Cheap easy tulips/lilies
Jun. 13th, 2002 04:07 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
sylrayj.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
craftgrrlI don't have a picture, sorry...
Materials: eggshells, white glue, bamboo skewer, tissue paper in flower colours and in leaf colours. Pin - reusable. Vase or jar to hold things up while they dry - reusable.
I'm presuming your eggshells, like mine, were saved from baking or making breakfast, and had been cracked across the middle. Please have them washed and dried before we begin. Select one piece, and break the edges down using a pinching motion until they could hold about a teaspoon. Set the shell down with the inside facing up, and use a pin to pierce a hole not quite big enough for the entire bamboo skewer - as long as about half of the point can get through, it's fine. Cut 4-5 petals from the tissue paper - tulip petals are about tongue size and shape, lilies would start out wider at the bottom and taper to a blunt point. Smooth and crumpled tissue seem to work equally well, so by all means reuse the old pretty stuff. You will also need a rounded piece about the size of a loonie - about 1 inch across, and maybe some littler bits. Cover the outside of the eggshell with watered-down glue (I recommend holding it with your fingers, or finding a way to really stick it onto the top of a pop bottle or something, it slides too easily). Place the round piece of tissue over the end and top with more watered-down glue, smoothing the paper down onto the shell. Fill in any obvious gaps with the small pieces.
With dry fingers, place a petal against one side of the shell. About 1 cm of the bottom will be against the shell, and the rest will be free. Using glue, press the bottom of the petal against the shell, smoothing down any wrinkles. Turn the shell slightly, and add the rest of the petals in the same way. Let it dry.
Cut out long strips of leaf colour, about 1 cm wide. Start at one end of a bamboo skewer, cover the end with glue, then start wrapping it with tissue. Use glue on top of the tissue. I found that long stroking motions to press the tissue down, and tucking one side of the tissue down then tending to the other side, worked fairly well. Irregularities in this process look mostly natural, so don't worry. Do half of the skewer at a time. and set it in the jar to dry, then finish the other half.
Cut out a long leaf, with a wide rounded base, and gather the tissue into a pinch and cut out a rounded section with jagged motions with the scissors - you'll want an irregular edged piece about 1" across. Glue this onto the bottom of your flower over the hole, leaving the very edges free. Dip the point of a dry tissue-covered skewer into glue, and pierce the hole in the shell. Put an amount of glue at the bottom edge of a leaf, in the middle, and wrap the leaf around the skewer about halfway up. Let it dry.
The flower can be considered complete at this point, or some sort of pistil/stamen can be created from threads, twisted tissue remnants, yarn, etc. I'm considering trying to draw tigerlily stripe and spots with marker onto the petals before I glue them on, and I suspect the edges of petals can be painted or glittered or something too. The flowers will be decorations for our anniversary pot luck, and I hope to pass them on to our guests.
Materials: eggshells, white glue, bamboo skewer, tissue paper in flower colours and in leaf colours. Pin - reusable. Vase or jar to hold things up while they dry - reusable.
I'm presuming your eggshells, like mine, were saved from baking or making breakfast, and had been cracked across the middle. Please have them washed and dried before we begin. Select one piece, and break the edges down using a pinching motion until they could hold about a teaspoon. Set the shell down with the inside facing up, and use a pin to pierce a hole not quite big enough for the entire bamboo skewer - as long as about half of the point can get through, it's fine. Cut 4-5 petals from the tissue paper - tulip petals are about tongue size and shape, lilies would start out wider at the bottom and taper to a blunt point. Smooth and crumpled tissue seem to work equally well, so by all means reuse the old pretty stuff. You will also need a rounded piece about the size of a loonie - about 1 inch across, and maybe some littler bits. Cover the outside of the eggshell with watered-down glue (I recommend holding it with your fingers, or finding a way to really stick it onto the top of a pop bottle or something, it slides too easily). Place the round piece of tissue over the end and top with more watered-down glue, smoothing the paper down onto the shell. Fill in any obvious gaps with the small pieces.
With dry fingers, place a petal against one side of the shell. About 1 cm of the bottom will be against the shell, and the rest will be free. Using glue, press the bottom of the petal against the shell, smoothing down any wrinkles. Turn the shell slightly, and add the rest of the petals in the same way. Let it dry.
Cut out long strips of leaf colour, about 1 cm wide. Start at one end of a bamboo skewer, cover the end with glue, then start wrapping it with tissue. Use glue on top of the tissue. I found that long stroking motions to press the tissue down, and tucking one side of the tissue down then tending to the other side, worked fairly well. Irregularities in this process look mostly natural, so don't worry. Do half of the skewer at a time. and set it in the jar to dry, then finish the other half.
Cut out a long leaf, with a wide rounded base, and gather the tissue into a pinch and cut out a rounded section with jagged motions with the scissors - you'll want an irregular edged piece about 1" across. Glue this onto the bottom of your flower over the hole, leaving the very edges free. Dip the point of a dry tissue-covered skewer into glue, and pierce the hole in the shell. Put an amount of glue at the bottom edge of a leaf, in the middle, and wrap the leaf around the skewer about halfway up. Let it dry.
The flower can be considered complete at this point, or some sort of pistil/stamen can be created from threads, twisted tissue remnants, yarn, etc. I'm considering trying to draw tigerlily stripe and spots with marker onto the petals before I glue them on, and I suspect the edges of petals can be painted or glittered or something too. The flowers will be decorations for our anniversary pot luck, and I hope to pass them on to our guests.
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