Paper Flower Candle Holder

     Looking for a way to make plain, LED tealight candles look nicer?  Add a paper flower candle holder.  This incarnation of the craft can be somewhat time consuming because it requires cutting out all of the detailed areas, but if you don't cut out the detailed areas you could have a much faster and still pretty flower holder.  I got my inspiration for this craft from this site.

Materials:
*2 sheets of copy paper in color of your choice
*Double sided tape
*Scissors
*X-acto knife
*LED tealight candle (you could probably use a regular candle as well, as long as it was in a glass holder so you minimize the risk of burning the paper)

Directions:
*Size the below template so that your tealight candle would fit in the center of the smaller flower and then print out and cut out the template, using your X-acto knife to cut out the detailed regions.

*Trace two copies of the large template and one copy of the small template onto the copy paper and then cut out.  I took a shortcut on this step and used my Silhouette CAMEO to cut everything out.

*Bend up the petals on the smaller flower like this:

*Curl the petals of one of the smaller flowers like so and then tape the bottom of the smaller flower to the center of this larger flower.

*Curl the petals of the remaining flower a little and then tape the bottom of the two flowers stacked together to the center of this flower.

*Place the candle in the center and you're done!

Easy Coasters

     I have an odd affinity for coasters.  For some reason, having them around makes me feel like a real adult.  When I decorated my house for spring this year, I realized that I didn't have any coasters that matched my spring decor, so I decided to make a few.  This method is relatively quick, easy, and, if you already have access to a laminator, really inexpensive.

Materials:
*Patterned cardstock
*Thin cardboard, such as from a cereal box
*Double sided tape
*Laminator
*Drinking glass with large rim
*Pencil
*Scissors

Directions:
*Trace around the rim of the drinking glass onto the patterned cardstock and then cut out the resulting circle.
*Note: I used cardboard to make my coasters a bit more robust, but adding the cardboard to the back of the cardstock makes it a little harder to send through the laminator.  You can skip the cardboard steps and just laminate cardstock circles if you would prefer.
*Trace circles onto the cardboard as well, one circle for each coaster you intend to make.  Cut out the circles.
*Tape the cardstock circles to the cardboard ones.
*Place the circles inside the laminate, keeping plenty of distance between neighboring circles and then laminate following the instructions for your laminator.
*Cut out the laminated circles, leaving a decent amount of laminate around the edges of the circles.

Whimsical Spring Floral Arrangement

It's finally starting to feel like spring here in Maine!  I got the idea for this bouquet from this post from Fave Crafts.

Duct Tape "Dandelion"

Materials:
*Duct tape
*Measuring tape
*Thick gauge floral wire
*Scissors
*Wire cutters

Directions:
*Cut off a strip of duct tape about 18" in length.
*Fold it over (the hot dog way) almost in half so that about 1/4" of tape is left unattached.
*Cut slits in the tape almost all the way down to the unattached portion to create a fringe.
*Cut off a length of floral wire and wrap the duct tape around one end.
*Gently push on the petals to open the flower.

Large Sequin Flowers

Materials:
*Large sequins
*Medium sequins
*All purpose adhesive
*Wire

Directions:
*Take three large sequins and glue a medium sequin into the center of each one.
*Cut off three sections of wire of varying lengths and attach a large sequin to each one.
*Twist together the three wires to create a branch.

Sparkly Pom Pom Flowers

Materials:
*Sparkly pom poms
*All purpose adhesive
*Thick gauge green floral wire

Directions:
*Cut off a length of floral wire.
*Glue a pom pom to the top of the wire.

Hearts and Flowers Branch

Materials:
*Artificial floral branch
*Patterned paper
*Heart punch
*All purpose adhesive

Directions:
*Punch out hearts from the patterned paper and glue them to the artificial floral branch.

Glittery Flower

Materials:
*Artificial flower
*Glitter
*Glue

Directions:
*Coat the tops of the petals of the flower in glue.
*Pour glitter over the glue.  Set aside to dry.
*Once dry, shake off any excess glitter.

Butterfly

See my Spring Butterfly Bookmarks post to find out how to make this lovely butterfly.

Putting it All Together:

Materials:
*Oversize plastic cup
*Cone shaped Styrofoam
*Mini pinwheels

Directions:
*Fit Styrofoam inside cup.  Mine fit perfectly as it was, but depending on the size and shape of your cup, you may have to trim the Styrofoam some.
*Stick flowers and pinwheels into the Styrofoam.
*Glue the butterfly to one of the flowers.

Spring Butterfly Mobile

Materials:
*Cardstock in a variety of colors
*Butterfly template
*White paint
*Pipe cleaner
*All purpose adhesive
*Thread
*Hole punch
*Patterned cardstock
*Scissors

Directions:
*Create the desired number of butterflies using the template and instructions from my Spring Butterfly Bookmarks post.  You will need twice as many butterflies as the number you want hanging from your mobile.
*Glue two butterflies back to back, with a piece of string sandwiched between them.  Repeat using the remaining butterflies.
*Cut out two strips of 12 x 12 patterned paper about two inches in thickness.  You can create the scalloped edges by tracing around a rounded object, such as the bottom of the glue bottle, a small drinking glass, or a bottle cap.
*Glue the two strips together to form a ring.
*Punch out holes from the ring and tie on the strings the butterflies are hanging from, varying the height of the strings as you go.
*Punch two holes on opposite sides of the ring and tie each end of a piece of string to one of the holes.  Use this string to suspend the mobile from the ceiling.

Spring Butterfly Bookmarks

     Supposedly there is this thing called "spring" that is on its way.  As a Mainer, I'm a bit skeptical,  *Glances out window to see swirling white oblivion.*  But it sure sounds nice.  Anyway, I guess you're supposed to summon it by bedecking your home in butterflies and flowers and whatnot, so I figured I would give it a try.  I got the idea for the butterflies from this site and thought they would make nice bookmarks.

Materials:
*Solid colored cardstock
*Patterned cardstock
*Butterfly template
*White paint
*Popsicle stick
*Pipe cleaner
*Mod Podge
*Paintbrush
*All purpose adhesive
*Headpin (optional)

Directions:
*Print the below butterfly template onto the sheet of solid colored cardstock.

*Using the "head" of the head pin, add dots of white paint along the edge of the butterfly's wing.
*Set aside to dry.
*Glue on a piece of pipe cleaner to form the butterfly's body.
*Cut out a section of patterned cardstock and decoupage to the popsicle stick.
*Glue the popsicle stick to the butterfly and set aside to dry.

Perler Fuse Bead Drink Covers

     Warmer weather is here (unless you live in Maine like I do, in which case it could still transition back to winter at any moment), which for many of us means we'll be eating some meals outdoors.  Tired of finding drowned insects in a beverage you've had outside?  Try making one of these drink covers.

Materials:
*Fuse bead kit (e.g. Perler beads kit)
*Iron

Directions:
*Arrange beads on either a circular or hexagonal pegboard, using the patterns shown above for guidance.  There are two different styles of drink cover, one to allow for a hole through which to put a straw and one that you would have to remove to take a sip of your drink.  Either pattern can easily be altered to become the other by adding or removing a few beads.
*Cover your pattern with a sheet of waxed paper and iron the first side, then remove from the peg board, flip over, put waxed paper on top and iron the second side.  You can find more detailed directions here.
*Perhaps it's because I tend to use a hotter setting on my iron, but I've noticed that my fuse bead creations have a tendency to curl slightly.  To prevent this, while the drink cover is still hot, press it underneath a heavy book for several minutes.
*Note: These designs will only work on small drinking glasses.  You can make larger versions by using large fuse bead pegboards and adding additional beads.

Glittery Easter Egg Garland

Materials:
*12 plastic Easter eggs
*Glitter
*Mod Podge
*Fuzzy yarn
*Paintbrush

Directions
*Mix some glitter into Mod Podge.
*Using the paintbrush, coat the eggs in the glitter glue mixture.  Set aside to dry.
*Once the eggs are dry, string onto the yarn.  I found that I had an easier time getting the yarn through the eggs when I put a little glue on the ends of the yarn and let it dry.

Spring Pinwheel Earrings

     Spring is here, although if you live in Maine like I do, you wouldn't be able to tell.  Welcome the change of season with some fun paper pinwheel earrings.

Materials:
*Patterned paper
*2 mini buttons
*2 jump ring
*Ear wire
*Head pin
*All purpose adhesive
*Scissors
*Round nosed pliers
*Flat nosed pliers
*Small beads

Directions:
*It's somewhat difficult to verbally describe the steps needed to make these earrings, so I've included a picture below showing the necessary folding steps in addition to written directions.
*Cut out a small square from patterned paper (approximately 1.5" x 1.5").
*Fold the paper in half diagonally with the pattern side facing in.  Crease and unfold, then repeat the procedure with the other diagonal.  You should end up with something like the top right picture below.
*Cut along one of the diagonal folds 1/4 of the way in and then fold over as shown in the bottom left picture.
*Repeat with the remaining sides to get the bottom right picture.

*Repeat the entire procedure for a second square of paper to form a second pinwheel.
*Glue a small button in the center of each pinwheel.
*Poke a small hole in each of the pinwheels using a needle or similar implement.
*Pry open the jump rings with the pliers and slip each one through the hole in its respective pinwheel, then close the jump rings.
*Cut the "head" off two head pins, then curl the ends and clamp to the jump ring.
*Slide small beads onto the head pins, then create a loop at the top of each head pin and attach each one to its respective ear wire.

Pony Bead Sun Catchers

Materials:
*Pony beads
*Metal cookie cutter
*Baking sheet
*Aluminum foil
*Cooking spray
*String

Directions:
*Make sure your cooking area is well ventilated, as the melting beads can get rather smelly.
*Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
*Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.
*Lightly spray the inside of the cookie cutters with cooking spray and then place cookie cutters on the baking sheet.  Alternately, you can wrap cookie cutters in aluminum foil, but if you choose this method, you may end up with bits of foil stuck in your sun catchers.
*Arrange beads inside the cookie cutters.  Once you have the inside of each cookie cutter lined with beads, remove a bead from near the top of each cookie cutter.  This will create a hole in the sun catcher so you will be able to hang it up once you're finished.  (As you can see, I forgot this step.)
*Pop the cookie sheet in the oven and cook for 15-25 minutes, or until sufficiently melted.  Keep an eye on the beads so that the gap you've created toward the top doesn't close up.
*Remove the baking sheet from the oven and let the sun catchers cool.  Once they have cooled, carefully peel back the aluminum foil and then gently pop the melted beads out of the cookie cutters.
*Use string to hang up your sun catchers.

Butterfly Checkers Game

Materials:
*12" x 12" piece of wood
*24 circular wooden pieces about 1" in diameter
*Butterfly patterned paper
*Other paper in two distinct colors
*Glue
*White paint
*Paintbrush
*Scissors

Directions:
*Paint one side of the 12" x 12" piece of wood white, then set aside to dry.
*Cut out 32 butterflies.  Make sure that your chosen butterflies are not much more than an inch at their widest.
*Once the piece of wood has dried, arrange butterflies on the board in a checkered pattern, then glue down the butterfly.
*Trace around one of your wooden circular pieces to create 12 circles of each of the two colors you have chosen and glue these circles to the circular wooden pieces to make your game tokens.

Rainbow Spring Butterflies

Materials:
*Fabric
*18 gauge wire
*Brown or black pipe cleaners
*Wire cutters
*Round nosed pliers
*Flat nosed pliers
*Scissors
*All purpose adhesive

Directions:
*Print out several pictures of butterflies to use as templates for your butterflies.
*Following the picture, bend the wire to make wings.  18 gauge wire should be malleable enough to bend with your fingers, but if you are looking to add intricate detail (such as the detail in the wings of my purple butterfly), you may need to utilize pliers.  I made four separate wings for each butterfly, but you could also construct two wings from wire or the entire butterfly from a piece of wire to simplify the process.
*Turn your fabric pattern side down.
*Glue the wire frame to the fabric.  If you are putting the butterfly together in multiple pieces, make sure to leave space between the pieces when adhering them to the fabric.
*Once the adhesive has dried, cut out the butterfly's frame, leaving about 1/4" of excess fabric around the edges.
*Glue down the excess fabric so that it covers the exposed wire.  To glue, cut the edge fabric into segments.  As you near a rounded area or point in the frame, cut the segments into smaller and smaller pieces.  For example, if you had something like the wing depicted in the picture below, you might wnat to cut the fabric along the black lines before gluing the fabric down.  Cutting the fabric into small pieces enables you to go around corners without getting bunches or bulges in your fabric.

*Once your wings have dried, arrange them to form the butterfly, then glue them together.
*Add a pipe cleaner to create the butterfly's body.
*Once your butterflies are done, you can stick them to a wall or bookshelf, or make a butterfly garland like the one pictured below:

Fuse Bead Spring Magnets

Materials:
*Fuse Beads kit
*Magnetic backing
*Adhesive (if your magnetic backing does not have adhesive or has a weak adhesive)
*Scissors
*Iron

Directions:
*Design your Fuse Bead creations by arranging beads in the desired pattern on a peg board.  For the sodas, the sun, and the bumble bee I used the hexagonal board, for the ice cream I used the square board, for the butterfly I used the heart peg board, and for the umbrella I used the circular peg board
*Cover your beaded project with a sheet of waxed paper and iron the first side, then remove from the peg board, flip over, put waxed paper on top and iron the second side.  You can find more detailed directions here
*Cut off a small section of magnetic backing about 1" in length and about 1/4" to 1/2" inches in width
*Adhere magnetic strip to the fuse bead craft.  If using glue, let dry before placing on the refrigerator 

Stylish Rain Boot Repair

Do your rain boots have a hole in them?  Here is a fashionable way to patch them up.  Even if they do not have a hole, this craft can be a great way to personalize your boots.

Materials:
*Duct tape of varying colors
*Scissors

Directions:
*Select a design for your rain boots 
*Once you have a design in mind, determine your base color.  Since the sky would make up a lot of my springy scene, I selected blue for my base color
*Using the base color, tape over the entirety of the surface that you want to cover.  Make sure that the tape is well secured in the spots where there is a hole you are trying to cover up
*Cut out shapes from the duct tape and apply on top of the base color in your chosen pattern

Bonus:
*Apply scraps of duct tape left over from cutting out the patterns to a notebook cover to give it a funky new look.  Depending on the sizes of the leftover pieces of duct tape, you may want to cut the pieces into smaller sized pieces before applying to the cover