DIY Q-Tip Pussy Willow Branches For Centerpieces

I don't know how this idea came into my

head, but so excited it did! And, I did a

search on the net to see if anyone has

ever done this before and found nothing!

Cool beans!

It all came about when I was taking a

break from a sweater pumpkin I was

making. I went online just to free my

mind as I was stuck on how I wanted to

finish it. My inspiration had just died with

it... does that happen to you too? Normally

when that happens I just stare at it for a

few days and then bam... something hits

me and then, I can tear into it until it's done.

(My vases look a little dwarfed here on this

antique desk I set them on. Have to find a

new spot for them durn it.)

So, as I was taking my break on blog land,

I came across this sweater vase. I have

seen many before but this one just struck

me to want to do one. I liked it and, I had

just come across my poor beautiful lambs

wool sweater jacket with fur on the inside

of the hood that I just loved! It had

accidentally got thrown in the wash and,

well lets just say, a small child could wear

it now...so sad! It had shrunk so small that

when I cut the sleeves off, and just slid them

over the vases I was using, they barley fit!

The positive in that was, they were good

and snug so that was all I had to do. No

glue, no nothing, and they were done. The

last thing I did was cut off three of the

buttons from the sweater and hot glued

them on the front of the larger vase for

some nice decoration. Just right!

 

 

Displayed in this vase was some faux pussy

willows. I loved the look and wanted some for

my vases. I didn't want to go shopping to try

to find some, even I could find them, and I

didn't want to spend any money either.

 

And then all of a sudden I got a slap in the head idea! As I was looking at the pussy willows my mind did a flip and I saw q-tips! Well they do look like q-tips don't ya think!? And then...the world of nature kicked in. I wasn't going to have to spend a dime or go anywhere! Except for the woods next to me to find some branches....so I did! I will make my own pussy willows!

My silly hubby saw me out there in the

woods picking up sticks from his office

window and walking back with a bunch

of dead branches and hollers down from

his office upstairs asking "what are

you doing now?" I went upstairs telling

him I'm taking your box of q-tips. He says,

"Oh this ought to be good...sticks and

q-tips!!? And I got that look, but with a bit

of bewilderment added. Then he says, "I

won't even ask!" I said, "just wait and see!"

So I went back downstairs and started to

work....and it worked! I got my pussy willow

branches done a few hours and about five

hundred or close q-tips later! I was so

stinkin excited when it was done! I showed

them to hubby and he said, "Oh wow

sweetie, that is awesome! They look real!"

Gives a nice winters feel too I think!

And honestly, you can't really tell they

aren't real unless you get super close to

look! I am totally happy happy with them!

Everyone that has come to the house has

gone nuts over them....and when I tell them

they are q-tips, they don't believe me until

they get super close up to them. They never

would have known until I told them.

To do these yourself all you need is:

 a box of q-tips - 500 ct. would be best

some sticks or branches dead or alive

(less than I used would be better lol,

took forever! I'm not good at projects

like that!) I get impatient to get done!

scissors - I used hubbys kitchen scissors

(You should have seen his face when he

saw me cutting the q-tips with his precious

and expensive kitchen utensils!) If he can

cut up a chicken with them, then it

certainly won't hurt them to cut a q-tip!

I just rolled my eyes right back at him!

glue gun and glue sticks

and I recommend a deep bowl - why?

Because when I was clipping the tips off

the q (sticks), they were flying all over the

place! Once I got the bowl I pointed the end

I was cutting downward into the bowl, and

the high sides of the bowl made them

ricochet off the bowl walls, but fall into the

bowl. No more getting up and chasing

those suckers everywhere they landed!

And some time and patience!

Take your q-tips and start by clipping off

both ends right at where the cotton ends

on the stick or just a little above it until

you have a lot!  And I mean ALOT! I did

cut some a little closer to the tip for use

on the thicker branches.

I then set my branches in the vase and

even glued them together in places so they

wouldn't move from how I had put them. I

even clipped some smaller branches off

some others I didn't use, and glued them on

my branches in the vase where there

was gaps, and to have a couple fall over the

sides of the vase. Once my branches were

set, I took the glue gun and the tips I had cut

and squeezed just a tiny bit of glue on the

clipped end and just placed them on the

branches where there had been a leaf or

mark in the stem where another branch

had once been. Then I filled the stems with

the tips where I thought a pussy willow

would have bloomed.

It was really easy adhering them....most I

just set on the branch and that was it. On

the teeny tiny thin stems of the stick, I

sometimes held them in place for just a

couple of seconds very gently.

My branches were found from limbs that

had fallen off the trees so they were pretty

brittle so I had to be ever so careful not to

have them break off while I was placing the

cotton tips on them. And that is it! You got

pussy willows!

One suggestion I'll share. When applying

the glue on the tips,  just do a small dab and

when you are pulling the glue gun away,

kind of do a wrap around before, so you

don't get those glue strings. I only had a

couple doing it that way and when I was

finished I took my tiny embroidery shears

and clipped them off!

Who would have thunk? Not me, but I

did! I kept wondering all day if it was

my mom giving me a nudge to use my

noggin from heaven...I'm not that smart!

Well there you have it! Have fun and enjoy

if you happen to make some yourself! I

really really Love Love mine!

The photo that inspired my vases and the

faux pussy willows that inspired the idea

to make my own pussy willows!

And below the real deals!

First beginning to bloom Photo Courtsey

Photo Courtsey

Giant White Pussy Willows (Salix chaenomeloides)

Beginning to bloom Photo Courtesy

I love pussy willows...don't you!?

I'm not to far off! Maybe one day I will add a bit of

watered down light grey craft paint, or roll them in

some grey eye shadow to tint them for a more natural look

in color. Right now I like them white like the second photo

of real white pussy willows above. And....if you get your

mind away from q-tips....you can see pussy willows!

  

Thanks for spending your time with me!

TaTa Till Later!

With Sincere Appreciation I Would To Thank The

Following For The Feature Of My Pussy Willows

Hometalk

The Cottage Market

Trucs & Bricolages

Thank You So Much!

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Faux Wheat Stalks With Twine

 Hello World and Happy Sunday to You!

Well I am three weeks into knocking off pumpkin making from my two year old list, and doing a bit of Fall decorating. In my surfing the net for some decorating ideas, I came across a lady who I admire from a far. I'm sure many of you know of her. Her blog is called Craftberry Bush, her name is Lucy. She is one very talented lady and I love her mind and ideas and her creativity.

In this post I was looking at this very cool chicken wire pumpkin she made, along with this amazing idea of making wheat stalks with twine. I immediately thought the wheat stalks would look great in my vase of pretty colored Fall leaves.

So I searched her site to see if there was a tutorial for it. I didn't find one but she did mention using a "Fishtail" braid to make them by. I didn't know what a fishtail braid was so I did a search on the net and tried to figure it out myself. After playing around for a while I finally figured it out! Yea! I made twenty stalks and added some to my Fall leaf arrangement and it was just the right of something to give a little interest to the arrangement...I thought anyway. I also added some to my basket of faux veggies I have on the table in the breakfast nook. They were fun and fast to make once I got my rhythm going, and I was tickled pink to conquer the challenge of making them. The only thing left I want to do is to take the shish kabob skewers and rub some coffee grounds on them to age them just a tad.

I made a tutorial for creating them if anyone else thinks them pretty cool too. There are pictures and steps below! I hope you don't get confused by anything, because I confused the tar out of myself trying to come up with an easy way to explain and show how I did it! Hopefully it came out ok, but the pictures I think show it well enough for you to be successful. If not just ask me to explain further on what ever you might not understand. I have to give thanks to Ms. Lucy for the whole idea. It was a great one!

  

Now let's make some wheat!

Supplies Needed:

Twine

Scissors

Glue Gun

Glue Sticks

Wooden Shish Kabob Sticks

Cut two pieces of twine 16" long. Find the middle and

fold in half to look like the photo above.

If your right handed, take and hold with your left hand

the top center of both pieces of twine making sure to

keep one piece over the top of the other. Now take your

the left outside strand of twine and lay it over the left

inside strand of twine. (over one strand)

Next while still holding the top and now the strand of

twine you just laid over with your left hand, take the

strand of twine on the right outside and lay it over the

right inside strand AND the left outside strand you

just laid over in the first step. (lay over two strands)

(A note to keep in mind. When laying over from the

left, you will always lay over just one strand, and

when laying over from the right, you will always be

laying over two strands.) Hope that makes sense.

 Now again take your left outside strand and lay over the

one strand next to it.

Now take the far right outside strand and bring it over

two strands and to the left....(it will end up being the

left inside strand.) Stay with me!

Again, take the left outside strand and lay over just one

strand....the one right next to it which would be the left

inside strand.

Again, the right hand strand over to the left and over the

two strands to the left of it. Got your rhythm yet? Hope so!

Keep doing this until you get to the length you want

your wheat stalk to be. Mine measure about 4" to

4 1/2" long each give or take.

This is what it should look like when you get to your

finished point. Now make another one to complete

our one stalk of wheat.

When you have your two pieces of wheat made

take a wooden shish kabob stick and lay it at the

top of the wheat where we started our braiding...

which now is actually our bottom of the wheat now.

Take your glue gun and glue the stick to the wheat

like in the photo above.

Lastly, take your second piece of wheat and lay it

over the first piece of wheat with the stick in the center

and glue it just like you just did with the first. Now

spread some glue all down the strip of wheat to glue

both pieces of wheat together and press the wheat

together keeping them both straight and even on the

sides. At the bottom where the stick goes in between the

two pieces of wheat, when gluing on the second piece

press it real tight together and pinch the sides together

so you don't see the stick in between. And then your done!

You can also take and cut some of the strands at the

top in different height variations to give it a more

natural look if you like so they aren't all even across.

There will probably be some variation in lengths

anyway when you are finished with the braiding.

   

Well there you are! Make some more stalks and use them

in your Fall displays, or basket of pumpkins, or veggies

or whatever you may think to use them for!

That was fun! Enjoy!

Thanks for spending your time with me and I hope

you have a great and blessed week!

TaTa Till Later!

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Knotted Jute Net Demijohns or Bottles DIY Tutorial

Yea! The Tutorial is finally Done!
 

What a busy, fun, and exciting week!

 

I was absolutely tickled pink but more like totally
surprised and honored when I found that my

Ballard Designs demijohn bottles with bling were featured
over at Knockoff Decor.com and at Hometalk.com

I was even approached by a friend to do a class

and share and teach how I made my bottles!

 

First time ever something I had made was such a

big hit. I'm truly grateful to so many for this. I've had

over 7,544 hits here on the blog in three days! They

have been shared all over Pinterest and Facebook!

I never dream so many would like these simple

little bottles! I am very grateful they were received

so well.....it's so nice to have nice things happen

once in while!

 

Thank you!!!

 

With such an overwhelming happy response to my

"Ballard Design Demijohn Knock Offs With Bling"

shown below, I was asked by so many to do a tutorial.

I am happy to share.....So here it is!

 

The bottles I made with bling!

 

 

If you have any questions, contact me here in a comment

and I'll respond as soon as possible. I hope these are clear

enough for your success in making pretty bottles for yourself!

 

Enjoy!

Supplies you'll need:

glass bottle....a wine bottle is great!
Mod Podge
jute/twine or small size rope
glue gun and glue sticks
scissors
craft paint sponge brush or paint brush
cup of water to rinse brush
dry and wet napkins

After I did my bottles I accidentally found this demijohn
and for a steal! Was so excited! This is what I'm using
for this tutorial....I can't wait to see it done!

Got your bottle ready!? Let's rock and roll ladies!
and guys! This is so much fun!

All the pictures are numbered with numbered instructions to match each step I'm explaining for you. I learn so much better by pictures than I do by written instructions.

 



1. Starting at the top of your bottle, take the end of your roll of twine/jute and wrap it around the neck of your bottle where you want your netting to begin. You are going to be making a ring.

 

2. Cut the twine/jute the length you need around.

 

3. You can either tie a knot (cut a little extra to allow for the knot).... or, I wanted my ring cleaner looking so I dabbed a good amount of glue on both ends of my twine....overlap the ends about a quarter inch or a little less. When the glue is cooled down enough to touch but not set and dried yet, I squeezed the twine ends together and start rolling it back and forth in between my fingers to get the glue to smish into the twine fibers, and connecting the two ends together smoothly. Be careful not to burn your fingers! After a couple of times of burning my fingers, I learned to wait a bit instead of being in a hurry lol!

 



 

 

4. Place your ring on your bottle.

 

 

5. Now take the twine, and measuring from the top of your bottle to the bottom, take that length and x's that length by 4. (Example).. If your bottle is 5" tall, then your cut length would be 20" long. It's better to have extra than not enough. Now cut six pieces that length. I have even times it by five. Don't worry about all the excess you might have left. If you are going to do the twine wrap at the neck of your bottle, we'll use those pieces left over on that! I waste as little as possible! (A tighter weave means lots more knots! The more knots the more twine you need!)

 

(Note) The more strands of twine/jute you use, depends on how far spaced your netting, or weave lets call it, will look. If you want a wide/large loose look netting (how large your diamond shapes will be, you'll see this diamond shape look shortly) then you would use less strands... like six. If you want a tighter weave you would use more. In the picture of my bottles up above, on the large bottle which measured 13 1/2" high, I used 10 strands, on the medium size bottle which measured 11 3/4" high, and small bottle which measured 9 1/2" high, I used 9 strands for both. On the demijohn I'm using in this tutorial, I'm using 15 strands. (I want a tighter weave net look.) Remember, less strands = larger loose weave, more strands = tighter weave. Example in the photo below of each.

 

 

6. Take your first long strand and find the center of it and fold it in half...pinch it tight to form a bit of a crease. I do that so I don't lose my center allowing me to keep my strands even in length when attaching my strand to the ring.

 

7. Take the folded center of your strand and slide it up behind or underneath the jute/twine ring at the neck of your bottle. (picture 7. shows what I mean here.)

 

8. Now pull your folded center down over the ring making a loop, and pull your strands up through the loop. 

 

9. This shows you have like a heart shape.

 

10. Pull the strands all the way through this loop to create your loop knot..make it snug up to the ring. 

 

11. Continue doing that with all your strands and it should look like picture 11. when your done. Then I evenly distribute the strands on the ring if needed just by sliding them left or right. If you have used six strands to start with, you know have 12 strands to work with from your six knotted loops. Hope that makes sense....just look at the pictures!   :)

 

12. I work to the right as I am making my netting....now take two strands, one from the  knotted loop to the left....(which would be the right side strand,) and a strand from the right side knotted loop, (which would be the left side strand,) and then gage where you want your first row of knots to be on your bottle. Start there to tie your knot. It's important to keep your strands in line with how they fall. You don't want cross overs. Hope that made sense. Picture 12. shows what I mean I hope. This picture also shows where I am placing my first knot to start, and pictures 13.- 14.- and 15 shows how I make the knot.

 

 

This photo is how my hand is holding the jute between picture 14. & 15. It shows how I hold the twine to create the knot with my left hand. What it isn't showing, because I am snapping this picture with my camera is, my fingers of my right hand are holding onto the two pieces of twine laying over my thumbnail. I am going to pull the two twine strands that's underneath my thumb through this loop to the left until both strands have come all the way through. You then push the knot tight. You may have to adjust a little bit if tightening the knot made the knot go up higher from where you had decided you wanted your knot to lay to start your first row of knots. Just loosen the knot and ease it down a bit and tighten the knot back up again. Or if it is to low, you reverse that instruction. How you doing so far!?  :)  If your good, lets move on!

 

16. Now make your second knot. Once the knot is made, check to make sure its in line with your first knot. If not adjust it so they are even across as picture 19. shows. Now just continue around your bottle until your first row is done.

19. Now your first row of knots is complete.

 

20. Now start the second row repeating the same process you did to start your first row. Picture 20. shows some arrows.  Now you see a diamond shape formed with your second knot. When deciding where you want your second row of knots place and to keep an even uniformed look all the way through making your netting, keep this in mind. The two top black arrows show the length of the twine strands from the ring to the first row of knots. The bottom two black arrows show the length of the twine strands from when you start your second row of knots (the white arrow.) Keep those lengths the same on each row all the way to the finish. A teeny bit off is ok, but you want each of your rows and the sizes of your diamonds to look uniformed throughout the entire knotting process. You get a good professional look that way! :)

 

 

Yea now we have reached the bottom of the bottle!!!! Ignore the neck of the bottle for now...We will do that last if you choose to want to do that. Now this to me is important....your LAST row of knots should hit right at the bottom edge of your bottle so as you set it upright flat on a surface, your knots aren't under the edge. Adjust the knots up more if it is. It's ok at this point if your diamond shape is a bit off.

Now lets get this baby finished!!!! There are two ways you can do this....I'll show you my way first...then the other ok?

 

Like I said before I like smooth finished surfaces. So as you see in the photo above, I have pulled each set of strands tightly, starting with one set on one side (left) of the bottom of my bottle, and take my glue gun and glue it in towards the center (not all the way to the center) of the bottles bottom. You don't want a big hump under your bottles bottom! Then I take another set of strands on the opposite side (right) of the bottle and do the same thing. Think of a clock....12, 3, 6, and 9. Those are the strands I glue first. Then I glue down the rest in between each. (I do that to help get an even pull down of my netting because if you pull down on one side, it tends to make the ring at the top of your bottle shift. You want that ring to lay even all the way around the top of your bottle when your finished with the bottom.) Then I trim all the excess strands of jute off from where I glued them down. When the glue isn't so hot and cooled some, I press the jute ends down into the glue and smooth them out on the bottle. When it is all done it will look like this.....below:

 

See how the jute butts up against the bottom knots. Now the bottle will sit nicely flat on your surface. No rocking!

 

Ok... moving on to get this finished look! Now glue doesn't always adhere to glass well. So the next step I do is taking my jute and do a wrap all around the bottom of the bottle starting in the center and work around until I've reach the last row of knots at the bottom of my bottle. (Seen up above.) I use my Mod Podge and twine/jute to do this with. I start by taking my roll of twine end, and dip the end of it in the Mod Podge. Don't cut off the twine yet....you will need a lot! Then I start wrapping around and around making a small circle in my hand, and then I brush Mod Podge all over the top and bottom of it. I find the center of my bottles bottom, and place my little circle there. I wait a few minutes to let it dry and hold in place. The photo's below show how I started my little jute circle to jute wrap the bottom of my bottle. Warning this gets messy! Oh and if you would like to know how to Twine Wrap Bottles in twine from bottom to top see this tutorial here:, it's at the bottom part of the post. These photos come from my tutorial of that there.



 

Once firmly in place I take my sponge brush and smear Mod Podge all over the twine strands, dried glue, and the bottles glass bottom. Then I continue wrapping around and around the little circle keeping each wrap snug up to the wrap before. The Mod Podge dries pretty quickly so I have to be brushing more Mod Podge as I go until I have reached my knots at the bottom side of my bottle. Then I snip the end off, brush it with Mod Podge and press it up close to the last row around I did. I then go and press down all that jute wrapped bottom making sure my wrapping has attached itself to the bottom well and nothing while I was wrapping got an air bubble somewhere. And I am DONE!!!  With the bottom anyway.

******************************************************

Now the other way to finish the bottom off is by making another ring like you did on the neck of the bottle. Make it about half the size of the circumference of the bottom of the bottle.

 

Next, tightly pull and tie all of your strands to the ring and tie the same knot you did through out your bottle netting.

 

Once all your knots are done, trim all the extra pieces of jute and I recommend adding a dab of glue to the knots to keep them from coming undone. And your done! With the bottom anyway....this way is a lot faster and less messy, but sometime those knots stand in the way of the bottle sitting flat on a surface. It can also raise the bottle from the surface it's sitting on too. And again, I like mine to look finished on the bottom. It just comes down to your preference.

 

I don't have a photo of that because I didn't like it and did it the other way. Sorry. Just imagine a ring with your strands tied in a knot to it. :)

 

Almost DONE!!!! Hurray!!! Now lets get this neck finished!!

This part is pretty easy!

 

Take the end of your twine again, and dip it in the Mod Podge. Lay it on your bottle (I start at what will be my back of the bottle,) and lay it right above the ring close. Let it set to adhere to the glass. Next, take your sponge brush and dip it in your Mod Podge and brush it around the neck of the bottle, just one once around. Now start wrapping your twine around and around, brushing more Mod Podge as you go. Make sure to keep all the twine wrap close together as you wrap so there are no gaps. When you get to the top, snip off the twine...Mod Podge the end and lay it up against your last row. And you are finally finished and have a beautiful bottle to add to your home decor! If you want take a look at the link I put up above for the Twine Wrapped Bottles to see more detail in pictures.

(NOTE)....I mentioned up above at the beginning of measuring your strands of twine for the knotted netting for your bottle, that you might have a lot of excess twine left when you cut your strands off at the bottom. And I mentioned I waste little. I had for this bottle several long lengths of twine after cutting it off at the bottom. I used these strands to do the twine neck wrap. You can't even tell the neck wrapped area was done in pieces! See no waste here! :)

 

 

 

Done!!!!!  Now Enjoy your new creation! Make more too!

Now if you want, add some bling on the front!

 

Just an idea to share that I did.

 

When I finished this big demijohn I thought I wondered

how it would look with a topper. Not that it needed one

but I just wondered. A couple of years ago, I recycled my

light bulbs by wrapping them in twine just like you do twine

wrapped bottles, and I stuck a stick on the screw in part of the

bulb and made pears! Well I spied them in a bowl on the table

and thought hmmmm....might work for my bottle topper. This

bulb was a three-way light bulb so it was larger. I stuck it in

upside down and darn if it didn't work and the right size too!

 

You could do this on smaller size bottles too, just use smaller

light bulbs! Or corks absolutely work the best too!

 

And of course I pinned on some bling! I love sparkly!

It's a pretty piece....although the picture doesn't do it

justice.

 

And this is my recycled light bulb pear!

 

I hope this helps you to make your own demijohn

knotted twine net bottles. Between the photo's and

instructions, you should be able to be successful!

It's so hard to do this especially the written instructions

so I hope I passed in helping you.

 

TaTa for now!!!

 

I am over this lol! Three days spent doing the bottle,

taking pictures, editing pictures, and writing instructions,

and posting the tutorial! Love you all but I am outta here!

 

Oh and this technique can be used on so many things!

Lamp bases, lamp shades, flower pots, vases, cans, bottles,

candle holders, glass balls, and the list goes on!

 

Have fun and Enjoy!

 

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