Wonderland is Better

I've expressed my love for all of the niche shrines from Alpha Stamps before, but I'm going to repeat myself. I love those things! I've gotten my hands on quite a few of them, and the newest one is just as enjoyable. Especially if it's Alice or Hallowe'en themed! Both of those ideas would work well with the potion bottle shape of the new niche shrine. I went with Alice and am saving Hallowe'en for another project.

The shrine was covered with Alice Herself Scrapbook Paper and the images are from the new Drink Me collage sheet. I love that collage sheet as much as all of the niche shrines; choosing an Alice for the inside was nearly impossible. 

I decided to squish Alice inside the niche and added the White Rabbit to the outside. Alice has stacked adhesive pop dots behind her to place her a bit closer, and there is also a small sliver of pop dot behind the Rabbit's fan. On the uncut image of Alice and the Rabbit, the fan is drawn over Alice's hair, so I used a duplicate of the same image to cut out the fan and put it where I wanted. 

Another great thing about this shrine is the separate shaped chipboard blanks in case you want to have the shrine stand alone vs using the included hanger. I papered the bottle shape and glued it to the back of the niche portion of the shrine. I had considered using another bottle blank and hinge it to the front like a book, so you could open it to reveal a little scene inside. Maybe next time!

The tree (which I failed to take pictures of during construction) is made from four cloth covered florist stems that were twisted together for the trunk and separated at the top to create branches. Brown crepe paper was twisted around the wires and glued together with watered down Tacky Glue. The blossoms were punched from pink tissue paper using a Bellflower Mini Punch and glued on to the tree. 

Not too much was done to the back - a simple Altoids Insert Vignette frames another Alice from the Drink Me collage sheet, and the hearts were punched from a Heart Mini Punch. Now to work on that Hallowe'en project...

Happy crafting!

Supply List can be found RIGHT HERE!

Out in the Garden

It would be pretty sweet if I were a gardener capable of growing beautiful flowers and plants for bees and butterflies to enjoy, but alas! most everything I've planted has kicked the bucket. Relying on Mother Nature to water everything during the whole of allergy season probably plays into that, but really, the black thumbs are the problem. Instead of killing more flowers, I decided a pollen-free miniature paper garden was a suitable alternative.

This garden project started with an Unfinished Kitchen Cabinet from Alpha Stamps. A wash of antiquing fluid was all that was needed to finish it. The two doors and drawer open for storing empty flower pots or tools. Functional miniature furniture is fantastic, isn't it?

I used several different containers for the plants and flowers made for the mini garden, like an Oval Wicker Fruit Basket with Handle, a Mini Wooden Toolbox, and a Set of Miscellaneous Flower Pots. There are even plants in kitchen canisters!

The wild fern in the back, the colorful puffball plants, and the razor plant in the red canister are pre-made and simply stuck right into a planter.

There's a very nice fern stand next to the cabinet, and on top of it is...a fern. What else?? I tucked another of those adorable "puffball" plants into a thimble for a bit of variety, and made flowers for a few other pots.



Quite a few plants were set into a Rustic Wheelbarrow on the right. Also inside is a white canister with a paper snake plant and ivy leaves glued inside. In front of the wheelbarrow are a crate of tiny flowers, a planter of pink hydrangeas, and a pot of elephant ears. Both the hydrangeas and the elephant ear plant were made using punches, and I'll show you how to do that in a bit. In fact, I used punches for nearly every flower and leaf in the garden. It's easy stuff.

Here are those cute puffball plants blooming from a wooden toolbox. They are too much!

Let's make some hydrangeas, shall we?

Materials:

Set of 3 Hydrangeas Mini Punch
Heart Mini Punch
Tissue Paper
Green cardstock
Green floral wire, paddle wire, or green stem wire
Styrofoam 
Glue 
Tweezers
Ball stylus
Foam mat

1. Punch out several tissue paper hydrangeas. I stacked a few layers of tissue paper on top of a sheet of copy paper before punching out the shapes to make it easier. Use tweezers to separate the layers.

 2. Cut the floral wire into short segments for the stems, and trim off little balls of styrofoam from whatever styrofoam you use. Glue the styrofoam to the end of the wire.

3. "Cup" the petals by rolling a ball stylus in the center of each punched shape until it curls up. I did this on a scrap of sheet foam.

4. Cover the styrofoam on the stem with glue and attach the petals using tweezers. Nearly there!

5. Punch out leaves from the green cardstock using the Mini Heart Punch. Add veins to the heart shapes with the ball stylus. Dip the leaves into glue and attach to the wire stem. Now make thirty more because they're fun!

The elephant ear plant was made in a similar way.

Materials:
Small Heart Punch
Cardstock
Floral wire, paddle wire, or stem wire
Scissors
Ball Stylus
Glue
Craft paint (optional)

1. Paint both sides of the cardstock with a few shades of green. This is optional; they look great without this step too. Punch out the leaves using the Heart punch.

2. Trim off a sliver of the heart on both sides to shape the leaf.

                        

3. Create veins with the ball stylus on the back of the leaf. Turn the leaf over and dry brush the front with a light green or yellow craft paint.

4. Bend over an end of the wire...

and glue it to the back of the leaf. Repeat. Enjoy your tiny masterpiece!

Some of the other flowers made with punches include:

the red geraniums (using a tiny circular hole punch for the flower and a Mini Clover Paper Punch for the leaves. I punched the leaves from cardstock and snipped off the stem of the clover before gluing it to the wire stem)

the light blue flowers in the back (using the Bellflower Mini Punch for the flower and Heart Mini Punch for the leaves. There's also ivy in that pot made from the Ivy Leaf Mini Punch)

and the pink flowers in front (also the Bellflower Mini Punch).

This tiny tree was made by disassembling a Miniature Rustic Broom, dipping the ends in glue, then attaching Leafy Green Underbrush and Clump Foliage to the branches. 

Even though I can't get "out in the garden" without severe repercussions, creating this miniature temporarily fulfilled the want to be outside, and not a single flower bit the dust. Until...

Sigh. Good thing she's cute.

Happy gardening to you, however you decide to do it!

A list of supplies can be found RIGHT HERE.

(oh, did you spy the garden gnome?)