Total Art Soul - for artists

Felted Christmas Lights

You can do this one in plenty of time for the festivities.  It really is not difficult and I think you'll agree, the effect is wonderful.  You can color match the felt with your Christmas decoration which will look really stylish.

Materials Needed:
- fairy lights
- olive soap or soap flakes
- wool roving
- towel
- plastic to make a resist (just use some stiff 3mm plastic)
- bubblewrap

1.  Make the resist.  The triangle is 7cms wide by 9cms high.  Add a 1cms border at the bottom so it looks like a witch's hat.

2.  Lay out the felt. Hold the end of the roving loosely in one hand and gently pull off a section.  Hold your four fingers against the pad of your palm and trap the wool there and pull firmly.

Lay out 3 thin layers of felt like this.  When you start out vertically, the second layer needs to be layed out horizontally and the third one vertically again.

Then place the resist on top of the layed out wool roving.

Then lay out three thin layers of felt - mostly in the middle of the resist.

Then fold the felt on the sides over to the middle.

3.  Put some soap flakes into a glass or grte some olive oil soap.  Pour hot water in the glass and let the soap melt.  Sprinkle drops of hot soapy water on the roving.

Press lightly onto the wet roving and make sure that there are no 'holes'. If there are holes, you need to add a bit more roving before rubbing lightly.

Rub the wool gently while it is on the bubblewrap. When you feel that the fibers are more attached to each other you can rub the other side and also rub it between your hands.  Then you can take out the resist and rub it some more. As soon as the fibers are attached, they won't attach any more when taking away the resist.

4.  Rinse.

This is what it should look like after you have rinsed.

5.  Snip off a small amount at the top for your lights to fit through.

Repeat all of the above for however many lights you have on your garland.

6. Fit your felt covers over your lights.

All done!

Original Source

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When Riki told me she was using fuschia and lime green for her wedding colors I couldn't wait to work with her!  She wanted her wedding to reflect her spunky personality and we were excited to take the challenge.  She loves to wear big and bold jewelry, so creating her earrings was especially fun.  She was absolutely fabulous to work with and we came up with designs she felt were "amazing".

Riki's bold earrings were the perfect accent to her beautiful dress!

Swarovski crystal and sterling silver with lots of length and lots of sparkle!  The edgy swirl and shimmering crystals echo the elements of her dress.  She wanted to spice them a up a little too with some pink crystals sprinkled in.

Fuschia for the bridesmaids is definitely a sassy stunning hue!

Fuschia Swarovski crystals with sterling silver add a pop of perfect color to the bridesmaid's ensemble.

We were so happy to adorn her and her wedding party for a perfect day!

The excellent wedding photography was done by Edges Photography.  Click here for more samples of our custom design work, and here to contact us for more information.  We'd love to work with you on your perfect custom wedding jewelry!

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Paper Flower Tutorial

Doesn't this look divine?  When I first saw these, I thought they would be really difficult to do because they look quite intricate but actualy, they're easy!  Anyone can make these with the minimal of materials.  I'll take you through it step-by-step and you'll see how easy it is.

Materials needed:

- hand-painted paper or colored paper
- watercolor paint (if painting your own paper)
- florists tape
- cork
- wire
- decorator's tape
- scissors
- craft knife

If you decide to paint your own paper, you can add a wash of soft pink to your paper/card.  The benefit of painting your paper is that you can get lovely soft gradations of color which will make your flower look more natural. Depending on the size of your paper, paint about 2 or 3 pieces which you can join together.

Cut your paper in thin strips with a craft knife.  Only cut up to 3 cms from the top.

If you've used a few pieces of paper, join them with paper glue so that you end up with a long strip. The longer the strip, the fuller and larger your flower will look. You will now have a piece of paper that looks something like this.

Start rolling up this strip of paper.  Tape it so that it doesn't unravel.  The tape will be hidden later.

Now you can cut your green paper into leaf shapes as above. Fold your leaves in half so that you get a center vein.

Attach your leaves with more tape all around the base of the flower.

To make the center of your flower, cut a small piece of cork and push a piece of wire through it as in the image.  Then twist the ends of the wire together.

Push the cork heart through the center of your flower.

Cover the stem with tape.

Lastly, cover the base of the flower and stem with green florist tape.

Et voila!  I told you it was easy!  Wrap them in some tissue paper and give them as a gift.

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