Flower Ball

What You'll Need:
Bouquet of Fake Flowers
Styrofoam Ball: pick any size

NOT PICTURED:
Hot Glue 
String/cord/rope
Safety Pin 








First off, I wanna start by saying that fake flowers can be extremely expensive, but the craft stores put them on sale. So, be sure to wait it out and buy the flowers when they are on sale. I got all my flowers for 50% off at JoAnn's this past weekend, so it can be less ridiculous. 

Let's BEGIN! 

To begin, the flowers need to be removed from the stems.

If your flowers are made like the one pictured below with a piece of plastic connecting the flower to the stem, you can just gently pull on this piece away from the stem and the flower will be ready to go. However, if your flowers just directly connect to the stem, you can use wire cutters to cut the flower away from the long stem while still keeping atleast half an inch of stem in order to poke it into the styrofoam. 

Now that I have separated flowers, I began to poke my flowers in the styrofoam. I went all the way around in a line at first keeping the flowers outer edges touching. At this point, I realized I did not have enough of the same flower, so I used some purple flowers that you will see in later pictures to fill the bottom. I left the top part bare. 

I ended up running into another problem. My flowers were falling out of the styrofoam...so........
I turned to my trusty superglue... 



But, that didn't work either, so I turned to my even more trusty hot glue gun. Pull the flower out the the styrofoam. Coat what is left of the stem in hot glue. Then push the flower back into the original hole.

You can stop here and leave it as a table decoration, or you can go on to make it be able to hang from something. 

I took a large safety pin and connected my thread to this safety pin. I then eye-balled a distance in that would still be able to hold the ball without the thread breaking through the styrofoam. So, I pushed the safety pin through the styrofoam ball and tied a knot in the sting making a loop. 

And then all you have to do is hang it up! 

Hope you have enjoyed a little bit of flower power! 

-H

P.S. I am SUPER obsessed with fake flowers right now. So, expect to see a lot of crafts with fake flowers. 

Wedding Anniversary Gift

Hey y'all! So for my grandparents 50th Wedding Anniversary I made them this. It is a 50th Wedding Anniversary penny picture.

What you will need is:

 a big jar of pennies

 super glue

 frame

 stencil

 poster board

sharpie 

Each of the pennies COINcides (see what I did there.haha) with a year of their marriage. So to start you will need to go through a big jar of pennies to find one for each year starting with the year they got married and going all the way through to the present year.

 Next cut the poster board to fit into the frame you bought. Then using the stencil and sharpie, write "HAPPY ANNIVERSARY", there names, and the year if you want. 

Place the pennies in order by year and in the shape of how many years they have been married. Then glue them down and IT IS FINISHED!

Hope this makes your family/ friends very happy! Email with any questions.

-B

Bacon Roses

Bacon Roses- for the meat lover in your life.

For this simple gift idea, you'll need:
-Thick Cut Bacon (I made a dozen)
-Fake Roses
-Toothpicks
-Muffin Tin

Preheat oven to 375
Turn on some Ke$ha music (mandatory)

Start out by rolling each strip of bacon into a rose shape. Don't roll it too tight or it won't cook all the way through!

Stick 2 toothpicks through the center to form an "X" with the toothpicks.

I used a mini muffin tin and it was perfect size, but I regular muffin tin would also work. Set the rolled bacon in the muffin tins so they are hovering and don't touch the bottom of the tin.

Other tutorials want you to drill a hole in the bottom of your muffin tin so the bacon grease can drain. NO DONT DO IT!! Why would you do that?? It worked perfectly fine for me to not have it drain. It cooked in the grease, just make sure to watch it carefully and be extra careful when you take it out of the oven.

Put the bacon in the oven at 375 for 30-45 minutes. Watch it carefully! (Make sure to check that it is cooked all the way through)

While the bacon is cooking, take the red petals off of your fake flowers.

Keep the green star shaped part that goes on the underside of the flower on the stem, it will help keep the bacon from sliding down the stem. Push the star shaped piece down a bit so you have a piece of the stem sticking out. You can slide the bacon onto it like a kabob! 

Take the toothpicks out once the bacon has cooled and stick em on the stems!

Ta-da! My next experiment is to make chocolate dipped bacon roses. I'll keep you updated. 

Photo credits go to my super artsy boyfriend who was the grateful recipient of this tasty bouquet. 

Till next time,

K