Here's the Spring arrangement I came up with to put in the altered vase I showed you earlier this week:
I started with a decorative branch and two sprigs of tall silk flowers from the craft store, and stuck them in floral foam inside the vase. Alternately, you could gather some small limbs from your yard and either leave them natural or spray paint to coordinate with your theme.
I decided the arrangement needed some signs of Spring . . . birds & butterflies! So I cut two large butterflies from Basic Grey's Porcelain paper with Spellbinders largest Nested Butterfly die and adhered them back-to-back, so it would be double-sided and pretty from either side, too. It was adhered with a mini glue dot to one of the top small branches.
I die cut three medium butterflies from another pattern in the Basic Grey Porcelain collection (using the same Nested Butterfly set) and adhered two of them on top of each other, only in the center of the butterfly's body, to give the butterfly more dimension.
The other die-cut butterfly was adhered to the back of the base butterfly so it would be nicely finished, too. A piece of looped heavy thread was sandwiched in between the layers, to serve as a hanger.
The bird was die cut with Spellbinders largest Nested Bird die from Basic Grey Porcelain paper. He is also backed with more of the same decorative paper, to make him two-sided (also with thread sandwiched between the paper layers, to serve as a hanger).
To get the mirror image you need for the back side of the bird, die cut from the back (white) side of your paper (if you are using a single-sided decorative paper), as opposed to die cutting from the front/patterned side of the paper.
Birdie's wings were made with the smallest bird from the Nested Bird die set -- I just trimmed off the beak! Then to make it look more like a dimensional wing, I used the Scor-It Mini Board to score a flap along the top of the bird and adhered just the flap to the bird's body:
Now, time for some soldered Easter eggs for our Spring tree! I decided to make two different eggs -- one for my young daughters and one for me! The girls' egg was stamped with this cute chick and flowers from Kim Hughes' Sweet Spring stamp set, using Memento Tuxedo Black ink. I masked off the chick before overstamping the flowers, and then colored him with these Copic markers:
He is backed with some pretty Spring floral paper from the Memory Box Poppyfinch collection, sandwiched between 1.50" x 2" Oval Glass pieces.
I used the Wavy Edge Copper Foil Tape (which is straight on one edge) and Simply Swank's Lead-Free Solder to solder the pieces together. The Heart Solder Scrolls were used at the top, to form a hanger for the White Silk ribbon.
For my egg, I used the angel from The Rummage Bin's Storybook stamp set. The angel was stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink onto Memory Box Poppyfinch paper. If you can't make out the words on the angel's wings, they read "rejoice & believe" and she is holding "love" -- very appropriate for Easter, I think.
The angel egg is backed with another pattern from the Poppyfinch paper, and soldered the same way as the chick egg:
You could always take these "eggs" off the tree and wear them as pendants, too!
I know this project is a little late for most of you to be able to replicate for this Easter holiday weekend, but I hope you'll keep it in mind for next year ... or better yet, start on it now so you'll already have it for next year! Alternately, you could use this idea for most any holiday or occasion ... the items you put in your arrangement will make it unique to you and the occasion you are celebrating. Many thanks to Ms. Ellen for suggesting this wonderful idea for me to carry out!
We hope all of you will have a lovely Easter holiday this weekend -- thank you so much for visiting!
