DIY Easter Table Centerpieces

Double blog day, must mean I'm avoiding something: (a) dishes, (b) laundry, (c) vacuuming, or (d) all of the above.

Here's what will be in the center of my Easter table.

I revisited my Thanksgiving centerpiece ideas and researched what some crafters are doing themselves and added my own Amyness to it all.

What you'll need:

left over fabric

white felt

sticks

iron on fabric backing

glass bottles

ribbon

decorative paper

pebbles for inside bottles(optional, but may help keep sticks in set position)

Hot glue gun in hand and you're ready to go.

Using said glue gun, I covered bottles with inside out fabric (the pattern was more appealing that way) and tied loose ribbon around the necks.

I ironed on fabric backing to fabric scraps to make the fabric a tad bit stiffer, then hand sketched flower shapes and leaves onto the backs of the fabric and cut out the pieces.

Taking my white felt, I sketched out centers for flowers and again cut 'em all out.

I glued together all appropriate pieces and glued vintage book papers to the backs and cut to fit.

The larger flowers I ended up gluing two together (wrong side to wrong side), leaving a small opening on one side to slide onto a stick end and then glued them into place. The smaller flowers I left with paper backs showing and glued directly onto points on the sticks.

To add a touch of green to the arrangements to keep with my theme colors, I added vintage cards onto small dowel rods.

...And voila' you have an arrangement that cost next to nothing (literally, with all the scrap material in my fabric basket, I only spent 2 bucks for dowels and ribbon).

*If you plan to use my pattern, just click on the image above to get an 8"x10" image size.

I think I'll Have some Furoshiki, Please

This year I'm being extra crafty, frugal and environmentally conscientious. I wanted to wrap gifts in an absolutely reusable material.

Yes, you should definitely reuse gift bags (why not, right?). There's the idea of using comics from the Sunday paper as wrapping paper. I even threw around the idea of repurposing cereal, cracker, and pasta boxes into small gift boxes (I'll probably revisit that idea later).

What I have available is a footlocker basket size amount of fabric. I had thoughts of an all-in-one ribbon attached wrapping fabric. Searching for any already patterned ideas on the Internet, I stumbled upon a very old Japanese method called "furoshiki". I'll spare you the definition, history, and techniques (you all know how to google), but the idea is so simple and effective.

A 28" square piece of fabric in an interesting pattern with a locking stitch all around the edge (I think that's the correct name...I know how to sew, but am definitely far from a trained expert) , or, you can do a 29" square and fold and iron a 1/2" all the way around (twice) and miter the edges; you choose what you like better, of course one is more time consuming. This square can be folded over and tied to make a nice wrapping, or you can google different tying methods. Use smaller pieces of fabric for smaller items and larger pieces of fabric for larger items, but the 28" size fits a wide range of items and you can successfully wrap oddly shaped gifts.

Oh, by the way if you don't have a surplus of fabric, don't run out to Joanns (although I love, love that store). Try your thrift stores first. You'll find fabric a little cheaper

and more likely to find vintage patterns.