Craftgasm!

I seriously wish our family camera had chosen a different night to die.

And I wish that the step-by-step pics I took with my cell phone (when the camera died mid-project) weren't corrupted.

And I wish that our replacement camera wasn't coming all the way from Canada.

All I can say is, whenever I enter my gift wrap area, I have a little craftgasm*. Because I finally got to use this for something ahhhhh-mazing:

...and it was 100% totally and completely my own brilliant, original idea!  Yes, that's a 50¢ wooden cassette tape rack from Goodwill.  And no, I'm not going to post an "after" or give any other hints until I can take a REAL "after" picture.  Wanna guess...?  Anyone who guesses correctly wins a prize!

*By the way, "craftgasm"© is a term I coined a few years ago to describe any craft product/project-related moment that reeeeally excites you.  Like, the instant you see it, you're...excited.  Like, makes your heart rate increase.  IfyouknowwhatImean.  Kind of like this or ooohh, this!

Yes, that's a Sharpie wall.  And yes, my husband knows what it does to me.

Get Well Soon: part 3, finale

Click here for part 1, prep.

Click here for part 2, arranging.

If I had it to do all over, I would probably hot glue the foam into the basket, then hot glue the stems in as well, using my Crafty Magic Melt Little Dipper Low Temp Glue Pot (which, technically, is still in the package...since I purchased it in high school because it looked so cool).

Despite having reference photos, the final poked-in version turned out a little different than the practice run.  It was kind of hard to see some of the flowers on my tiny camera viewfinder, and some of the insertion angles proved a little difficult to replicate on the first try.  Oh, and since I just used the foam I had (instead of custom fitting some), there were some gaps where I intended to poke a couple of the stems.

Overall, though, I'm pretty happy with the layout.

A couple of the add-ins had to be hacked in order to be attached securely, as opposed to just tucked in for looks.  The eucalyptus bits were popped off of a larger bunch, so I created new stems out of folded-over floral wire.  I did the same for the smaller leaf groupings.

It worked!

Everything in its place.

The back, however, was definitely meant to to be hidden!  Hey, it's proof that I made it myself, right?

After using my beading wire side-clippers to chop off the stick-out parts, I hot glued anything that touched anything else.  Liberally hot glued.  If I was selling this piece, I'd probably cover it all up with felt or something.

But you can't tell once it's in place, can ya?  This was intended to go on the wall, but you could also use it as a table centerpiece.  If you go that route, I'd recommend a round or rectangle basket, since a heart looks kind of wonky straight-on from the side.

I love the way they protrude slightly from the basket — like they're growing, or there's something underneath pushing them out.   :)

This picture is just for scale.  Please ignore the pre-road trip checklist and the misarranged Willow Tree collection.  The latter never got put to rights after the cat fiasco ("fiasco" as in "the shelf wasn't attached to the brackets and he jumped up to hang on the edge and everything flipped onto the floor" fiasco).

Hope you enjoyed my little 3-parter!  I'd love to hear your comments, 'cause it feels like I'm typing to cricket-chirping land — or better yet, become a "follower" AND leave a comment!  Pretty please, with jam and jelly on top (as my 4 year-old says)!   :D

Get Well Soon: part 2, arranging

Click here for part 1, prep.

Now that all our stems are trimmed, we can actually start deciding what goes where.  I laid everything out by color family.  Notice what's missing?  Yep — little miss obtrusive, the ivory rose.  She was too much of a scene-stealer, and this production calls for an ensemble cast.

By the way, don't you love my flower holder?  Does anyone not have one of these white wire shelf things, or at least a white wire basket?  We have this stuff all over the place (much to my chagrin).  It's not very attractive, but it sure is functional.

It was perfect for separating my flowers without crushing them.  Or getting cat hair on them.

First, I started by placing the largest blooms, trying to balance by both size and color.  Yep, still working with an upside-down basket.

Next, the medium-sized clusters and blossoms were added.

Then the smaller sprigs and single buds.  But...uh, oh.  Little miss obtrusive has left a hole in her wake.  See it?  Above the blue mum at the bottom?  No, no — above my shadow.  (Hey, I'm sitting right under the overhead light fixture.)

 She was the right color, but just a little too big, so I decided to do a little deconstruction.  The inside of the flower had a little lip on it, so I had to pull from the bottom (which, in hindsight, made more sense anyway).

Off comes the fake sepal (after inadvertently turning it inside-out).

Next comes the little spacer dude, which was found between each couple layers of petals.

I took off the three largest petal sets, then replaced the two plastic parts.

Voila!  A sizeable ivory rosebud — not too big, not too small.

Perfect!

Next up, adding the eucalyptus (Christmas clearance).

Finally, some leaves tucked here and there.

Now that I have pics of my layout, I'm ready to take everything out!  LOL  Time to turn over the basket, put in the foam, and actually commit.  No going back once you poke those holes!

Click here for part 3, finale.