Wednesday 22 April 2015

A flower by any other name...

I've been having a go at my very first bookart. I'm making my first folded word, a present for my mum's birthday. 
As part of the decoration I've made some folded flowers... so I thought I'd do a tutorial on how to make them.

This tutorial is for the 5 petal folded flowers, not the roses.
You will need 5 squares of paper for each flower, glue (preferably a hot glue gun) but a pritt stick will work if you allow for drying time. 
A button, bead or gem to decorate is optional.

Take a square of paper, any size... you will need 5 squares in total, each the same size, for one flower. Each square represents 1 petal so the larger the square the larger the finished flower.
Try a 3 x 3 inch square to start with... about the size of a post-it note.
The paper can be plain on one side, this will not matter as the pattern will appear on both sides after folding.

Fold your square in half, corner to corner diagonally... try and be precise.

You will now have a folded triangle. With the long folded edge towards you fold each outside corner up to the top point. Crease the folds carefully.

Do one corner at a time.

This next bit may seem a bit tricky but don't panic. Take one of the points you've just folded, open it and squish it with the centre fold in line with the fold underneath.

When it is flat, fold the top point down in line with the top edge.

Do this to both sides.

Fold the little flap back inside, so that it's hidden front the front.

...like the left hand side of this one. Once you've folded the little triangle flap in you can continue to the next  and final fold.

Fold the outside edge in, to meet the other side of the fold, this will be quite a thick fold and you'll have to crease it well... try using the end of your ruler or the side of something hard to make the crease as crisp as possible.

That's it... now just roll the two outside edges in towards each other, to make a cone shape. You will see the start of the flower now, this is one petal.

You're going to glue down between the edges that meet... this will keep your petal in the cone shape. Try not to get the glue everywhere, we want the finished flower to be as pretty and as clean as possible.


You can mix your colours or keep them all the same; you can make these out of old magazines, telephone directories, store catalogues... even newspapers!

Take the first 2 cones and carefully glue down one edge, sticking the 2 together.

Keep repeating this process until you've stuck all 5 cones together into a circle. You can glue the finished flower onto a stick or glue some cord from the bottom, to hang from a christmas tree or stick many flowers onto a sphere to make a flower ball or a flower tree.

So, here are the finished flowers. My flowers are not as precise as I'd like them but this is mainly because of the difficulty I have with my fingers and hands misbehaving... however, all is not lost! By placing a bead, button or gem in the centre symmetry is restored. The centres ideally should be circular, not oval or irregular in shape. 

Any questions? Just ask and I'll be glad to help if I can... just be aware that there's a possibility of a slight delay in replying if I'm going through a Fibromyalgia flare or an ME/CFS episode.

Please let me know how you get on and if there are any inconsistencies with this tutorial... leave a comment, I'd love some feedback :)




Friday 10 April 2015

No Comment !!!

Well I'm back again... phew, talk about being off the grid for too long!
I've a few projects in the pipe line, one of them is of mega importance! It's my Mum's birthday in July... given my track record this year, I thought I'd better get a head start on her birthday gift.
I'm plunging in at the deep end and making her a 'Mum' folded Book-Art thingy... but I'm going to decorate the cover and pretty it up a tad.



So, I've got a book the right size, pencil & ruler at the ready... I'll report my progress once I've actually started it :)
Fingers crossed, tonight I shall finish the crochet butterflies for my 'Fibro' mitts... I'm going to leave the really ornate butterflies until another day, I'm just too tired & the dratted 'Fibro Fog' still hasn't cleared properly... If you want to see what the inside of my head looks like, just look at our capital this morning LOL 

http://media.timeout.com/blogimages/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/geograph-3299810-by-Dave-Pi-528x396.jpg

Does anyone comment on blogs these days? I'd love to get some interaction going on here... even if it's a comment on the ramblings of a fogged out mind :)
...and with that thought I'll say ta ta, ...until next time peoples x

P.S don't forget you can donate as little or as much as you can on my 'Just Giving' page towards Fibromyalgia research through The Fibroduck Foundation... 
http://www.justgiving.com/DreamIt-MakeIt-LoveIt 
                                                                       Thanks x

Wednesday 1 April 2015

I'm hooked!!!

Afternoon one and all, it's a glorious sunny day outside, I'm having a PJ day and everything is cool.
Quick update on the health issues and then it's all about the crafting :)
I've been suffering since last October with a recurring flu-like, coughy thingy... I'm not alone ~ apparently lots of peeps are having the same problems, with a six week turnaround would you believe!
The #Fibro & #ME have definitely extended the problem but hopefully I can beat this!!! As the lady said "Tomorrow is another day" and that's how many of us cope... one day at a time.
OK... crafting!
I finished the pink #fibro purple-butterfly mitts and beanie... here's the evidence.



They came out really nice & because of these I had another 2 orders... one from an Irish lady who wanted green ones with flowers and the other were bright yellow ones, from my 3rd cousin (in Scotland), who is collecting for the #MarieCurie cancer charity.
I'm delighted with them all and, thankfully, so were the recipients :)



I've rediscovered the art of crochet!!! ...and I've found a 1912 crochet book that has been formatted into a PDF file! Woop Woop I say! These designs remind me of the doillies and runners that my gran used to have, they look so delicate and pretty, I can't wait to have a go.
This beautiful collection has a gawgus series of butterflies, that I'm itching to make. Here is the link to the site..
http://www.antiquepatternlibrary.org/html/warm/6-JA025-01.htm
...and an image of one of the butterflies I'm hoping to make.

I thought you might like to see our little furbaby Ozzy. He'll be a year old in a fortnight and he's grown quite a bit since we first got him. He does get cold & I've made him another jumper. This pattern came with a hat... he will NOT be wearing that hat out & about!!! LOL


Doesn't he look funny in the complete outfit.... he looks quite French, don't you think?

#Fibromyalgia #MyalgicEncephalomyelitis #Crafting
If you know of anyone who has these conditions please share my blog with them, I'd really like to have more followers and see more comments, it would be nice to have some interaction with like minded people.
If you'd like to see other or different content on my blog... such as 'How to' posts, please leave a comment below.

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Have a great day everyone :)