March 2016 archive

Mini Easter Egg Topiary

I absolutely love this time of year when I can decorate for Easter with my favourite things — like eggs and especially bunnies! I have always loved the look of topiary trees and have seen them before made with large eggs on Pinterest. I already had a collection of mini eggs and the cast iron urns, so I was so happy to finally put everything together to make my own topiary this year.

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I purchased the mini eggs previously at Homesense and the urns were a thrift find at the flea market a few years ago, but I am sure that a vase would work just as well. This is a super easy craft idea to do as all it really requires is gluing and tucking things into place. The only unfortunate thing is that I did not have enough mini eggs to make two topiaries like I had planned. Now like a real Easter egg hunt, I need to look for about a dozen more mini eggs.

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Materials & Tools
• 6 inch tall Styrofoam Cone
• Mini urn or vase (fits base of cone)
• Green moss
• 38 mini plastic decorative/craft eggs
• Hot glue sticks
• Hot glue gun

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Step 1
Plug in your glue gun to heat it up. Once it is hot, start gluing each mini egg to the styrofoam cone with about the same distance between each one. No need to get out the ruler here, just whatever looks good visually to your eye.

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Step 2
Once all of the eggs are glued to the cone, take small pieces of the green moss and tuck into the open spaces between each of the mini eggs on the topiary. I just used my fingers to push them into place and hot glued a few pieces of the moss here and there to adhere to the cone.

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Step 3
After the moss is tucked around all of the eggs, place the cone on top of the urn or vase. TA DA! Now your decoration is finished and ready to display. Happy Easter!

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Mom to Be Chair Banner for Baby Shower

If you are planning to host a baby shower, here is a beautiful and easy decor idea to dress up the party and make the ‘Mom to Be’ feel extra special as the guest of honour. Now, typically the banner would be displayed on the back of her chair at a baby shower, but I have styled and photographed it on the front to illustrate this craft. All of the supplies featured here are easy to find at your local craft store. Or you may all ready have these supplies at home — a selection of pretty card stock and bits and bobs — so its easy to start crafting!

03_Paige Smith_Baby Shower_Mom to Be Chair Banner Decor

Materials
• Various crafting card stock in complimentary colours and patterns
• Alphabet letters (glitter is optional)
• Foam adhesive circles
• Seam binding or ribbon
• Bits and bobs like bows and buttons

01_Paige Smith_Baby Shower_Mom to Be Chair Banner Decor

Tools
• X-acto knife and blade
• Ruler
• Hole punch
• White glue (I prefer a brand called Weldbond)

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Step 1
Measure and cut out six rectangular cards in card stock of your choice that are 2 3/4″ wide x 5″ tall. You can use alternating paper designs for variety. Cut a small notch at the bottom of each card.

Step 2
With the hole punch, create 2 holes at the top of each card on both the right and left side.

Step 3
Arrange each letter of ‘Mom to Be’ on a separate card. You can either use glue to attach the letters to the cards. Or as I prefer, to use small foam adhesive circles that give dimension to the letters.

Step 4
At the bottom of each card, glue on the trims and buttons of your choice.

Step 5
Thread the seam binding through all of the holes in the cards to hang the banner.

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Look….my cat Jasper photo bombed my picture! He was very interested in playing with the balloons and kept sneaking back into my shot. LOL

 
 

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