Designer Crafts Connection Blog Hop

Welcome to this month's Designer Crafts Connection Blog Hop! DCC is a large, diverse and very talented group of artists and designers. We "hop" on the first Monday of each month--many have give a ways and blog candy that will be drawn later in the month. ENJOY all of the "April Inspiration" this month, visit all the bloggers by using the HOP button on my side bar or at the end of this post.

**I will be drawing one winner on April 16th for a $25 gift card to Starbucks!! Please comment by COB Sunday, April 15th.

My inspiration for this flower was a DIY for large tissue paper flowers found at designsponge.com and created by Kate Pruitt found here: TISSUE PAPER DIY

It was created in the "spirit" of Van Gogh's "Starry Night" for a Charitable Art Show I am donating it to and it will be up for auction at the Town Club event in Sanford, ME on April 26th, 5:30-7:30pm to benefit Counseling Services Inc. (another art piece below I created also for this event - Starry Night Abstract)



Approximately 6 feet tall



1. There are three 3/4" x 8"square boards screwed together for the base with a plastic plant pot screwed to that.
2. I filled the plant pot with cement and inserted three wooden (bamboo?) branches.
3. After it is completely dry, spray with 3 coats of stone fleck spray paint.



4. Form a leaf shape with a wire hanger using the "hook" part as a stem to attach to the flower stem, Cut fabric to shape 1/2" to 3/4" larger all the way around for the seam. Sew the fabric with wrong sides out. Do not sew completely, leave the opening large enough to insert the wire hanger form and then hand sew to meet with the "stem".

*This fabric is vintage brocade I purchased at a thrift store!! GORGEOUS.

5. Attach the coat hanger "stem" of the leaf to the bamboo base for flower stem securely with wire.


6. Cut 4" strips of fabric, wrap around the bamboo base adhering securely with hot glue.
Don't just "spot" with hot glue, bunching will occur (voice of experience there LOL). If you need to pinch to make the stem more narrow throughout this process, just wrap the next layer high enough to cover the puckers.

7. The stem is wrapped with a gorgeous assortment of 1/2" to 3/4" GLASS BEADS! It's so pretty! The are on heavy wire, secured at the top of the stem and at the bottom.



8. The center of the flower is a plastic frame that was a gaudy Easter egg covered with teal and white garland from the dollar store. I removed the garland and attached the frame to the top of the stem with wire.

9. In the spirit of "Starry Night", this sculpture is lighted! I used a battery operated set of 50 white lights attached to the "egg" base with wire twists. I tried just wrapping it but had much better results by securing each light individually where I wanted it and pointing it's direction to the front.



**There is 20 yards of navy blue tulle here :o)

10. Using 2-3 yards of tulle, I pushed "puffs" through the back of the center form to the front and pulled them fluffy and full to cover the form and hide the lights.
11. Accordion fold layers from the rest of the tulle approx 3/4" yard (yes, this was a 2 person job! Thank you, honey!), then cut a basic flower shape through all of the layers. Randomly stagger a few sections of the stack just so all the petals weren't lined up exactly.
12. Using a large needle and fishing line or clear beading fibers, gather the center and attach to the back side of flower center. This took some more strategic gathering and sewing in multiple places.
13. Fluff the layers of tulle thoroughly and individually to achieve fullness in the bloom.

It's really breath-taking in person! I hope you'll stop by the Town Club on April 26th to view it, along with my other donated piece: Starry Night Abstract.



Layers of canvas over a black branch frame, mixed media with metallic pigments.
Approximately 4 feet by 5 feet.

Thank you for hopping with the DCC! Use the HOP button to visit all the blogs and leave a comment here to win $25 GC for Starbucks on April 16th.

Cheers!
Becky