mine 6-10" in length)

Take some white craft paint and dry-brush "snow" onto the pinecones. Allow the paint to dry. 

Cut a length of light gage florist's wire (approx. 10-12"). Wrap the florist wire around the base of your pinecone and twist a knot to close the wire around the pinecone's base. 

Take the extra lengths of wire and poke them through the evergreen wreath. Twist the loose ends of wire at the back of the wreath into a knot to fix the pinecones to the wreath.

Apply a dab of hot glue to the bottom of the yellow and red mini-apples (I found mini-apples at Michaels craft store). 

Insert a florist's pic into the hot glue and hold it for a minute or so until the glue sets.

Insert the finished apple pics into the wreath. 

Make a bow. Turn it over and run a length of florist's wire through the bow's centre knot. 

Poke the ends of the wire through the wreath and twist a knot on the wreath's reverse side to fix the bow in place. 

Trim away any excess wire with your wire cutters. Turn the raw ends of wire back into the wreath so 

you won't get cut when you hang your wreath. 

Create a wire loop to hang the finished wreath and enjoy the holidays!

(Return to the main blog post.)

Red Berries & White Roses Evergreen Wreath

To make this wreath you need:

• basic store-bought evergreen wreath

• sharp scissors or pruners to cut branches

• wire cutters

• light gage florists wire

• white craft paint and small artist's brush

• low heat glue gun and glue sticks

• faux red berry branch (I used one large branch)

• boxwood cuttings about 6" in length (I trimmed a few boxwood sprigs from my garden even though this is not a great time of year to be pruning box. You can also often find swags of boxwood in stores during the holidays.)

• faux stem of white forsythia (found at Michaels craft store)

• stem of white silk roses (found at Michaels craft store)

• stem of pearl berries (found at Michaels craft store)

• stem of glittery gold eucalyptus (found at Michaels craft store)

• boxwood cuttings about 6" in length

• 6 pinecones

• spool of white satin ribbon ( 4 yard spool of 1.5" wide ribbon)

How-to:

Take some white craft paint and dry-brush "snow" onto the pinecones. Allow the paint to dry. 

Cut a length of light gage florist's wire (approx. 10-12"). Wrap the florist wire around the base of your pinecone and twist a knot to close the wire around the pinecone's base. 

Take the extra lengths of wire and poke them through the evergreen wreath. Twist the loose ends of wire at the back of the wreath into a knot to fix the pinecones to the wreath.

Insert some boxwood sprigs and red berries sprigs into the wreath and allow them to catch in the mix of evergreens. 

I bought one large stem of white silk roses and a stem of white forsythia at Michaels. I cut the large stem into a number of shorter branches and inserted these branches into my wreath. 

I did the same for a stem of pearl berries and glittery gold eucalyptus- cutting one large stem into several smaller branches.

Finally, I fastened a white bow with some florist's wire. 

Create a wire loop to hang the finished wreath and enjoy the holidays!

(Return to the main blog post.)