DIY Twisted Candles for a Romantic Valentine’s Day Dinner

Brittany

-

January 26, 2021

We made our candles in red and pink to add them to our Valentine’s day decorations. They would be perfect to display on the mantle, dining table, bookshelf, bathroom, anywhere, really! They would also be perfect to light on your Valentine’s day dinner at home. These candles are functional, beautiful, and customizable. No wonder we love them!

DIY Twisted Candles

Supplies:

Candles

Ziplock bag

Rolling Pin

Instructions:

(based on 12 inch tall candles)

Fill a bowl with warm enough water to cover candles

2. Soak candles in warm water for 15-20 min, or until they are flexible

3. Working with one candle at a time – transfer a candle to a ziplock bag

3. Using your rolling pin, roll the center of the candle flat until it is a 1/2″ wide. Make sure to leave 2″ at the top of the candle that is unrolled, as well as 2″ from the bottom.

Tip: If at any point the candle is becoming too firm to roll out, let it sit in the warm water longer and then start rolling again.

5. Once you have flattened out the center of your candle, slowly twist it until you have created the look you want!

Embrace the trend and flaunt your modern flair!

Don’t forget to add some Doily Honeycomb Decorations and Valentines Heart Pom-Poms to your Valentine’s day decorations this year!

DIY Sparklers For New Year’s Eve

Brittany

-

December 22, 2020

0

We’ve been busy sharing our favorite DIYs for a fun New Year’s Eve celebration, including paper crowns, 2021 glasses, and more from the Lars archives. Today we’re delving into a really fun project to add to these—some DIY sparklers!

Maybe you’re not a fan of actual fireworks, or the thought of going outside in the chilly night air on New Year’s Eve is not appealing. Either way, this craft is for you. These sparklers require no fire, no lighters, no matches…nothing. Which makes it perfect for the whole family to enjoy, even your youngest kiddos!

All you need to make your own DIY sparklers is some colorful cellophane and some wooden dowels. And like many of our projects, this one is reusable.

DIY Sparklers

Materials:

Wooden dowels

Cellophane: We used gold, but also love this iridescent option and this colorful set. You can also use ribbon or tissue paper.

Scissors

Hot Glue Gun

Instructions:

Cut three 12 inch by 5 inch strips of cellophane.

2. Create a fringe effect with each strip by cutting parallel lines down the full strip, making sure never to cut all the way to the edge of your material.

3. Once all 3 strips are fringed, take your dowel and begin gluing one strip on to the top of the dowel.. Starting on one side and twisting it around the skewer, adding a dab of glue when needed to keep it in place.

5. Do that for each strand creating 3 tiered layers at the top of the skewer.

6. Add 1 thin piece of cellophane around the bottom of the 3 tiers to add the finish touch!

This projects also makes for great cake toppers! Or use them for your New Year’s Eve party centerpieces, drink stirrers, tablescape and more.

For more creative New Year’s ideas, check out our New Year’s Eve archives.

DIY Accordion Christmas Village

Brittany

-

December 7, 2020

0

Today we are sharing another DIY Christmas Village (similar to one we posted last week), but this one is an accordion style and you can use the templates right here from our shop to either hand cut it out OR use a craft cutting machine to do it for you.

I just love the anticipation of Christmas, and a cute village on your mantel with fluffy cotton ball clouds and bottle brush trees just adds to the magic of the season. I like to put little twinkle lights behind the village for an added glow. Here, I added in our heirloom nativity (you can see the tutorial here!)

With this particular DIY Christmas Village, you only need to do a bit of assembly so it’s for someone who has only a sitcom’s worth of time to work on something. This village can sit as a lovely silhouette in your windowsill for passerby to admire.

DIY Accordion Christmas Village

Here’s how to do it for both the craft cutting machines or hand cut!

Materials

See above!

You can get the templates here

Instructions

Use either the SVG or the PDF files, depending on how you want to cut it out. PDF files are for those wanting to hand cut it out and the SVG files are for those who can put it in their craft cutting machines.
To handcut: Use the template to cut out the pieces with your ruler and craft knife.
Craft cutting machine: Each “house” is meant for a different 8.5×11″ page so you’ll need to assemble them together. If you want them to be SUPER sturdy, I’d recommend cutting the tabs at the bottom off a bit and taping them together so that the buildings sit side by side.

Check out our other Christmas village here (this one is also an advent calendar!).

If you like this project, you might also like:

DIY Peppermint Pig Pinata
Heirloom Nativity Set
Family Tree Ornaments

DIY Paper Honeycomb Ornaments

Brittany

-

December 1, 2020

0

We love the mid-century modern vibe of paper ornaments, and the jewel-toned colors complement any Christmas tree. We especially like that they’re non-breakable—if you have a toddler in your house, you understand.

Plus everyone loves a handmade ornament. They are sweet and sentimental, just like Christmas should be. Though these DIY paper ornaments are quite the level up from popsicle stick reindeers and laminated school photos, ha!

How to Make your DIY Paper Honeycomb Ornaments

These DIY paper honeycomb ornaments are easy to make, you’ll get the hang of it super quick. And like all of our paper crafts, you can reuse them next year! Just make sure to store them in a box where they won’t get crushed by heavier objects.

Materials:

Ornament Templates
Medium weight cardstock – Enough to cut 60-66 shapes out per ornament. Our ornaments are all around 5.5 inches tall when complete and we were able to fit 6 shapes each on an 8.5×11 sheet for our Cricut.
Ribbon
Cricut machine (or your trusty scissors!)
Superglue with small applicator – I used both Gorilla Glue clear super glue and Krazy Glue Pens – Stock up on the super glue! This project uses quite a bit.
Flexible glue such as bookbinding glue – I used E6000 clear transparent adhesive
Paintbrush with a flat edge

Instructions:

Read all instructions before beginning your project!

Download our ornament templates here
Use your cutting machine or scissors to cut out 66 pieces for each ornament.
Once all of your pieces are cut, you will start glueing them together.
Carefully place 2 thin lines of super glue separate from each other, and perpendicular to the flat edge of the shape. Take care not to spread the glue anywhere else. Your line of glue does not need to go all the way to both edges of the paper, start and end in a little bit to avoid glue spilling over the edges.
Place the next shape on top of the one with glue, carefully lining up all the edges.
On top of this new piece, carefully place one line a super glue, in the middle of where you placed the 2 lines on the last piece.
Place a next pieces on top of top of that, again aligning all edges.
Repeat steps 4-7, alternating between 1 line of glue and 2 until all of your cut shapes are stacked on top of each other.
Now you will seal the flat edges of your ornaments shapes together using bookbinding glue or any other flexible glue.
While holding the shapes together tightly, use a small paintbrush with a flat edge to spread flexible glue along the entire flat edge of your stack of paper shapes.
Before the flexible glue has dried, use it to attach a ribbon to the flat edge, on the side you want as the top of your ornament. This is what you will use to hang it up later.
Let your work sit until all of the glue is completely dry. Now it is time to open your ornament!
Starting at one side, start to carefully open the individual shapes in your stack, carefully unsticking any edges where the super glue might have spilled over if needed.
Your paper shapes should open up to form your ornament, meeting on the opposite side. You’ll see the ribbon is now tucked in in the center of the ornament.
Carefully align and glue together the 2 sides that meet when the ornament is open. Ta da!

Extra Tips

Here are some extra notes that will help you avoid mistakes your first time around!

If you are having a hard time opening your ornaments that is most likely because glue spilled over the edges in places it shouldn’t be. That is why it is important to take care to make your lines of super glue and thin and straight as possible. And avoid glueing all the way to the edge of your paper. Just take your time!

You may experiment with where you places you lines of glue to achieve different end looks – as long as you use the same pattern for one entire ornament. These lines of glue effect where the “honeycomb” effect shows up on finished ornaments. For all of the shapes included in our templates, I still used 2 lines of glue alternating with 1 line between them.

More Paper Ornament Ideas

Need more DIY ornament ideas? Check out our tutorial for printable retro ornaments, paper candle ornaments, or a head to toe Swedish Christmas tree .

If you’re not in the mood for a DIY, browse through our whimsical Christmas ornament selection, introduced in this post from a few weeks ago.

Paper Ornaments Available For Purchase

DIY Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Tablescape

Brittany

-

November 9, 2020

4

DIY Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Tablescape

We’ve loved using Anagram for other balloon projects, like our DIY Jingle Bell Balloons for Christmas, and more recently, our Halloween Ghost Installation.

Balloon projects are awesome because they don’t require a ton of skill (although they can be time-consuming depending on how big you go) but they always look impressive and joyful! They’re one of those projects that are hard to mess up. I am very excited to share this balloon installation because it has just as much impact, but needs significantly less time than our past balloon projects!

The theme for this project is…(drumroll please)…The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade! If you’ve been a Lars reader for a while, you might recognize this project from four years ago. I love using the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade as a theme for Thanksgiving day parties. It’s so fun and makes for a clever twist on the normal turkeys and leaves everywhere this time of year. I am all for traditions, but this might be the perfect year to replace your mom’s ancient fall tablecloth with this unique theme (though I love that too!)

Bring The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade To Your Own Feast

As soon as the realization hit me that the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade will not be the same this year, I immediately knew this was the year this project needed to be revamped. We still don’t know all the details for the actual parade, but like everything else this in 2020, it’s sure to be different. We do know that nobody will be watching the parade in person, including New Yorkers, but for most of us that doesn’t change that we can watch the parade on TV. Luckily my panicked googling confirmed at least that much.

My one consolation is that I can bring the parade to my very own Thanksgiving party this year! We partnered with Anagram to make this Thanksgiving theme bigger and better than ever. This year, create an entire balloon installation with the directions below. We even included printable versions of the cityscape to make your decorating as simple as possible, without sacrificing the wow factor.

How To Make Your Own Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Tablescape

Materials:

Printable cityscape and taxis
OR Printable taxis on their own
Foam core
Craft knife
Spray adhesive
Cutting mat
Mini Mickey balloon
Turkey balloon
Mini rose gold star balloon
Spiderman balloon
Other Mini Balloon you could use: here
Hand pump
Balloon sticks
Balloon sealer (used to seal mini balloons, which don’t have a self-sealer)

Instructions:

Figure out how long your table is and how much you want to fill of it with cityscape. One copy of our printable cityscape should fill about 3’.
Cut out the buildings and attach them to foam core.
Cut out the buildings with a craft knife.
Use glasses to prop up the city scape (or make your own stands by creating a wing attached to each one)
Blow up your balloons with a pump and seal shut.
Attach them to a balloon stick and then attach to the backs of the city scape with tape
Set your table! We included these printable taxi cab place cards to complete the look.

For our table, we used plates from Knot and Bow, cups from Knot and Bow, napkins from Oh Happy Day.

Creating this wonderful balloon centerpiece for your Thanksgiving holiday will bring some much-needed cheer. Plus, like all our balloon projects, you can reuse them every year! This balloon installation would go wonderfully with our Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Printables.

This post is sponsored by Anagram. We love our sponsors who allow us to create beautiful original content!

DIY Dried Flower Turkey Gourds

Brittany

-

October 22, 2020

0

DIY Dried Flower Turkey Gourds

We have a really simple but beautiful DIY for you today—dried floral arrangements for your Thanksgiving Dinner. These are reminiscent of our gorgeous dried flower pumpkin DIY from a few weeks back, and just like that project, you can re-use these in the years to come! Once again, we used the beautiful preserved flower choices from Terrain and they were perfect!

Unlike fresh flower arrangements (which we also love, naturally), these dried floral turkey gourds don’t need water to keep them looking great. This arrangement also isn’t specific to Halloween or Thanksgiving—you can keep it up all through autumn (and maybe winter too, if you’re already dreading the cold months and need something to remind you of slightly warmer days).

Dried Flowers

Did you know people used to think dried flowers represented bad luck? The tradition goes that dried flowers no longer have a “soul,” or “chi,” so they bring bad luck to your home. While we don’t quite follow this line of thinking, make sure to keep your dried flowers in a dry, temperature-controlled place to keep them from accumulating mold, mildew, or dust.

Where to Display Them

We like to put our dried flower arrangements as the table centerpiece, but how amazing would they look on a mantle? You could even put them in a windowsill so your neighbors can enjoy the autumn bounty.

Making the Dried Floral Turkey Gourds

Materials

Dried flowers (see above for exact links!)
gourds
glue gun
cardboard
spray paint

Instructions

Cut out a piece of cardboard that fits behind the gourd. It should be a in a semi circle.
Identify the center of the cardboard and start gluing the pieces starting from the outside and to the middl of the cardboard.
Try different patterns with the florals for a unique pattern.
For more depth and fullness, try different layers of cardboard in front of the other.

To display

Pin the cardboard into the back of the gourd. To separate out sprays with different layers, try using a sponge in between each layer.
If it’s a centerpiece, make sure you glue the back of the cardboard too.

Let us know if you make them by tagging us with #LarsMakes or #LarsGivesThanks

If you liked this project, I have a feeling that you’ll also like the following:

DIY succulent monogram pumpkins
Friendsgiving Tablescape
Origami Cornucopia

Haunted Cardboard Houses for Recycled Holiday Decor

Brittany

-

October 15, 2020

0

Haunted Cardboard Houses for Recycled Holiday Decor

This year, the holidays look a little different, but in my opinion, that gives us even more excuses to be creative! This spooky holiday decor made out of recycled items can even be re-used next year.

This cardboard haunted house was inspired by our DIY Gingerbread Houses from a few years ago, but you can choose to yours them big or small. Set them on your porch or mantle on All Hallow’s Eve, where they can cast a spooky glow. And—a big plus—they are a super sneaky hiding place for the candy you told your kids went missing. Your secret is safe with us!

You probably already have most of the supplies in your recycle bin or overflowing craft closet (don’t worry…we all have one.)

How to make your cardboard haunted house

Materials:

Template
Cardboard
TapeBox cutter or crafting knife
Pencil
Hot glue gun
Black and gray paint
Paint brush

Instructions:

1. Start by cutting out the pieces from the template. The large pieces called “Base front”
and “Base back” are each split onto two pieces of paper. You’ll need to cut them both
out and then tape them together, so you have one “Base front” and one “Base back”.

2. Place the template pieces flat on the cardboard and trace them with a pencil (you might
want to label each piece before you cut them out).

3. Cut out all the tracings with a box cutter or a crafting knife.

4. All the structures are labeled, so start with #1 and glue together the front, two sides,
and back piece. (See labeled diagram at the end of these instructions)

5. For structure #2, start by gluing the door to the “front door structure”, then glue the
two sides to the “front door structure”. Once that dries, glue the sides to the center of
structure #1.

6. Now you’re going to put the roofs on both structure #1 & #2. To bend each roof piece,
place the cardboard against the edge of a table and gently press down with your hand
to get a curve. Move the piece up and down on the table edge until the whole piece has
a slight curve. Then glue the roof pieces onto the top of structures #1 & #2.

7. Next take the pieces for structure #3, and glue together the front, sides, and back. Place
this structure on the roof of #1, make sure it fits, and then glue #3 to the roof of #1.

8. Now for structure #4, glue the window piece to the front piece. Then glue the sides and
bottom to the front piece. After that dries, glue #4 to the center of structure #3.

9. For the roof pieces of #3 & #4, repeat the same process as Step 6 to get the curved effect. Then glue the roof pieces onto the two structures.

10. For structure #5, take 4 of the rectangle “side” pieces and glue them together with all
the shortest edges at the bottom (these pieces are all labeled (top) on the upper edge,
make sure that is facing up and not upside down). Then glue #5 on the right side of the
roof on structure #1.

11. Now for structure #6, take the two pieces called “#6 front” and “#6 back” and the last
two side pieces and glue them together. It should look similar to structure #5, but the cuts will allow it to fit on top of structure #3.

12. Glue structure #6 onto the roof of the #3.

13. For the roofs of #5 #6, take 4 of the triangle roof pieces and glue all the sides together
so it looks like a pyramid. Put glue on the top of structure #5 and then place the roof
down onto the glue (the edges of the roof will overlap the top edges of structure #5.

14. Repeat Step 13 for structure #6.

15. After your house is completely dry, cover the entire house in black paint.

16. Then take the gray paint and a smaller paint brush (if you have one) and draw details on the window, door, roofs, and wherever else you want. You can add cobwebs to the
corners.

17. Have fun! Your recycled holiday decor is now complete.

After you’ve made your haunted cardboard house, style it on your mantle, porch, or entryway table. If you want to cut some windows, try placing electric tea lights inside, which will cast eerie shadows on the wall (don’t use regular candles inside the cardboard, though.) If you’re setting up your recycled holiday decor for a Halloween Party, you could even use the houses as party favors! Fill them with candy and send your trick-or-treaters on their way.

If you liked this project, you might also like:

DIY Rainbow Pumpkins
How to Decorate Pumpkins with Succulents
Pumpkin Leaf Favors

6 Ways to Celebrate Halloween while Social Distancing

Brittany

-

September 23, 2020

1

6 Ways to Celebrate Halloween while Social Distancing

Have you heard about the Ohio dad who invented a candy chute for a contactless way to get candy right into kid’s trick or treating buckets this year? I love it! Since then I’ve heard talk of slingshots, catapults, and some even crazier ideas on how to make trick or treating happen this October. Not gonna lie, my wheels have been turning too. We have made it this long adjusting our daily lives for this virus, and now as we are about to hit all the major holidays I can’t help but wonder how many traditions will need to be thrown out the window this year. Of course I am willing to do whatever is needed, and there are much bigger things to worry about. But I am grateful for the joy and hope that the holidays bring every year, and I am determined to not miss out on at least that part of the celebrations!

One major thing I am looking forward to is, this year, the holidays will be more about family time than ever! No extravagant parties needed, I am looking forward to making the next few months just as exciting and fun with just my own household! My “quarantine crew” and I can still party hard. And at the very least, more leftover candy for me this year 😉

If you’re hoping to make this Halloween something special, we’ve put together some amazing ideas you can throw together with your family. And even friends with some proper social distancing! All you need to get started is a printer and some scissors.

How to celebrate Halloween while social distancing this year

1. Throw a socially-distant Halloween party

We’ve all missed out on lots of family and friend get-togethers this year. (Cross your fingers we’ll be back to normal by next Halloween!) Luckily, weather permitting, you can still have a fun outdoor Halloween Party if you’re creative (and we’re betting you definitely are if you’re reading this blog!) Even if you are sticking with just your immediate family members this year, go all out! Slip an invite under everyone’s door see whose costume impresses even your teenager. Halloween while social distancing can still be as festive as ever.

Print off our ghoulish Halloween Invitations and customize them so everyone knows the lowdown (masks a must!) Decorate your trees with our fall garland (or maybe your trees are cloaked in fall colors already and don’t need any decoration). Add some twinkle lights to the trees and bushes for a bit of warmth.

2. Eat a spooky (but tasty!) Halloween feast with family

Remember our Halloween Feast? You can throw one with your immediate family. Use our Halloween Menu Printable to get started. These printable placecards can make each setting special, and complete it with that family member’s favorite candy!

3. Put on a Halloween Parade

Need a fun way to celebrate Halloween with your friends, but don’t want to get too close? How about a Halloween Parade in the neighborhood? Use any of our free costume ideas, including these easy iron-ons you can combine with items you probably have sitting around the house. I’d argue that the best part about Halloween right now is you can do it all while wearing a mask 😉

4. Host a Halloween movie night

Don’t have the energy or time for a party? Plan for a night in with your family, but make it memorable. If you’re getting tired of rewatching Hocus Pocus every year (if that’s possible) this could be a fun time to pull out a classic scary movie. The Birds, anyone? Eat out of our Halloween Candy Gift Boxes (you can fill them with popcorn, too!) After all, this is the year to trick or treat yo’self!

5. Incorporate costumes into your at home learning

For most of us this school year has become a modge-podge of online classes and homeschooling. If you’re already losing your motivation to keep at home learning going, don’t worry. If you don’t know what you’ll do when cold weather means you can’t keep ushering the kids outside for “nature class” – now is the perfect time to mix it up! One of my favorite ways to make learning super memorable is to have students dress up as the famous people they are studying!

This happens in our Great Artists! kid’s course a bunch. Some of the daily activities include recreating famous art pieces in person, not just on paper! We also did this when we dresses up as famous artists themselves for Halloween one year. Mix Halloween traditions in with your at-home learning by challenging your kids to dress up as someone they are learning about. Print off these placemats, make a yummy Halloween themed meal, and see what figure from history shows up to the breakfast table!

Plus for your younger children, they can join in on the fun too by dressing up as their favorite picture books! See what I mean here and here.

6. Hold a Halloween porch decorating contest

There’s nothing wrong with a little contest! In fact, since most sporting events got cancelled, I think we need a dose of healthy competition in our lives. You know we love to deck out our porches come Halloween. Use one of our printable designs to elevate your porch above the rest.

If you’re not sure how you will celebrate Halloween while social distancing this year, don’t be too hard on yourself! Everything about 2020 has been different than we thought it would. However, taking part in beloved traditions like celebrating Halloween can help!

Click here to check out all of our printable Halloween resources, including the full Halloween Party Suite for a discounted price!

DIY Dried Flower Pumpkins

Brittany

-

September 21, 2020

0

Today we’re bringing you a DIY fall project with dried flowers, but this one is a little different than our DIY Rainbow Pumpkins we posted last month. However, both projects could be left up year-round to add a little charm and cheer to your front porch.

I love our pumpkin projects because they involve no carving. That’s right, no scraping the inside of a pumpkin for hours until your arm gets numb. No sifting through pumpkin goop to get out the seeds for roasting. And no more planning out an elaborate design, only to accidentally cut off a huge piece of pumpkin and ruining the whole thing! I’m really making a case for a no-carving Halloween, aren’t I? Well it turns out, there are other ways to dress up pumpkins, and I’d argue they let you be even more creative than a carving set!

Unlike our colorful painted gourds, this pumpkin DIY relies on natural adornments—preserved flowers, to be precise! You don’t need a perfectly round pumpkin for this DIY fall project with dried flowers. In fact, you could even dress up some acorn or butternut squash if that’s what you have on hand. How gorgeous would these pumpkins be as a Thanksgiving table centerpiece?

Even though we’re using preserved flowers for this project, that doesn’t mean the colors have to be tone down. You know which blog this is, right? Bring on the brightness! Choose jewel toned flowers that hold onto their hues after drying, like dried globe amaranth or strawflowers. How perfect is the name “strawflower”?! It evokes those beautiful red berries we all know and love and the “straw” makes me think of fall harvest.

Here are some of our favorite preserved and dried flowers from around the web!

DIY Fall project with dried flowers and pumpkins!

Materials:

See above!

Instructions:

Pick out your flowers (we got ours from Terrain) and pumpkins. We went with a monochromatic scheme because…elegance!
Plan your pattern.
Start gluing! Use extra glue to make sure they stay on!

That’s it!

It’s really an easy project, but you can get super intricate with the design and style of the pumpkin. Again, how lovely would it be as a wedding centerpiece. I’m definitely showing these off ASAP!

Yes, summer is over, and it’s taking the beautiful flowers with it, but don’t fret! This DIY will help you preserve the colorful blooms all through the fall season.

Thank you Terrain for providing the beautiful preserved flowers! You can shop their collection here.

DIY Summer Flower Garland

Brittany

-

July 31, 2020

1

Collaboration leads to inspiration

The inspiration for this particular garland came from two places: our wrapping paper products designed for Alexis Mattox Design, and a collab we did Chatbooks! The floral patterns we did with AMD were just so fun and punchy that we had to make a garland inspired by the wrapping paper. Chatbooks used some of those same wrapping paper designs as covers for their books. After seeing that, it occurred to me that I wanted to see these colors and flowers everywhere. Cue the crafting!

This DIY Summer Flower Garland is the perfect decoration for all your summer soirees. And is pretty enough to keep up all year long! You’ll be happy to hear that the materials were pretty cheap too. It’s made with crepe paper and cardstock, and is totally customizable. You can change the colors by simply using a different color paper. If you do play with a new color scheme, send me pictures!! Color is my favorite.

Where to put your paper flower garland

The fun part about a garland is that it can go anywhere. Wreaths go on the front door, flower vases on tables, but garlands? They do it all. In our Flower & Leaf Garden E-Book, we put garlands over the backs of chairs, as table runners, wound around a staircase handle, hung over doorways, or delicately draped on walls. If you’re planning a wedding, think of how fun it would be to make a DIY Summer Flower Garland with friends! It would be beautiful hung over a trellis or fireplace or as a photo-wall backdrop.

This project is great to work on with friends or alone! Heck, you could probably collab with a friend from afar! Mail each other your pieces to create one big DIY Summer Flower Garland! If crafting is your cathartic alone time, this garland is perfect for you. Spread out over a few days, and soak up that creative time. Summer days are meant for crafting, am I right?

More paper garlands for every season

You can download the templates for each of these garlands (and more!) individually here or all of them together for a discount!

DIY Summer Flower Garland

Materials:

Crepe paper in green, cornflower blue, orange, white, and yellow
Cardstock in blue, pink, yellow, and white
Acrylic paint in coral, yellow, and blue
Wire flower stamens in red
22 gauge cloth covered floral wire in 18″ lengths
Spool of 24 gauge florist wire
Hot glue gun
scissors
Templates

Instructions:

Full instructions can be found here!

Once you’ve created all the individual flowers, begin to hot glue the elements onto the green floral wire. Mix in plenty of green crepe paper leaves. We made our garland about 6 feet long.

Photography by Anna Killian | Crafting by Ashley Isenhour and Rebecca Hansen

An Easy Houseplant Anyone Can Take Care Of

Brittany

-

May 29, 2020

0

An Easy Houseplant Anyone Can Take Care Of

DIY Paper Begonia Maculata

We at Lars love paper flowers and other plants. This particular paper plant is seriously so easy. Our Polka Dot Plant (Begonia Maculata) is just the plant to liven up your space! Polka dots are just wonderful, and seeing them in a PLANT is something that really tickles my fancy.

Even if you don’t have a green thumb, you can still enjoy a little green in your home. What you need is the easiest houseplant ever. Our Begonia Maculata pattern is super cheap. The materials are probably things you already have. The look of the houseplant is chic and fresh, and the project itself is simple enough that you can do it with your kids!

No matter your gardening ability, you can enjoy the aesthetic benefit of a cheery (but easy) paper houseplant.

How to make your own Polka Dot Plant

Steps:

Download the Begonia Maculata template here
Cut out each leaf out of slightly varied shades of green cardstock. We cut 11 leaves for ours.
Fold each leaf slight along the curve where the vein would be in a natural leaf
With the white acrylic paint, add polka dots of varying sizes to the top of the leaf
Cut floral wire to the lengths of stems you desire
Wrap floral tape around the wire stems to add texture and make them a lighter shade of green
Hold a wire stem against the wide bottom of leaf and glue down a small piece of green paper on top of the wire to hold it in place
Continue to complete each leaf
To arrange your leafs in a pot, hold all the stems in one hand and gently bend each stem to place the leaves at different angles and heights. Once your have achieved your desired look, use another piece of floral tape to hold your bunch together as arranged
Place the entire bunch in a pot and enjoy your new plant friend!

Other Paper Houseplants

Perhaps you’d like to craft a whole greenhouse of houseplants! If so, you’ve come to the right place. We have a bunch of plant patterns that include the ever-trendy Monstera Obliqua (swiss cheese plant), a bright and cheery shamrock bush, some foxgloves that look quite stunning if I may say so myself, hydrangeas, and even a Japanese Maple tree!

Click on any of the photos below to make your own paper plant palace.

DIY flower pounding on fabric

Brittany

-

May 6, 2020

1

DIY Flower Pounding

How to preserve flower bouquets you love

This is such a fun craft for those homeschooling kids who are a little older, who can handle a hammer. Try identifying your flowers first to make it educational, perhaps? Arts and Crafts and Botany all in one? Or, you can just get outside and start pounding out the flowers for art! You might want to fill in the flowers a little afterwards as well, and we found that a colored pencil dipped in water worked well on the fabric that we hammered the flowers on. You’ll want to use flowers with thin leaves and petals, with vibrant colors, to get the best results. Roses, dandelions, and bright daisies all work well.

We just love how these ended up, where the color from the flowers seeped into the canvas to look like paint. We added a little Lars oomph by embroidering on top of the pounded flowers, too! This is such an awesome way to preserve flowers too, if you are looking for a way to keep a special bouquet forever. This can work for single flowers (red roses from Valentine’s Day anyone?) or bouquets with special meaning (Mother’s Day is just around the corner!). You might even want to try the Flower Pounding technique on a wedding bouquet, to turn it into something beautiful to display in your home. Plus, then you get to keep your flowers bright and fresh forever!

Materials:

You can shop the materials in our Lars Amazon shop here

Instructions:

Take a large piece of cardboard, and lay it on a flat surface. Take the material you want to pound on, such as watercolor paper or white cloth, and tape the back to the cardboard.
Select the flowers you want to use and arrange them on your pounding material. Ensure the flowers you pick out are vibrantly colored and have thin petals. Roses, for example, are ideal for pounding. Only use the bud of the flower, not any of the stem.
Take any flowers that have stamens, pollen, etc. and strip them down to just the petals. Keep arranged in bud shapes. Add some thin leaves to your arrangement!
Tape down your flowers gently with regular scotch tape.
Take a piece of parchment paper large enough to cover your design. Using heavier tape, such as duct tape, adhere the parchment paper to your cardboard backing.
Using a mallet or a small hammer, begin pounding! It may be easier to take your soon-to-be masterpiece outside and pound on the pavement or sidewalk. Pound until your parchment paper becomes wet with pigment from the flowers. You will need to pound harder than you thought!
After checking that your design is what you want it to be, carefully remove tape and flowers from the material you pounded on. Tape a piece of tape and get any excess petals and pollen from off the surface by holding the sticky side down and gently touching the sticky side to the pounded material.
If you are satisfied with the spread of the flower pigment, iron it on a low heat to set the colors, pounded-side down, on the cardboard. Alternatively, you can spread some of the pigment with a small paintbrush and water before heat setting.
Touch up your design with some colored pencils or watercolor pencils – Watercolor pencils are fantastic for blending colors, and if you use fabric, are better for drawing onto your design if you dip the tip of the pencil in water first.
Finally, embellish however you like! Add some pretty embroidery to your fabric piece, like lazy daisy stitches or French knots, take dried flowers and glue them on, or whatever else you want to do!