Hello and Happy Valentine’s Day!

Let’s get started on the wreath.   Grab some sewing white and dark brown sewing thread.  Just the regular kind.

Wind out a length of the brown sewing thread about two feet in length.  Cut a square of wax paper 2×2.  Apply aleene’s tacky glue to one side.

 

Place one end of the thread through the glue and fold over the wax paper.  Pull the thread through the glue covering the entire length of thread in glue.  Hang to dry.  The glue add added stiffness to the thread.

Once dry, cut into 2″ lengths.  Repeat again for more.

To make the leaves.  You can cut strips of regular print paper into strips.  Color with marker the color green you would like your leaves.  I used spectrum noir alcohol marker CG2. Fold in half and cut out leaf shapes.

Or another way is to use a flower punch and cut the petals into leaf shapes.

If you use the petal punch, you will then need to add the crease in the middle by running your kraft blade (back of the blade)  through the center while the leaf is on a soft surface.  I used fun foam sheet for my soft surface.

Make lots of leaves.  I estimate that I used about 60 to 80 leaves.

The leaves are attached to the brown stem thread using white glue and super glue.  Dip the end of the thread into the tacky glue (just a tiny bit for both glues ) and then into the gel super glue. Tiny amounts are best.  Touch the glue to the base of the leaf stem for a second and the glue will set to the leaf.

Add two more leaves a little further down the stem.

I also make stems with only two leaves.

Have fun and make about twelve sets of each. Tip..you can cover up any glue that shows with either the markers or paint.

Bud Stems are made by tying a knot to one end of the brown stems.  Trim and excess thread from the end.  So the know is right at the end.  Dip the knot into some tacky glue and set aside to dry.

After the glue has dried, dip the ends into acrylic paint.  I used a color called gypsy rose.

Allow to dry.  Make about 60 to 70 of the bud stems.

Now onto the blossoms.  Wind lengths of white thread around three fingers and take of your fingers.  Cut the loops at one end and then the other. Sorry some of the pics didn’t turn out.

Keep the end even and place onto a paper surface.  Color one end ( just a 1/8 of an inch) of the thread with a pink marker or paints.  I used spectrum Noir BP6.  Color the remainder of the thread with Spectrum Noir TN8.

Allow to dry and then run each thread through some glue like we did on the brown thread.  Just do not run the pink end through the glue.

 

You can do this in bunches like the above pictures.  Just pull them through one at a time and lay on wax paper to dry.

After drying, take a straight pin and tease the pink colored end out to resemble a tassel.

These will be the center of our blossoms.  Make approximately 24-36.

For the petals I used cold porcelain clay.  You can find recipes for this air drying clay on the internet.  Or you can purchase an air drying clay.

I also used a gum paste storage board for shaping the flower petals.  It is board with two clear plastic sheets attached on one edge.  It helps your clay from drying out as you work with it.  If you don’t have one, it can be made.

Cut a piece of mat board approximately 6.5″ by 5″ and cover with clear packing tape.

Cut the top off a heavy duty quart storage bag and tape to the top of the long edge. Trim the sides and bottom of the storage bag to fit and by cutting the edge you will create the two layers of clear plastic.

Roll out you air drying clay as thin as you can.  I used a pasta machine at 7 setting.

Place the clay under the two clear plastic layers to keep it from drying out.

Take a number 2 piping tip and punch out 5 round shapes from the clay.  Keep them under the cover too.

Cut each circle in half.

Roll each piece into a tear drop shape.  Cover with plastic covers.  Use a ball stylus to thin out the larger end of the tear drop shaped petal leaves.

Be sure to keep them covered as you are working.

Set up some more super glue gel and tack glue to be used.  I put a drop side by side on some wax paper.  Just a dot of each.  They dry pretty quickly.  You will need to keep adding more as it dries out on you.

Take a petal and dip the point end of the petal first in tacky glue and then in the super glue gel.  Tiny amounts.  Join up to the blossom stem center.

Add four more petals around.

Once you have all the petals on, gently shape them up cup like and let dry.

Once dry, take either paint or your brown marker and where the back of the  petals meet the stem, paint in the sepal.  Had to look that word up…:)

 

Make approximately 24-30 blossoms.

 

Assemble large leaf stem, 3-4 blossom stems, 2 blossoms and small leaf stem in a bunch.  Add a dab of tacky glue to the stems to hold them together.

Assemble twelve sprays.

Draw a heart shape (approximately 1″ at the widest point) onto some copy paper and place under the plastic cover on your petal shaping board. Missed getting a picture apologies.  Apply a light bead of glue to the drawn shape when placing your sprays down to help with getting the heart shape.  Since it is on the plastic you can let dry and then it will peel off of the plastic.

Layer the sprays from the center going around.  Using tacky glue as you add each spray.  Once you get to about three sprays you will have a lot of the stems, so trim off about a third of the stems at an angle.

Continue adding until you get to the point of the heart.  Then start from the center on the other side.

Once your glue has dried, trim off the excess stem threads to a point.   Then add some leaves and blossom stems to finish out the heart.

I really sped through this fast, so there may be some mistakes.  Thanks for ignoring them.  I will go through and review/correct here soon.

Hope you enjoyed.

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One post done in 2019 …yeah for me, I am back.

TIna