Handilady Crafting Projects

It is delightful to receive a prettily wrapped-present with a perfumed greetings tag attached to it. 3D decoupage is a simple and effective decorative technique.

Capture the beauty of foam-capped waves with a shell from the sea shore, filled with dried flowers. Add some fragrant oil and use it as a bathroom decoration.

A pretty basket containing eggshells filled with tiny posies of dried flowers will make a delightful and unusual gift to offer on an Easter morning.

Materials

• Bought rustic basket Eggshells
• Coloured tissue paper Dried hydrangea
• Dried yellow yarrow Dried pink and red statice
• Grasses
• Carnation oil
• 22 gauge florist’s wire

These pictures are just flat clay squares with clay shapes put on and painted in bright colors. You could make a very small picture. Pierce a hole through the top before the clay is dry and wear it on a cord. Or make a larger picture to hang on the wall. You could even decorate a box by gluing on clay squares.

Spring flowers are always beautiful, whether they are artistically arranged or just a bunch of
daffodils abandoned in a jam jar. The strong colours of the yellow miniature daffodils in this
arrangement would brighten any corner of the house.

Simple arrangements are often the prettiest and time is precious to us all. An arrangement like this can be made in a very short time and appreciated for at least a week. Using marbles or nuggets as a flower arranging aid is a relatively new idea and is now becoming very popular.

If you have access to flowers from your garden, even a large arrangement such as this can cost very little to put together. The copper container can double as a coal scuttle or log container when it is not in use as a vase! Foliage is very important to help fill an arrangement like this one; a design made with flowers on their own would use many more blooms than I have included here. If you enjoy having fresh flowers in the house, a good selection of foliage plants and shrubs in the garden is invaluable.

Materials

• 70 faceted oval beads, 4mm dia., color A (pink)
• 40 bicones, 4mm dia., color A (pink)
• 20 bicones, 4mm dia., color B (dark pink)
• 20 bicones, 4mm dia., color D (violet)
• 2 metal roses, 6mm dia., silver
• 1 metal rose, 10mm dia., silver
• 2 bead tips, 2 jump rings, and 1 lobster-claw clasp, silver
• 11/0 rocailles, pink
• 2 strands beading thread, each 50 in. (1.3m)
• 2 beading needles

• 1 rectangular montée, 15mm long, color A (crystal)
• 5 marquise montées, 10mm long, color A (crystal)
• 4 marquise montées, 15mm long, color B (blue)
• 38 bicones, 4mm dia., color B (blue)
• 11/0 rocailles, crystal
• Hanging ribbon or cord with findings as desired
• 40 in. (1.0m) beading thread
• 2 beading needles

Note: String the montées through the lower holes in this step. On the thread, string one 15mm marquise montée in color B, one bicone, one 10mm marquise montée in color A, and 1 bicone. Repeat three times. Cross the threads in the first 15mm montée. Pull the threads tight. Have the thread ends even.

Note: String the montées through the upper holes in this step. On the right thread (blue), string two bicones. Pass in the montées. Repeat twice. String two bicones. Cross in the bottom 15mm montée. Repeat with the left thread (red).

Pass each thread through the bicones and lower holes of the montées. Cross in the top 15mm montée. Pass through the bicones and upper holes of the montées. Cross in the bottom 15mm mon^-tée.

On each thread, string one bicone. Pass through the rectangular montée. String one bicone on each thread. Cross through the lower holes of the top marquise montées. Pass through the beads and lower holes of the marquise montees as shown.

On each thread, string one rocaille and one bicone. Cross in the rectangular montées. On each thread, string one bicone and one rocaille. Pass in the marquise montées.

Pass the threads through the bicones and the upper holes of the marquise rnontées. Cross in the upper holes of the bottom marquise montées. For the loop, string one rocaille and two bicones on each thread. Pass in one 10mm marquise montée. On each thread, string one bicone and one rocaille. Pass through the bicones and the 10mm marquise montée. String nine rocailles on each thread. Cross in the bottom marquise montée. Pass in the beads to join the threads, and knot them.

TIP

Be sure the threads pass and cross through the holes in the montées as shown in the diagrams.