Button Flower Garden

You Will Need
Pattern
Tracing paper
Pencil
Ruler
Scissors
Six two-hole or shank buttons measuring from 5/8 to 7/8 inch across in colors of your choice (Carrie used four shank and two two-hole buttons)
12-inch-long chenille stems (pipe cleaners), two green and one orange
One sheet or scraps of green craft foam
2 x 5-inch piece of 1-inch-high green Styrofoam (or a piece of white packing foam painted green)
Black felt-tip marker


What to Do
1. For the flower stems, cut six 3-inch-long pieces of green chenille stem.

2. To make the flowers, add either a shank button or two-hole button to one end of each flower stem in the following way:

• To add a shank button, pull one end of a stem through the opening in back of the button and bend the end down to hold the button in place.


• To add a two-hole button, pull one end of a stem from back to front through one hole of the button. Pull the same end from front to back through the second hole to hold the button in place.

3. Trace the leaves pattern onto tracing paper and cut out. Lay this pattern onto the green craft foam and trace around its shape with pencil. Trace five more sets of leaves in the same way. Cut out the leaves.

4. Poke the bottom end of a stem through the center of a pair of leaves. Pull the leaves up so they are about 1/4 inch below the button flower. Add leaves to each stem in same way.
Worm: Cut one 2-inch-long piece of orange chenille stem. To form the worm's head, bend down the first 1/4 inch, then curl this same end down another 1/4 inch.

5. Use the black felt-tip marker to draw a dot on each side of the head for eyes.

6. Referring to the photo for position, push the flower stems and worm into the 2- x 5-inch block of green foam, pushing some pieces deeper so they appear to be shorter. Place drops of red and yellow food coloring randomly over frosting. With a spatula, blend colors randomly over frosting.

Leaves Pattern
Trace 1 -- tracing paper
Cut 6 -- green craft foam

Finished size: Button flower garden is 4 1/4 inches high x 5 inches long x 2 inches wide.



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Hand-made from friend

My friend did these, they are really cute. She is so talented and I want to learn these things from her.

Look at these flowers which are from carrots, sweet potatoes, onions and other kinds of vegetables.

The lady in pink did it.

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Floating Flower Necklace

You'll need:

2 sapphire colored AB Czech teardrop crystal beads
2 light blue AB Czech 4mm crystal beads
2 light blue 4mm freshwater pearls
1 flower lampwork bead made by D.D. Hess
2 sterling crimp beads
18 inches of blue Beadalon beading wire size .015
approx. 5 inches of sapphire Colour Craft ™ 20 gauge wire
nylon pliers
round nosed pliers
wire cutters
crimping pliers

1. First, start by making a clasp using the same instructions for my Clover Clasp project and some sapphire colored 20 gauge wire. I think this claps also looks like a flower, so I thought it was a good choice to accent the flowers on the lampwork bead. One tip to remember with any colored wire, try to handle it with metal tools as little as possible. It is coated, and if handled too much, you can dent/mark it up. Nylon pliers are great when working with this type of wire. Once you finish the clasp, set it aside.

2. Now cut about 18 inches of beading wire. I use my wire cutters to cut the beading wire.

3. Slip on a crimp bead onto one end of the wire, and loop the wire back through the crimp bead.

4. Use crimping pliers to crimp the bead and thus hold the bead in place. If you’ve never used crimping pliers, refer to my Using Crimping Pliers instructions. W. Scott Bartky also has a wonderful animated demo on his site.

5. Once you get one end crimped, use wire cutters to cut off excess beading wire.

6. Now slip on your beads in the following order: teardrop, pearl, 4mm crystal, lampwork bead, 4mm crystal, pearl, teardrop. Make sure that the teardrops have the smaller ends pointing in towards the lampwork bead.

7. Finish the other end of the beading wire with a crimp bead as you did in steps 3 to 5.

8. Now, get the clasp you made previously.

9. Open the eye part of the clasp a little and slip the loop on one end of the necklace onto the clasp, and close the clasp back up.

10. Tread the loop of the other end of the necklace through the clover/flower of the hook side of the clasp. 11. Once you get it resting in the center loop of the clover/flower, use nylon pliers to flatten or press the clover/flower. This will help to keep your beading wire loop inside the clover/flower.

This small grouping of beads in this necklace float because they are not anchored into position. They will slide and move as the person who wears the necklace moves. I used blue beads, beading wire, and craft wire to create this necklace in order to accent the gorgeous lampwork bead. I wanted the lampwork bead to stand out and be the focal point of the necklace. With all the choices in colored wire and beading wire, you could use this technique with any of your favorite lampwork beads that you’ve been hoarding.
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