Paper Flowers

Hey SaMiE Designs Fans! My sister, Kris, who lives across the country from me recently posted pictures of this craft on her facebook page. I commented that I would love, if she were willing, for her to write a guest post about the craft.
 (P.S. If you are interested in guest posting, please send me an email at campbells.jacksonhole@gmail.com)


She responded that she would be glad to. (Even re-doing the craft so she could take step by step instructions for your viewing pleasure!) So I'm going to hand it over to my Sister now. Don't forget to show her some comment love!

This paper flower design is fun and so thrifty! All you really need are a few pieces of paper and some glue.  I  got the idea from a little video I saw on yahoo called Valentine's Day Paper Flowers. Since we were decorating our work for the holiday I decided to make a few for our kitchen table.  

The first set of paper flowers we made.

They turned out so cute and were so easy to do I couldn't wait to share this project with the kids.   Here is a little step by step on how we made a "Bunch of Flowers."

Step 1, part. 1

1)  Get a few pieces of paper:  (I've used several types: construction paper, scrap book paper, even a paper gift bag with a funky design worked great.)  Cut out four to six equal sized squares.  Here's Amber (age 7) excited to make flowers for her teacher.

Step 2, part. 2

2)   Take one of your squares and fold the bottom up to make a triangle.  (if it's a little uneven you can trim it up)

Step 2: Folding the square into a triangle

 3) Take each bottom corner of the Triangle and fold up to the middle tip, you should end up with a Kite or Diamond shape.  

Step 3: Folding the Triangle Into a Kite

4)  Take each "kite flap" and fold in half length wise. You'll end up with this Flat Flower.

Step 4: The Flat Flower.

5)  I have no idea how to explain in writing how to do this next part so bare with me (or see above link to the yahoo video).   Take each of your Flat Flower "petals", there will be a little pocket, place your finger in the pocket and gently pull towards yourself and flatten back out, exposing the crease and doubling the size of the petal. 

Step 5: Little tricky, keep practicing & you'll get it in no time!

6) Fold the tips of your petals down to make a flush line.

Step 6: These folded flaps eventually become the center of your finished flower

7) Fold your petals back inwards towards the center.

Step 7: Folding your petals back

8)  Time to get your glue! (I've used tape...wouldn't recommend it) Glue Gun worked best, However depending on the age of the maker and/or availability, glue stick works just fine and dries a little faster than say white glue (however with a glue stick I ended up having to use a little tape as back up). It's your call what works best for you and your family.  Here we used a glue stick.  So apply your chosen sticky element to one side of the Flat Flower and gently fold in half, the goal is to to leave it open, not creased.

Step 8

9) Repeat four times (or six if you were going for a bigger flower) You'll end up with these. 

Step 9

10) Now it's time to build the real deal! Using your glue attach the pieces at the narrowest point, being careful to leave a little opening in the bottom to slide a pipe cleaner or twig through if you want a stem.

Fun it up!! You can add all kinds of things to make this flower truly Unique.  Pretty Gems, tissue paper, pom pom's, stickers..the sky's the limit.  For these flowers we taped pieces of Starburst candy in the middle for that extra bit of fun.  

Happy Creating!

Here's the one made out of the gift bag.

(since the paper was a little slick the glue stick wouldn't work, we had to use a glue gun)

Birthday Chronicles: The Perfect Gift For ANY Occasion

Have you noticed the trend on Facebook of people posting the song that was number one the year they were born? (P.S. Mine was "I just called to say I love you." I know you were wondering!)

Why settle for just the song when you can get lots more information about the day you were born, organized into a cute little front page news format that you can print and frame? Too much work? You can pay a little extra and they'll frame it for you!

Sample Birthday Chronicle from BecauseITriedIt.com

I was able to sample the Birthday Chronicle from Because I Tried it and I was quite pleased! Not to mention how incredibly nice they are. I can not fathom the reason for why when I filled out the form I put my first name, my married name, and my maiden in parenthesis.When I received the Chronicle back (Less than the expected 48 hours later) I was excited and then realized the mistake I had made. I hesitated before sending an email explaining that 1. I was an idiot and 2. was it possible for them to re-do the chronicle with my given birth name. I finally bit the bullet and sent the email, knowing full well I was going to look like the village idiot.

She responded back almost immediately and told me should could, and there was no judgement about the mistake! The next day I had a fresh Chronicle in my hands with the updated and correct info! I was so happy I immediately printed it out! (You will need to make sure you have your printer settings at "normal" to print a full-page image)

This is a great website and they have many other personalized products available for purchase. Visit them at www.BecauseITriedIt.com and check out their personalized products.

A few of my other favorites and on my wish-list:
The Class Reunion Almanac
The Easter Bunny Letter
N is for Name

Head on over now and show your support for this awesome product by joining their newsletter, liking them on facebook, following BecauseITriedIt on Twitter, and purchasing one of their awesome products!

Because I Tried It was also so kind as to let SaMiE Designs give away TWO PERSONALIZED BIRTHDAY CHRONICLES!!

Use the Rafflecopter form below to enter for your chance to win!


Some notes about this Rafflecopter Giveaway:
*It IS POSSIBLE for the same individual to win both of the FREE Chronicles. It is chosen at random and should someone have that amazing luck, so be it. The more tasks you complete, the more entries you receive.

*There is an abundance of tasks. I don't expect you to complete ALL of them (although if you do, awesome!). The goal is intended to give you more options to earn entries.

*I do verify entries, so please complete the task before pressing Enter. It would stink to miss out because you did not complete the task.

GOOD LUCK!

We'll be back momentarily..

I feel like it would serve me better to be transparent about a few things. So here it is: I am a little overloaded at the moment.At my job in the corporate world there has been...well, let's just say a transition.. that has left me running very tired, stressed, and in need of some quiet time.

I have this feeling that I look like this at the moment:

But let's be honest, shall we? I am a working single mother of four children who is starting her own product line and consulting business. No matter what I do, I'm pretty sure this is me any given day of the week:

I don't know what you might be thinking, so I am just going to pretend I do so that I can answer a few questions I know I would have if I were reading this post.

So are you saying you can't handle your commitments?
We've all thought it, let's be honest. I would like to specify that this is not the case. I am able to commit to my personal and professional endeavors. However, these are extenuating circumstances and I need to direct my attention to for the moment.

What does 'For the Moment' mean?
Well, in my mind when I say that I am thinking two weeks, plus or minus one. I can't give an exact date, but I do mean a short period of time.
 

What does this mean for SaMiE Designs?

Only that I will be doing more of the review and giveaway types of posts for a little bit.. (I know, sacrifices, sacrifices) I only need to take a pause from crafy-type stuff.


So what should I do?
Stick around, my friend. I still will be offering great reviews, awesome giveaways, and when I catch a second, a truly amazing craft post! Show your support by posting, commenting, and sharing!