Monthly Archives: April 2012

Hanging Plant Easter Egg Tree

07 Saturday Apr 2012

Posted by in crafts, Easter, flowers, home decor, miniature

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Last year I finally had time to make an Easter Egg tree and I’m happy to display it again this year. I’ve been wanting to make one for many years. I have a couple precious decorated eggs left from the tree of my childhood and some day I will restore the eggs and call that tree my Heritage Tree. For now, this Hanging Plant Easter Egg Tree will adorn my dining room table.

The tree was from Pottery Barn. The eggs are plastic, cut into little baskets with a craft knife. I made all the hanging plants from bits and pieces of full size artificial plants. The hundreds of tiny leaves were cut out individually with manicure scissors. Crystal beads were glued strategically from the tips of petals and leaves to look like they were freshly washed with a light spring rain. It took several weeks to make these eggs, working on them when I could during evenings last year.

Easter Egg Tree - click photo to see a larger image.

These little hanging plants are made from bits and pieces cut from artificial plants and flowers tucked into plastic eggs. Click on photos to see a larger image.

Egg Tree - The Purple Egg.

Egg Tree - The Spring Green Egg

Egg Tree - The Little Blue Birds Egg

Egg Tree - The Yellow Green Moss Egg

Egg Tree - The Blue Forget-me-not Egg

Egg Tree - The Orange Marigold Egg

Egg Tree - The White Lily-of-the-Valley Egg

Egg Tree - The Pink Peony Egg

Egg Tree - The Yellow Daisy Egg

Egg Tree - The Miniature Pink Rose Egg

Amy Atlas design

06 Friday Apr 2012

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I just love Amy Atlas‘s design style! Her party tables are a feast of deliciousness, both to eat and to look at. I’m looking forward to her new book, Sweet Designs, debuting soon. Her recent Scavenger hunt was a lot of fun and I discovered new websites along the way. Now I just need some excuses to host a party!

Amy Atlas - Sweet Designs

Bunny Tea

04 Wednesday Apr 2012

Posted by in baking, Easter, food

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Today was the first time I ever made eye contact with a cupcake. @_@ These little bunnies sure were sweet with my afternoon tea. The tea was Calendula, by Teaposy. I prefer a sweeter tea with sweets but the jasmine tones complimented the buttery, unsweetened coconut-dusted cupcakes very well.

Mini bunny cupcakes with Teaposy Calendula tea.

Altered Vintage Book – Teaching and Teachers

04 Wednesday Apr 2012

Posted by in altered books, crafts

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I finished another altered vintage book. The original was a book on Sunday School teaching methods and teachers. I will use the book as a journal about teaching and teachers. The entire text of Teaching and Teachers is available on google books. The book was in fair condition, considering its age.

Altered vintage book – Teaching and Teachers

I cut a window shape in the book cover and used a sheet of beautiful textured paper with silhouettes of children for the endpaper. The window frame is pieces of wood that I stained with red, green and brown paint to look aged.

Altered vintage book – Wood alphabet beads are colored and glued to the window sill to look like alphabet blocks.

I removed many pages from the books, especially damaged pages, which were set aside in order to glue interesting paragraphs back into the book later. The pages remaining in the book were glued together in bundles in order to make them more sturdy and then coated with gesso to provide a surface for journaling.

Both front and back covers were cut off the book and then reattached to the spine. I removed all the crumbling and dry rotted material from the spine and then reattached the covers. The front covers are attached using small hinges tied on with black ribbon. The back covers are hole punched and stitched to the spine with black ribbon. This binding allows the book to be opened flat.

Inside the front cover – decorative silhouette paper provided the perfect design for a book about teaching.

A peek inside Teaching and Teachers altered book. The original book was devoid of illustration. I tore out motifs from the decorative paper and glued them on some of the pages.

While applying gesso to the pages, I read each page first to see if there was a quote I wanted to showcase. For this spread, I kept the small side bar “The three-fold method” and the chapter title “Any Plan Better Than None” by spreading gesso carefully around the text.

I was a homeschool mom for 24 years and taught Sunday School for many years so I’m looking forward to filling this book with thoughts on teaching and teachers.

Easter Cupcakes

03 Tuesday Apr 2012

Posted by in baking, candy, Easter, food, tutorial

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These cupcakes are a sweet two-bite size, baked in a mini muffin pan.

Ingredients are simple: Mini homemade vanilla cupcakes, homemade frosting, pink sugar, jellybeans, mini marshmallows, candy “eyes” and a little bit of coconut.

To make the bunny ears, I cut mini marshmallows on the diagonal and then pressed the sticky cut side into pink sugar.

To make bunny ears, cut a mini marshmallow diagonally as shown. This works even better if the mini marshmallow is already a little skewed.

By cutting the mini marshmallow on the diagonal, one side will be fat, tapering to a point. Press the sticky cut side into pink sugar.

Mini Easter cupcakes – Bunnies, chicks and eggs in grass. The bunny eyes and nose are mini jelly beans cut in half. The orange chick beak is a mini jelly bean cut in half diagonally.

Mini Easter cupcakes – bunny, chick and eggs in grass. These tiny cupcakes disappeared fast in two sweet bites!

Tiny Temporary Foil Flowers

02 Monday Apr 2012

Posted by in candy, crafts

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The phone call was short and sweet, just long enough for me to eat a couple Hershey kisses and fashion little flowers with a vase and a bow. And then it was gone.Image