Please, don’t eat the daisies!

by PaperPuff

The title of a Doris Day film. Also, a sentence oft spoken in our home this week, in a slightly different way. As in no ‘please’ and no ‘daisies’. More like ‘Stop eating the flowers!’ or just ‘stopitstopitstopit’ whilst wresting the paper pulp from the cat’s jaws. Don’t get me wrong, it is nice that he involves himself with my hobby, but eating the hobby is not the way to go.

daisy-eating-riley

This is a WIP. My sister made some bare naked Christmas baubles (UK English) or ornaments (USA English. Hmmn, don’t know where Canada sits on this one?) to decorate. We thought it would be fun, given we both have quite large and very different stashes and quite divergent crafty leanings. I collected my orbs a few weeks ago but haven’t done much so far. I know I need to be more Christmas orientated but I think that is where I fall down. I really cannot get in the festive mood this early. But I had a naked ornament to decorate. Fun, right? I have never done this before. The base is a kid’s plastic ball, a wire hanger added and then covered in a textured papier mache layer.

Now to get going! I’m not certain where this particular bauble or ornament will end up, but it is a start. So with the ’not yet’ feeling in mind I deliberately travelled the ‘not Christmas’ road with my first effort, and started by punching many, many paper flowers to cover it with. In fact each flower you can see is two layers, offset a bit. I am not sure how many it took. I started making a circle around the middle, which took 16 whole ‘flowers’ for a bauble measuring about 6-7cm diameter. I had hoped I would just eyeball it and get a beautiful encirclement to meet up in the middle, without actually mapping or drawing it out. Fail to plan, plan to fail, came to mind as my circle was so ‘off’ by the time I had made it around the circumference once that one end was clearly heading north without a backward glance. To visit Santa, presumably. But actually it didn’t matter. Maybe I was lucky, but I just kept going and managed to cover it all without any odd gaps or some being more closely squashed together than others.

flower-bauble-1

I think I am going to finish it off with a gentle dusting of glitter and some pearls here and there. I may also cover the wire with ribbon or tissue paper. If anyone has any good ideas feel free to stick them in a comment – I have plenty more baubles!

Supplies (possibly the shortest list ever): a Martha Stewart punch. It hasn’t got a name on it and I bought it so long ago I can’t remember!

 

 

 

 

60 thoughts on “Please, don’t eat the daisies!”

  4. I like your flower creation, lovely. If that beautiful cat of yours eats the flowers, tape his/her mouth shut. Just kidding. Had a cat for 15 years that could have been a twin to your cat. Miss him – Prince was his name.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thank you. Actually he loves sticky tape too so that also has to be hidden away! Hope this picture didn’t make you sad as I would never want to do that.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. Yes, crystals! My poor tree starts off looking beautiful, but the cats like to take the hanging crystals off and hide them.What I have left migrate further and further up the tree..not fair as all the cats have their own stocking, advent calendar, main present…maybe I’ll try dusters this year….

        Liked by 1 person

      3. I have to open the doors for three of the cats or they get frustrated and rip the whole thing up, but Charlie, my cat, the cleverest of course :), knows exactly what to do and will hook her little paw under the tab to open it. I have to show her the right number door..she hasn’t quite mastered numbers yet!

        Liked by 1 person

      5. No, special cat ones…they have little treats or catnip biscuits in them..lol! And provided your cat can’t read, you should be ok…!!

        Liked by 1 person

  8. I just want to fill the centers with something shiny. At first I thought red, but no. Gold would be so pretty. I’m mentally going through my stash. Sadly, I don’t have anything quite right. This project would force me to go shopping.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Yes, that is what I am intending, and maybe the outside edge of the petals too. Whether it works or not is another story! I was lucky here that my sister made the balls, and, as we know, I am surrounded by paper. But having done one I think if I saw the polystyrene balls at a reasonable price I might be tempted. Then I could have made this by using a beaded pin to fix each flower in place, thus giving me a decorative centre to each!

      Like

      Reply

  9. I bought some plastic refillable (is that even a word?) Balls and flat circle ones at a Joanne’s craft store and filled mine with die-cut and stamped images with a little fake snow. If I ever get my camera out from under the stash of stuff in my room I will take pics and share!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  14. My kitties sometimes like to get involved with knitting, but they are easily distracted when I give them their own yarn. Thankfully neither has swallowed their yarn or I’d be in for some trouble. I love your ornament/bauble! The more I read your blog, the more attractive paper crafts become – I may have to start doing some of my own!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  15. Hello Puff!
    Firstly … the punch is the Martha Stewart Hydrangea punch.

    Now lets talk balls.

    WOW! That looks so SO pretty! And what a work of heart too. It must have taken you a while and a whole dose of patience to make. But very worth it, because the result is stunning.

    With regard to the centres … Stickles? In any colour you personally like – BUT … I can also recommend a tiny touch of clear drying glue and a sprinkle of WOW glitter – any colour you like. It’s VERY fine & you don’t need much to add the X-factor! (It’s a tiny bit more expensive than some other glitters, but it’s worth it.)

    The ball is perfection. I absolutely love it. Oh … and I wouldn’t put that away. That’s far too beautiful to sit 11months in the loft.

    Sending oodles of love and squishy stuff ~ Cobs. x

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thanks! Glitter is definitely on the shortlist. I think I’ll make a few extra flowers up and try things out before I go for the full bauble! It did take a while to make the flowers and cover it but hey, it’s better than ironing, right?

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      3. OK… laughed out loud at the picture you painted inside the walls of my mind.

        Erm … you might like to take almost all of those out and try one thing at a time. Your bottom gets hot, it will press em.

        (Don’t do this on your best stuff. Only your ordinary stuff, and everything belonging to Mr. Puff. does he like being called this I wonder?)

        Liked by 1 person

      4. Sorry, can’t hear you from up here. Please type louder. Uh-oh, altitude sickness…stand back everyone….

        Like

    1. Go! Scoot! Do it now! I want to see pictures! You can include tinned produce too if it makes you feel more comfortable. We are all friends here!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. Yes, blogging and commenting gets crazy at times…
        I love decorations like this. More over I have a flower paper punch and even a set of stylus and tweezers etc. for creating paper flowers! I just hope that one day I’ll finally create something with it 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

  19. Oh my you are busy, busy, busy! I still haven’t even started working on Christmas items yet. Just got back from 10 days at the beach (Florida….not the side with the hurricane. Whew! missed that one!) with two of my sister’s and their husbands. We had a blast! Now back to reality! Yuck! It will probably take me 2-3 days to get caught up on all my emails…so crafting will be delayed even further. 🙂
    Anyways, what a great ornament! Love it just as it is! 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a comment