Maybe it's because you left such a lovely thank you note on my studio guest book after you spent the weekend playing in there.
Or maybe it's because you were so excited to make a paper dogwood branch the evening you were here with Miss Mary Mack.
But, whatever the reason, when I discovered these paper roses, I immediately thought of you.
So read on and tell me if this makes you run for the scissors and glue.
You can cut these from any paper you like; other people use decorative paper, but I like to recycle my old magazines (as you Dear Readers know).
(I'm also thinking this would be a good way to make something beautiful from the summer electric bill.)
I pulled a few colorful pages from some of the magazines that are stacked up around this place.
I chose a variety of things because this was my first run with this project and I wanted to see how different colors and patterns would work.
I folded my pages in half...
...so I would get two-fers when I cut my circles.
At first, I carefully traced a circle onto the top magazine page...
...but, since it doesn't matter how perfect the circles are for this project, I quickly traded that in for just cutting the circles freehand.
Then I drew a spiral on the top circle only; magazine pages are light and I knew I could cut them all at once, as long as I held them firmly.
Once they were cut, I carefully separated them.
The spirals tend to tangle at the center.
Then I simply started rolling the spiral in on itself, starting at the outside edge and keeping the colored side of the paper to the inside.
After the whole spiral had been rolled in on itself, I simply set it down on the table and let it uncurl itself a bit.
It was so amazing to see how these came out!
The center of the spiral acts like a little base for the rest of the rose to stand on.
Here is the first one I finished:
So totally kewl!
I haven't glued any of mine to the 'base' yet, but the tutorial here suggests using a glue dot (though I will probably just spread a little white glue on mine - cheap cheap).
Each of the papers had it's own appeal.
It's going to be fun to experiment, because there weren't any that I did not like.
So, Lindsay, and you other creative Dear Readers (unless you've already done this and I'm just behind in school) go cut and roll.
I've got to cut and run.
There is a baby hedgehog out there waiting to be chosen, and Miss Helping Hands wants me to go through the adoption process with her.
Life is always interesting.