Robin's Egg Blue Paper Bouquet

This timeless beauty bouquet would be perfect for a classic or a book-themed wedding.

I was inspired by illustrations in a natural history book by Gerald Durrell which my grandfather gave me years ago. I believe I was nine at the time.

The book is in Croatian, which at one point I could read and speak fluently (I can only read it now) and is one of my favorite books of all time. I had it with me when I first came to the U.S. and has moved with me from coast to coast and is currently taking up shelf space in my living room.

I love the stories about the author's life in India, in Cypress. The layouts of some of the things you could find in a regular old field or a meadow are amazing. Plants and occasional animal life spread out on white surface, still, yet also beautiful.

One of these layouts had a  color scheme which I wanted to capture in this bouquet.

Pale BLUE, like EGGSHELL BLUE, soft IVORY white and BOOK paper. I threw in a shade of pastel GREEN just to add a touch of warmth.

The blue flowers are in the new shape I am currently in love with. Sort of like magnolia blossoms, only with a pearl for the center.

Paper roses are still present, and abstract book paper roses as well. No fears, I used a different book for these flowers - - - I would never touch my grandfather's book for anything else except for reading :)

I wrapped the bouquet in a blue satin ribbon, but I also enjoy seeing it in a hand-knit vase (more about this vase in another post).

I will list it in my Etsy shop any day now. For the time being, it sits prettily on my desk and I love catching a glimpse of it every now and then.

Eggshell Blue Paper Bouquet

Love the Lilac

There is something very serene about a lilac paper flower resting on a green background.

I made one of these flowers the other day, while I was experimenting with petal-by-petal techniques. I liked the results and made a few more flowers, and then a few more, in different colors.

These are bigger than my usual paper flowers, which adds a bit more drama when bunched together in a bouquet.

They require a few steps to make, like creating the fringed centers, or carefully folding and flexing the hand cut petals before gluing them into place. But, as you can see, resulting flower looks very natural.

I decided to make a bridal bouquet with just these flowers and maybe just add pale green paper leaves to the mix.

Very spring evoking, don't you think?

Naturally Dyed Eggs

Happy Easter!

In the past few years I have been slowly switching from artificial store-bought dyes to food-based dyes for my Easter eggs.

Last year I used beets and coffee and this year I added tea and a dash of paprika to the mix. The results are the best so far.

I started with pastured eggs from my local farmers market (the nearest one is in San Mateo). They came in two sizes: tiny Poulet eggs, which greatly varied in color, from white to blue to brown, and regular sized white shell eggs.

First, I set up my coloring station on the kitchen counter.

- Cups and wine glasses to hold the eggs for overnight soaking.
- Egg cartons to rest the eggs on the next day.
- Textured stockings, which I cut into squares for wrapping the eggs in.
- Twine to tie the eggs with.
- Parsley leaves.

Then, I got to cooking up my colors.

BEETS
I put a couple of cups of water in a pan, then added 4 small sliced beets. After they were cooked (about 5-10 min in boiling water), I strained the water into 3 cups/wine glasses, which I filled only about 1/3 to 1/2.
Beet juice looks gorgeous wine red, but note that the eggs turn out more of a grayish hue.

COFFEE
Coffee gets you a darker shade of brown, which I love. One cup water to one heaping table spoon of coffee (I used instant coffee).

PAPRIKA
This was the first time I used paprika to color eggs, and the result is that reddish egg you see in the photo. I used only about 1/3 of a spoon to 1/2 cup of chamomile tea.

TEA
Since I didn't want to use my fancy green tea for this, I used 2 bags of rooibos tea in 1 cup of water. The eggs turned a little pink/gray, which is great. I also used chamomile tea to get the palest shade of yellow. It's very subtle, as you can see in the photo above.

THE METHOD
To make the parsley leaf imprint on the egg, first hard boil your eggs. Once done, dab a bit of white vinegar on a paper towel and wipe the eggs clean. Place a parsley leaf on the egg and wrap it in a square piece of stocking, then tightly tie the stocking with your twine.

Soak the eggs in hot color liquid over night, then untie in the morning and pat dry. Let the eggs rest for a few minutes, and for a finishing touch, dab a little sunflower oil on a napkin and gently wipe the eggs to get them to shine.

Arrange your naturally dyed eggs in a basket, throw in some paper flowers and let your family/friends/guests choose their eggs for cracking (that's how we do it in the old country :)).

Paper Owl

I got the inspiration for this owl from Paper Source; their holiday owl garland, to be precise. I made the owl using a paper piecing technique.

Overall, I used only two kinds of paper punches: a 3" whole punch, and a 1" scalloped circle punch. I cut the rest of the paper pieces by hand.

Since I wanted something clean and white, I used two different shades of shimmer white card stock over a base color of blue.

As you can see, the body is made of layered circles.

I am also making a few more paper forest animals: a fox, a hedgehog, a turtle and so on.

Happy Spring!

Spring is here!!
Enjoy the pretty clear blue skies and pink paper (and real) flowers :)