butcher paper spring wreath

As you may know I love to celebrate the seasons with a unique hand crafted wreath and for spring I decided to create a fresh, all white wreath made completely from butcher paper.

I always keep rolls of butcher paper on hand- it is one of the cheapest and most versatile supplies!

I started by cutting large strips of butcher paper and scrunched it up.

I then wrapped and glued it around a styrofoam wreath form.

Next, I created paper flowers by cutting out circles

that I crumbled up

to add texture.

Using hot glue (this makes it quick and easy) I layered the different circles on top of each other.

I created the center detail of the flowers by crumbling up tiny pieces of paper.

I glued the crumbled piece to the center of the flowers.

I created all sorts of flowers in different sizes- enough to fill the wreath.

I decided to create some little leaves for the wreath. By scrunching leaf shaped pieces of paper to add a little dimension.

Last, I glued all of the flowers and leaves to the surface of the wreath.

And there you have it- a simple, cheap and pretty wreath perfect for spring!

Looking for more spring tutorials and creative inspiration? A whole bunch of my fabulous and creative friends are posting tutorials on their blogs this week!

Incised Fun Foam Stamping: Melanie Testa

Recycled Slip cover for a small book : Gwen Diehn

Small media case with stitch paper: Kelli Nina Perkins

Freezer paper stencils and Paintstiks: Jane LaFazio

Bunny Power: Quick Tombo Rabbits: Carla Sondheim

Painting A Bird's Egg: Tracie Lyn Huskamp

Sketchbook Slipcover: Lyric Kinard

Making a Faced Binding: Judy Coates Perez

Journal mapping: Jill Berry

in the studio

updates from the studio

It's that time again, time to post a handful of random updates. As usual there are lots of things going on over here and before I forget I want to mention a few :)

I am excited to have an article in the latest Stitch magazine.

Just a reminder that I will be teaching at Donna Downey's Inspired Artist Workshop in Concord/Charlotte, NC- May 11-14th!!! The four day event is jam packed with six amazing teachers, workshops, mini workshops, events and the opportunity to challenge, grow and expand your creativity. Visit Donna's site for all the info

I will also be teaching four workshops at the Cloth Paper Scissors CREATE Retreat in Costa Mesa, CA. May 18-22nd. LOTS of teachers and LOTS of classes at this retreat!

Check out all the info here

If you didn't already know...my new book Sew Wild is available for pre- order and I am getting SOOO excited for the release! To pre- order and take a peek inside the book visit here!

As I have mentioned, I am hard at work designing, collaborating and creating new work (with my mom) for my new website and shop! I was hoping that it would be ready to go live by the end of March but because I am doing everything myself (photography, web design, etc) it is looking like April will be more realistic but I will keep you all updated and continue to give you little peeks at things that I have coming.

Recently I have received a lot of inquiries about how access works for my most recent class Sketchbook Delight that I wanted to answer here-

All of my classes have unlimited access- once you register you can create and access at any time and work at your own pace. Whenever I "release" a new class- like the recent Sketchbook Delight- I always structure it in a five week format. Many people who want to work in this format, as the lessons are posted each week, enjoy working at this pace but once the five weeks are up there is unlimited time to access everything.

I have found that some people prefer to work along with the five week format when I release the class while others will wait months until they have the time, money and the schedule to register for the class. Either way works- just know that once you are in- there is no deadline or pressure to create :)

And last (for now) I have been working on my next couple of online classes and soon, very soon I will be sharing the details. I have some fun things planned!

looking for signs of spring

spring cake pops

If you haven't heard of or tried a cake pop- you are missing out! They are like a lollypop with cake in the middle and a hard candy coating on the outside and they are all the rage right now- they are EVERYWHERE! There are a number of ways to make them and of course I make mine the quickest and easiest way so I can save my time for creative decorating. Lately I have been playing around in the kitchen making cake pops and with Easter right around the corner I decided to make a batch with a spring and Easter theme!

Start by baking a boxed cake mix and let cool completely.

Crumble up the cake.

Add frosting to the cake crumbles (about a can of frosting) and mix together.

Put mixture in the refrigerator for about 1 hour.

Roll mixture into balls, I also rolled and shaped them into egg shapes.

Put the cake balls into the refrigerator for another hour or an even quicker option would be to put in the freezer for about 15 minutes.

The next step is to melt Candy Melts (or even chocolate) to use for dipping. I used Candy Melts because they are easy to melt wafers for candy making, dipping and melting and are available at a variety of stores.

Dip the cake balls into the melted mixture I dipped the bottom first so the stick would be secure

and then added the stick and dipped the top.

I used all kinds of colorful sprinkles to decorate the cake pops. Its a little tricky because you have to decorate before the candy coating hardens.

I decorated my egg shaped cake pops like Easter eggs- how fun would they be in an Easter basket?

And I kept the round cake pops simple with colorful sugar sprinkles

I used a variety of different sprinkles to decorate all the cake pops.

and I used a colander to hold the cake pops up while they hardened.

Last, I used little candy bags and ribbon to seal up the pops.

They are just so pretty and delicious- perfect for a spring party, Easter treats or just a fun dessert!