A Very Good Thing

I know I'm not the only one who gets excited when one of my favorite magazines arrive in the mail...especially the Spring issue of Martha Stewart Living.

When I sat down to browse through it a few days ago, I found this Good Things craft I just had to try.

I don't remember when I've had such much fun making something. It's simple and really gives you a WOW factor.

These are dogwood branches made from nothing more than cardstock, branches, a little rubber stamp detail and some glue.

It doesn't get much more frugal than this, so I am going to link to The Shabby Nest Frugal Friday.

I basically followed the directions on page 52 of the current issue, with the exception of a few tweaks.

I'm going to attempt my first ever "tutorial" here, since I really think this project is a "must" try for your spring decor.

Here goes (I will warn you, it's a little long...)...

Here's the issue if you don't have it already...
go to page 52 or follow these simple direction...

Use white cardstock. Cut it into 4" squares. Martha said to use 5", but I thought the flowers were a little too large (after making a dozen or more)...

Fold the square in quarters like this....

Then fold it twice diagonally like this.

Then re-fold it into the small square along the original fold lines.

Hold the square from the bottom closed edge and cut out a shape similar to a heart like this. Nature isn't perfect and neither am I....don't worry...imperfection is beautiful : )

Snip off a very small tip at the bottom of the "heart" shape.

OK....I'm the "queen" of making do with what I have on hand....so, I used this reverse snowflake stamp in place of a "sunburst" that Martha recommenced. I wanted the round shape, so I just took a circle punch and used the cardstock circle as a "mask". I stamped the design right in the center of the flower.

OK...now take a new pencil with a brand new erase (hard to find at my house) and dab it into the stamp pad and stamp on each petal at the inset like this...

I experimented with a few different green stamps pads and ended up liking the Ranger Ink Distress "Old Paper" color the best. It's subtle and soft.

Cut the leaves from green cardstock. I used two different shades and like the way it turned out. Again, don't worry about perfection.... I took a brown and green pastel crayon to add a little detail to the leaves, but you don't have to do that.

Here's a few more photos of my finished arrangement.

I just love the way it looks. It's really amazing how something so simple and easy can create so much impact. Like I said earlier, I LOVE dogwood trees, but don't have one. to cut real branches from (besides, the blooms wouldn't last like these will).

Now all you do it randomly attach them to some real or faux braches. If you want the darker brown, just spray paint the natural branches you have on hand.

I used a glue gun to attach the flower and the leaves and found that it worked really well.

Alright...let's talk about this vase.

My kids really eat a lot of pickles...So, I buy the huge family size jar at Wal-Mart ( about the same size as the smaller jars). I keep them, of course.

For this one, I dabbed on some Enamel pain in off-white to create a polka dot effect. Follow directions to bake this puppy up in the oven and let the paint set.

Talk about recycling! Isn't it cute? Especially great for those real long stemmed flowers like glads that you want to arrange in a casual manner.

I dropped in same "faux" eggs to help support the branches, and of course keep within the theme of spring.

Finally, this is just the small photo from the magazine to clarify the simple steps a little further.

I hope you enjoyed this project--I sure did (can you tell?).

Do me a favor.....let me know if you make some branches of your own and send me some photos. I would love to hear from y0u.

Have fun....isn't that what this is all about???