Playing with Paper...

It's COLD outside!  Not as cold as it could be but colder than it has been for sure!  How's it in your neck of the woods?  We haven't had any work to speak of since December so things have been really tight and James and I have been making do with what we have.  It's times like these that you're glad for what you put up from the garden.  We've only gone to the store for the barest of essentials and even then, you realize pretty quick what is a necessity and what isn't.  I haven't done any baking lately because my oven element went out!  So it's been crockpot and lots of soups!  That's okay though...our belly's have been full and we've stayed warm.  The good part of having no outside work is that my honey has gotten LOTS done of the house! YAH!  And all of it is from salvaged wood and excess materials that we've saved thru out the year.  We did run out of sheetrock the other day so wall clading will have to wait a bit more.  :)  It's always fun (and I use that term VERY loosely) living in the house you are remodeling.  If it was just a room here and there, that would be one thing but the ONLY room done is our bedroom!!  That was a requirement to us moving in...we had to have a place of refuge :)  With no children at home, it's not that big of a deal but it will be SOOOOOOOOOOOOO nice to get it done.  It's gonna take a while though...

When James is doing stuff I really can't help with (like running electrical wire...I HATE getting shocked!) I've been working on some neat paper crafts.  I've seen these book page wreaths and such floating about in blogland so I decided to try my hand at a few and I really like them!  The first thing I did was to try a rolled paper rose wreath.  I found a tutorial by Stephanie Lynn at Under the Table and Dreaming
 http://www.bystephanielynn.com/2010/11/diy-faux-curled-rosewood-wreath-made.html

She has a BEAUTIFUL blog and I love it!  She's so inspiring!
I didn't have a foam wreath but I did have some old books I could play with.  I decided to IMPROVISE, lol... of course I did...lol.  I found a few extra clear plastic disposable plates in my half done kitchen and used a hot knife to cut out the center part!  Walla!  Now I had something to hot glue my paper roses too! 

I couldn't believe how easy this was but it does take a little time to do.  Still I love it!  I am in dire need of burlap though for the bow...I just used a strip of old material I had already torn up to use in my crocheted rugs :) 

So then I decided to try another paper craft.  This time I wanted to use sheet music.  I have several old hymnals that we've picked up at yard sales and thrift shops over the years so I got one out and began (gasp!) tearing out some pages!  Here's a great tutorial by Gina at the Shabby Creek Cottage:

http://www.theshabbycreekcottage.com/2011/09/how-to-make-book-page-wreath.html

I had an old 11X14" frame that I got at a thrift store a while ago....I wanted the print and the glass to go in a frame that I liked but the glass was broken. 

See, I paid $2 for it, lol! 

Anyhoo...back to what I was doing.  I decided to "age" the pages out of the hymnal because they didn't look old enough.  So I took out a cookie sheet and added some water and instant coffee granules....I added the sheets one at a time then gently laid them out on another cookie sheet to dry.  I placed them over by our woodstove and it didn't take long.  I did this off and on for a few hours... Remember, my oven is out so I couldn't dry them in there.  I also splattered some coffee granules on a few sheets to make dark spots.  I tried burning the edges of some of them but I ran out of patience... (I know, I know...you are COMPLETELY shocked!)  Not really...

Okay, then came the rolling and gluing.  I did this and pretty much used Gina's tutorial on doing it. Spacing and adding rolled paper cones as I went.  Then I got to the middle and decided that since I had been playing with paper flowers, I added some rolled roses, some cut petal newspaper flowers and such until I was happy with my "Wall Art".  What do you think?  Is it just too weird?