First Day of Spring?

For those of you in New England, I'm sure you stand with me in saying, "Thank goodness it's spring!" Although, I can't say that this 30s weather with chilly breezes really feels much like the hope of greenery and life around the corner. Yesterday, I got about 6 inches of snow outside my apartment. So grateful to my fiance for digging me out during this whole winter season, seeing as I am not really allowed to brandish a shovel for much actual shoveling! I will say it was nice yesterday to see a flock of red-winged blackbirds outside my fiance's brother's house, despite the flurries.

Since I was stuck at his house for the first part of the day yesterday, I worked a little more on our centerpieces and parents' gifts for the wedding and did a little more research, reading the book I'm currently reading. All the decor and favors for the wedding are handmade by yours truly and it has been a lot of fun along the way - so much fun that I am hoping to keep it up as at least a hobby.
One of the most time-consuming projects has been the flower balls for the ceremony. It started as a whim, when I saw flower balls on Pinterest as an idea for wedding decor. Once I established that I liked the idea of using mainly pearls for the wedding bling, seeing this pin inspired me to attempt it. I think it was even the first thing I tried to make for the wedding...and I failed miserably, haha. In fact, I remember after a few attempts of gluing pearls individually, then smothering the styrofoam ball in glue and dunking it in the pearls, then trying to keep the pearls on it long enough to stick by wrapping it in plastic wrap (which of course didn't allow the glue to dry), I just threw it in the trash. I decided to go more traditional with the flower balls and do actual "flowers".
Coming across this tutorial for felt flowers, I decided to use this technique for making the flowers. It was a much longer process, however, as I do not own a glue gun and was using all-purpose school glue. However, the felt flowers were a better material for transporting than the paper ones I saw tutorials for, since they are more easily reshaped without wrinkling where you don't want it.
1. Cut the rectangle of felt from the craft store into 8ths (fold in half 3 times and cut each time).
2. Fold each piece in half and glue the bottom together; weigh it down with something and wait till it dries.
3. Cut the edges of the non-glued side every few centimeters, into a fringe.
4. Apply glue to the bottom again and roll it up, securing it with a rubber band until it dries.
5. Stick each flower onto the styrofoam ball, using styrofoam glue and securing it with a toothpick.

6. Once the glue dries, do not attempt to remove the toothpick, as it will result in pulling the whole flower off and/or splinters in your fingers. Trust me! Instead, snap it off as close to the base as possible to prevent injury in handling the ball later.
7. I decided to use the leftover pearl beads from the failed project to dress up the flower ball by supergluing them randomly on the flowers.
8. Secure a ribbon on the ball for hanging, using styrofoam glue and holding it down with something till it dries. In my case, the ribbon had a mesh center, so I stuck another toothpick through it.
9. Tah-dah!

 

I have 1.5 more to go before I finish the 5 I plan to make and each one gets easier, but still time-consuming. Thankfully, I have a lot of free time on my hands these days! This is about the only good thing about being humbled into unemployment by your own body.

Meanwhile, I can't wait to have a place in 2 weeks where I can spread out and organize my craft projects and supplies. Right now, they are basically in boxes around the apartment, wherever they would fit and not be in the way. ;)

Thanks again for reading my rambles and enjoy the rest of the day!