Tutorials

Miniature Potted Feather Tree Tutorial

Even though we are far away from Christmas I am still in my exploration of feather trees.  Today I am working on a miniature feather tree using pink goose feathers for a sweet springtime look.  Yo...

Make a Crepe Paper Flower Instead of a Bow! Vintage Style DIY Gift Topper

With Mother's Day coming up, and wedding season back this year, you might be wrapping some lovely gifts this spring!  A few years ago I designed these giant crepe paper flowers for a friend's wedd...

Making Vintage Style Clothespin Dolls! 1960s Kitsch Craft Project

 Today I'm making these retro ladies, inspired by some clothespin dolls my mom picked up at a holiday bazaar in the 1970s. I like the quaint look of the long dresses and hand-drawn faces. For this...

Braided Bread Dolls with Hard Boiled Egg Faces

Today I am creating a pair of lovely braided bread dolls inspired by a baking project I did with my mother when I was small. I can't remember now what kind of bread we used then, but I do remember...

Spun Cotton Spring Birds with Coffee Filter Bonnets and Ruffs

I love combining spun cotton with pipe cleaners. It immediately makes a decoration look vintage!  For these happy spring birds I picked out paint colors that matched some pastel pipe cleaners, and...

Vintage Style Spun Cotton and Paper Lantern Ornaments

  I have always loved the vintage lantern ornaments that were made in Japan for export in the 1950s.  There were several different types made of paper, as well as the heavy painted glass bulbs for...

Tissue Paper Puffy Heart Valentine's Window Decoration - DIY Papercraft

For this Valentine's day project, I borrowed a papercrafting technique that I learned back in gradeschool!  Does anyone else remember applying squares of tissue paper with a pencil eraser to make ...

Make a Crepe Paper Flower Fairy - DIY Craft Tutorial

These whimsical flower fairies are made of some of my favorite materials: spun cotton, crepe paper, and pipe cleaners!  I had some extra-skinny pipe cleaners that I used for the arms and legs, but...

DIY Paper Shamrock Corsage for St. Patrick's Day

Here is a shamrock pin for St. Patrick's Day that's so pretty, you'll wear it every year.  It's simple to make with just paper and pipe cleaners, but the result is very elegant.  You can use any gr...

How to Dye Pipe Cleaners for Crafts - DIY Tutorial

Extreme crafters rejoice: you can dye your own pipe cleaners!  I was wanting some pipe cleaners in various pastel shades for my spring craft projects, but I was disappointed by the limited selecti...

Simple Craft Project: Make a Delightful Pipe Cleaner Heart Garland!

  This is a wonderful low-tech, minimal-supply craft project that has a beautiful end result! By simply forming old fashioned pipe cleaners over a template, you can make a lovely chain of linked h...

Basic Macrame Knots: Simple Square Knot Tutorial + Adding Beads

 If you lived through the 1970s, you might remember this!  One of the most basic macrame knots is the square knot, and it's actually very versatile.  This tutorial shows how to tie square knot in ...

Giant Paper Flower for a DIY Wedding Backdrop - Craft Tutorial

I recently had the chance to make some wonderful large crepe paper flowers for a friend's wedding.  They were to be part of a backdrop installation, so we needed to make a lot of flowers that fil...

Plants on Pink Easter Eggs - Painted Spun Cotton Eggs

  Today I'm making some handpainted Plants on Pink Easter eggs!   These fun eggs are inspired by the @plantsonpink Instagram sensation.  There truly is something irresistible about that combinatio...

Mossy Fairy House DIY Tutorial

This is a darling cottage-style mossy fairy house.  It's simple to make using a paper mache house as a base.  After wrapping it in sheet moss, I'm putting on a rustic roof made out of corrugated c...

Technique: How to Make HOLLOW Polymer Clay Beads Using Spun Cotton Balls

Ever wondered how to make HOLLOW polymer clay beads?   With this technique I'm making some fun marbled beads to string up on a ribbon. They are perfectly round and smooth, and it's great to be abl...

Speckled Spun Cotton Easter Eggs DIY Tutorial

In this tutorial I'm making speckled spun cotton Easter eggs.  These are so darling.  I did a similar project last year, but this time I've added a coat of clear glass glitter. You can paint them ...

Assembling a Wax Flower Hair Comb Tutorial

  In this tutorial I'm assembling a wax flower hair comb with the pretty picks I made in the last tutorial. This romantic hair comb would make a beautiful bridal hairpiece. Instructions for making...

Making a Wax Flower Pick DIY Tutorial

In this tutorial I'm taking the wax flowers and buds I made in the last tutorial, and wrapping them together to make a pick for a hair comb.  You can use embroidery floss or wire to do this bindin...

Wax Flowers DIY Tutorial

In this tutorial I'm making DIY wax flowers with a romantic Victorian look to them.  The buds are made of spun cotton, and the wax-dipped flowers are crepe paper.  You need to make the paper flowe...

Simple Paper Flowers DIY Tutorial

These simple paper flowers are made out of one-size petals applied to spun cotton eggs.  They look like little wild roses or spring blossoms.  These are the type of blossoms that I use to make my ...

Tutorial: DIY Concrete Flowers

  This tutorial is from a few years ago, but it's a goodie!  These concrete flowers are inexpensive to make, and look stunning when they're done.  They look like carved stone, and are really elega...

Paper Mache Easter Egg Diorama

So I kind of feel like this is the year of the diorama. I'm pretty much obsessed with them at this point. This paper mache Easter egg diorama would make such a lovely display on a side table or bu...

Tutorial: Spun Cotton Quail Eggs

I love the look of quail eggs, and I love all things made of spun cotton, so here I'm combining the two! These spun cotton quail eggs would make the most wonderful spring decorations. They would b...

Retro Spun Cotton Birds

These adorable retro spun cotton birds were inspired by some Christmas ornaments that were made in Japan in the 1950s.  I've sold a bunch of them, and they often came in blue, teal, and white.  Th...

Tutorial: Make Giant Paper Flowers

Back when my Storybook Rose tutorial went viral, I started experimenting with different materials for flower-making.  I found that the same rose technique could easily be scaled up, and so I start...

Tutorial: 5 Minute, No-Sew Lace Lavender Sachets

For this project I'm using vintage lace trim to create simple lavender sachets.  You can also use lace fabric cut into strips.  It's a good opportunity to use scraps and remnants of things you hav...

Tutorial - Glowing Crepe Paper Waterlily Luminaries

This is a tutorial I originally produced for 100 Layer Cake, which you can view here. These waterlily luminaries are a real showstopper! Great decoration for dinner parties or outdoor events.   De...

Tutorial: Plaster Fairy Mushroom Picks

It seems that so many amazing crafts originated in Germany.  These plaster fairy mushroom picks were inspired by some vintage German-made ones, and would make great embellishments for lots of proj...

Paper Flower Tutorial: Storybook Paper Roses

I originally did this tutorial for 100LayerCake.com, and it remains one of my favorite projects.  Here I'll share the original post, plus some extra photos and details about how I make paper roses...

Tutorial: Crepe Paper Easter Baskets

Lovely crepe paper Easter baskets! These frilly pails look lovely grouped together for a centerpiece, and make sweet packages for gifts.  Imagine walking into work and seeing one of these on your d...