Queenie Eileenie: August 2011

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Corn Husk Sunflowers–A Tutorial

I made a bunch of pretty sunflowers to decorate a wonderful dinner this weekend. They are easy, inexpensive and a little time consuming…but worth the effort! Here’s how!

Supplies:

Corn husks (produce department)

Yellow Dye

Dessert sized paper plates

brown spray paint

coffee beans

brown decorative shredded paper

hot glue gun or glue (Matte Mod Podge)

floral wire

green paint paper or craft paper

1. Dye the corn husks in hot water…I did it in the sink. Wear gloves, be sure to separate the husks and stir them around to make sure they get an even coverage. I then weighted down the corn husks with a cookie sheet and a heavy jar of mayonnaise to keep the husks submerged for a deeper color. Let sit for an hour, then drain, rinse in cold water, and lay out on towel to blot off. I then folded the husks in half lengthwise, then in half again and trim out to a petal shape. Stack the petals on top of each other to dry.

2. While the husks are soaking, spray paint the back side of the paper plates brown. Let dry, then cut off the lip of the plate so that only the flat center is remaining. Apply Modge Podge or hot glue (I used this) in the center of the brown side of the plate leaving a 1 1/2” edge. Quickly pour coffee beans on glue and fill in the gaps/flatten till smooth.

3. Apply more glue and carefully press on shredded paper on the edges.

4. Gently shake off the extra paper and trim longer pieces

5. Start gluing the petals on the back of the plate (shorter petals on the first row, longer petals on the second row.)

6. Be sure to start the second, longer row of petals in between petals of the first row to fill in the spaces.

7. With your fingers, hand curl some of the petals to give it dimension and a more natural look.

8. Place flower in a large bowl and lightly weight it down with a towel (or bag of coffee beans!)

9. Try a different dye color…red worked well for the decorating event!

10. Once the flower is dry and shaped, flip it over. Take a heavy piece of floral wire cut twice the length of how long you want the stem to be. Bend it in half and twist the “u” end into a loop/circle, wrapping it around 3 or 4 times for strength. Hot glue the loop end to the back of the flower and hold it down until set. To form a stem, take desired length of green painter’s paper and wrinkle up, then twist to form into a long shaft. Hot glue the shaft to the loop base and gently wrap around the stem. You can use floral tape/Frog Tape or hot glue to bind this together. You can create a calyx (the part that connects the flower to the stem) with green painter’s paper petals glued on one at a time on the back of the flower to the stem. Cut out leaves and hot glue to stem.

Flickr Tags: Corn Husk Sunflowers,how to make corn husk sunflowers,Corn husk sunflowers tutorial,how to dye corn husks

Summer Nights! A Fundraiser Dinner benefitting River Valley Life Teen

The River Valley Life Teen hosted it’s annual prime rib dinner fundraiser last night and I was asked to decorate the event. I chose a subdued color palette because we have all had e-nuff of this 100+ weather the last several months…perhaps an autumnal look will bring cooler temperatures around?! Not likely, but it make for a pretty setting.

Oversized sunflowers and lanterns took center stage on each table.

Tuscan colors ...

and pretty fabrics made the tables pop.

There was an abundance of fresh rosemary, burlap and votives…

and the homemade cornhusk sunflowers with their coffee bean centers smelled terrific!

I cut up leftover dyed cornhusks and scattered them on the tables for a splash of color on the white tablecloths.

Red donation envelopes coordinated with the scheme.

Flickr Tags: River Valley Life Teen,Prime Rib Dinner,Casual summer night table decorations,cornhusk sunflowers

Saturday, August 27, 2011

A Magical Harry Potter Birthday Party!

Hold on to your Nimbus 2000 flying broom and come with me to the most magical Harry Potter birthday party! The theme was chosen by the birthday boy, Campbell, because he loves Harry Potter and wanted to celebrate the release of the last Harry Potter movie. Campbell’s mom chose to rent out the beautifully restored Bonneville House in the Belle Grove district in Fort Smith to be the setting of the party because she knew it was the perfect place to have it. She is a very creative and talented person and needed some help to pull off this shindig. So we immediately started on the details of the invitations.

I printed the invitations on an ivory stock and envelopes to give it an old world feel. Each invitation was addressed to the child as an acceptance letter into Hogwarts School. A winking Hedwig the owl graced the front of the envelope.

The Bonneville House has a wonderful wrought iron gate that surrounds it and that’s where I started with the decorating…a King’s Cross Station sign to indicate where the children would next have to actually find Platform 9 3/4!

Next comes making the front of the house look like the train station. I hung round platform numbers from the balustrade along the front of the house. To create the brick wall the kids would have to run through to get to Hogwarts, I got an old putty colored sheet from the Saver’s store, and painted it with red paint and a sponge . We hung it up on a shower curtain rod. I printed out the logos to Griffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, cut them out and put them on suitcases by the front door.

All ready to run through!

Here’s what the other side of the brick wall looks like…Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry! Hogwarts banners and House banners were hung everywhere.

Not a great picture, but I downloaded and printed out the covers of the Daily Prophet newspaper and stuck them on one of the many mirrors in the house along with a framed picture of the “student of the week.”

A composite of the esteemed faculty hung on the opposite wall along with wizardry books.

A Diagon Alley sign hung on the entrance to the parlor…

it was a wonderful room for all of the “stores” the kids would go “shopping” in for school.

The room was set up as several little shops to get their supplies…their first stop was to get their school kits, (a cardboard lunch box)

then to Madame Malkin’s to receive their school robes with Hogwarts patch.

Next stop – a visit to Ollivander’s to have a wand select its owner.

Campbell and his mom made the wands from dowels and metallic hot glue and we put them in a cut glass bowl with a left over light up necklace I caught at Mardi Gras last year…it looked spooktacular!

House banners were to be found in every room!

Each child received a pair of HP glasses…

and a pet to practice their spells on (sorry it’s not very clear!)

and flying overhead was a display of the Nimbus 2000 and Firebolt broomsticks!

House banners were attached to dowels and hung from the staircase…

and the talking picture frames at the end of the hall.

Next, the Potions Lab…

A piano was at one end of the room became the professor’s desk complete with Hedwig the owl, ravens, snakes and all kinds of curiosities. The basket is holding the student’s Spells and Potions book.

This beautiful room had two fireplaces and both were decorated with creepy and crawling specimens!

Plastic drop cloths helped protect the carpets from 25+ students and their potions!

All of the potions were listed in the student’s spell and potions book…at this table they would make muggle cement and lava lamps.

Some of the class pets were up to no good!

Potions class taught them how to concoct Jumping Jerald…

and lava lamps…

and all of the students had to create their very own potion and drink it!

The “professors” came up with the names for some of the ingredients…doesn’t ant hill dirt, chopped up chicken lips and mountain troll juice sound delicious?!

The supplies for the magical milk…

and Professor Snape’s Secret potion!

The secret letter lab.

The dining hall complete with floating candles…

The cauldron held the butter beer to be served with pizza…

So…how was the party?? Campbell was so excited to greet his guests in the main hallway after they entered through a brick wall. His British accent was wonderful!