Giant Handmade Paper Flowers

Tania took these stunning photos of my paper flowers at Shop Handmade a little while back - I don't think I have shared them as yet. Isn't the blue bird painting behind beautiful? It was painted by local artist Annie Pritchard, it also sold quite a few weeks ago!



This flower was constructed petal by petal and individually wired and taped, made from a stiff paper from Eckersleys art shop. My trusty old floristry skills came in handy for this one and it was definitely a favourite. I hope you all had a great weekend.

My Creative Space - Giant Paper Flower Wedding Bouquets

I made these giant paper flower bouquets for a local bride who found me through a friend of a friend! They were fun to make and I love the colours the bride chose. The girls were wearing a dusty pink dress and I think the grey would have looked stunning!



The tissue paper held it's shape well, I just hope it didn't rain - the wedding was on the Gold Coast! The brides flower was made from a crinkly tissue paper which was a lot firmer and I think I preferred the shape and look. I used gum tree sticks and lightly sanded the bumps and lumps off!! My brides dream wedding flowers were inspired by this bride!



Grab a cuppa and wander on over to Kirsty's for a creative feast!

French Flower Shop

Thanks to Oh Happy Day for the peak into this beautiful florist shop in France! I love that old work bench in the second photo. Most flowers look good grouped together with no cellophane and I love a rustic looking florist. Some days I walk past the florist and I am 16 all over again. What are your favourite flowers?

Large Paper Flowers

Amaaaaaazing dhaarling! Really - have you seen anything like this wall of paper flowers? They make me well and truly giddy! These images are from Karl Lagerfeld’s Chanel show.



The construction of flowers in all sorts of mediums is on my mind constantly, it can be very distracting.... (husband cover your eyes now) - even while I am driving, forget the mobile phone being dangerous. This last headpiece is pretty cool don't you think? This display would have taken HOURS! So pretty.

Paper Flowers

I have been making paper flowers for a wedding and can't wait to show them off but that will be a while down the track... in the meantime here are some sample flowers I made! The first two are made from tissue paper and the third craft paper.





The scale is deceiving they are larger than a dinner plate! Number 2 & 3 were my favourites! Each petal is individual wired on this last flower, it took a long time to make! I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Macro Monday - Orchids

These gorgeous orchids were beckoning me on Thursday while I was at the fruit and veg market! The exact colours of my nectarines, although the name escapes me - some sort of Dendrobium I guess, of which there are hundreds!

I hope you had a nice weekend, we got up early to get to the balloon festival but due to dodgy weather and a late arrival (7.30am) missed the balloons - thankfully the good old Navy had an inflated balloon bobbing about. Between that, a quick run around the rose garden, some live music and dutch pancakes - the morning was saved. I hope your weekend was fabulous.

Pretty in Pink - Hyacinths

I bought myself some hyacinths as a 'congratulations for getting through the week on your own' present! They were too pretty not to be photographed... although with small children jumping around that was no small feat.



Perhaps it should become a weekly tradition! I miss my days as a florist when the entire house would be filled with flowers. I hope your weekend was relaxing, it turned quite cool here in Canberra on the weekend - I guess Autumn is definitely upon us. My gorgeous 'washi tape' courtesy of Ez from Creature Comforts!

Macro Monday - Bottlebrush

Mum's garden has been the endless source of macro photos for me. I really like these three perspectives of the bottle brush (native Australian plant). In the theme of Christmas colours and everything. I hope you had a good weekend - I had a well overdue Mummy/Daughter date with Anya which was lovely and finished my Christmas shopping. I also started Christmas baking today and will share a Grace family recipe of Almond bread later in the week - it is divine (time consuming but worth it).

Macro Monday - Pansy

Teeny Tiny pansy from my Mum's garden. Beautifully rich in colour and so delicate, about the size of my pinky actually. I would love to try a little felt pansy - they are so cute. I hope you had a lovely weekend. Mine was full of family :-) which is extra nice when you don't live in the same city! My hard-working father and husband installed a heat-reflective alsynite (laser light) over the pergola frame. I am so grateful as it means no more standing in the rain to unlock the house with two kids, groceries and over-flowing nappy bag (you get the picture)... it also means Anya has somewhere else to play when it rains etc... I hope your weekend was fab... are you following the Handmade Living book tour?

Macro Monday - simple rose

Another flower from my Mum's garden! The stamen are so vibrant on this simple rose! We have pre-school orientation this afternoon. I hope Anya comes home happy and still wanting to go next year :-) She will be doing two half days - it will be very unusual to leave her somewhere for 3 hours and just hang with my little man on a regular basis. Good for everyone I think. I hope you had a relaxing weekend.

Clay flowers by DK Designs on Etsy

It is hard to believe these flowers are made from CLAY!!! Yes- you read right! An amazing find on you-tube lead me to this Etsy store. I would LOVE to learn how to make flowers out of clay. These are made from Deco-clay which is a soft, air-drying clay. Stunning images I could stare at these all day.



I actually found a place in Melbourne that give Deco Clay lessons! This book looked fabulous too - Clay Art for all Seasons by Yukiko Miyai. This is on the to-do list once Josiah is weaned and I take myself to Melbourne for a girls weekend... a trip to Ink and Spindle is on the wish list too.

Pop up Paper Flower Shop

David Stark and his team are pretty amazing!! They design some fabulous events and the theming is a visual feast. They also designed and made this pop-up flower store completely out of paper, walls, awning and all! How very cool.

Pendant light

Another beautiful light by Bodo Sperlein. Handmade bone china flowers attached to a hand blown borosilicate glass pendant! Impressive!

MACRO Monday - Lilac

It has been a very big and busy week/end for me. I hope to slow down a bit more this week. We celebrated my daughters 2nd birthday on Thurs and I can't believe I took NO photos!! Very unlike me. But I did try and make up for it on Saturday when we had her little Spotty Red & White birthday party. She found it a bit overwhelming at times I think - the bubble blowing outside was a highlight. I'll post some photos when my Dad sends his! These lilacs are outside Anya's bedroom window and they remind me of my childhood - typically grown in cold climates. Beautiful aren't they.

MACRO Monday - Freesias

I bought these Freesias from our farmers market last weekend $6 - still lovely. They are one of my Mum's favourites, I always made sure I grabbed her some at the markets when they were in season - back in my floristry days. They give the room a soft pleasant, perfume.

It was freezing here over the weekend - what the hell happened to Spring? Thankfully we didn't have the crazy dust storms like the photos I saw of Sydney and Brisbane. Ours were rather mild. We grabbed some more goodies at the Lifeline book fair on Sat - proper second hand book prices. All in all it was a good weekend.

MACRO Monday - Bluebell

Isn't this a divine little specimen. I took the weekend before last at Commonwealth park in Canberra, where they are busy growing bulbs for Floriade. I'm not sure if it was wild or not but very very cute.

MACRO Monday - Jonquils

Happy Monday everyone... How was your weekend? Mine was a little uneventful but that's ok! I did do the usual market prep... oh my goodness - I had better sell stock! Oh and my darling daughter has been a pain in the butt with eating dinner for months now (she's 22 months) but on Sat night she grabbed my bowl of pasta leftovers and hooked in! I nearly fell off my seat - what a lovely change... then she ate... I kid you not... 7 pancakes!!!!!!!!!! It was the highlight of my weekend!!! Yes it was :-) Jonquils from my mama's garden.

Handmade organza flower rings

What do you think?! This is my first little prototype - not sure about using organza and the little piece of red felt doesn't show up quite so drastically in real life.. the colours blend better but I'll try and hide it on the next one. Just playing around on a suggestion to do rings... only 5 weeks to go till Handmade market! eeeek!

MACRO Monday - Lavender

"Lavender's blue, dilly dilly, lavender's green".... actually I think lavender is a soft shade of mauve but I didn't write the old English folk song! I was rather happy with this shot of Mum's lavender that I took last week. I could spend hours pottering around in the garden with my camera. Mum's garden has a lot more variety to capture than mine! We spent half of last week in Sydney, it was lovely to see friends and family. Anya burst into tears when we got home and pulled into our driveway - she just wanted to be at Mardi & Papa's! awwww

New Listing in my Etsy shop today

Worn singularly or as a set - these gorgeous ivory camellia's are perfect for weddings or special occasions! Know anyone getting married?