Create and Celebrate: DIY Watercolor Paper Towel Ruffle Garland

Hi, this is Katie again and I am so excited to share this project with you! These gorgeous ruffle garlands are easier than they look and are made out of nothing more than paper towels dyed with food coloring. It is quite simple, but a bit time consuming. When editing the photos below for the step by step, I started laughing as I realized the photos reminded me of a paper towel commercial. Thankfully the end result is much prettier.  Enjoy!    

Materials:

Viva Paper Towels- one roll makes approximately 10ft. of garland. {I would recommend using this brand for the fabric-like quality. I would also recommend getting the full-sized sheets rather than the "choose-a-size" rolls}

Food coloring in any color. I used gel food coloring, but you can experiment with different dyes. Easter egg dye would make beautiful colors

Oven or dryer with rack attachment.  Drying in the sun on a warm day may also work

Sewing machine (optional, but much faster) or needle and thread

Mix food coloring with water and dip each end of the towel roll into the colored water

Saturate the rest of the roll with colored water.  You can also just submerge the whole roll. 

If you would like a bit more color variation on the ends, dip them again in darker colored water

Squeeze out as much of the excess water as you can

Now comes the time consuming part.  Set your oven to 200º  Place the towel roll on a baking sheet and unroll one layer at a time, stacking the layers as they dry.  The second time I made these, I remembered I have a rack that goes in my dryer to dry items that cannot tumble.  It worked great for this project and I actually found it to be a bit faster.  I set the dryer on high and unrolled the towels every 5 minutes or so.  It will take several hours to dry the entire roll.   

Your stack of towels will look something like this after it is all dried

Lastly, choose a coordinating thread color and gather and sew down the middle of the towels. Don't worry if the sheets tear apart from the roll in certain places, you won't be able to tell once they are all sewn together. You can sew sections together to make the garlands any length you would like.

What a lovely backdrop for a sweet table!

DIY Glittery Pink Vases

Oh my, it has been quite a week, well month really! May usually just fills up so fast and flies by and this May is no exception! With end of the year recitals, school activities, birthdays and family visiting and of course working with our customers, we never have a dull moment! But, we wouldn't have it any other way. As you know we have a little party coming up this weekend so we just thought it would be fun to show you some of the DIYs we are working on for it. We hope you liked the little tea cup favors! Today we are sharing our glittery pink vases that are going to be centerpieces on the little tables. Aside from the tea cups, these might be one of the simplest DIYs you can do! They really dress up the vases and definitely add a 'little sparkle to your party'!

Materials: 
Glass vase
Paint brush
Glue
Confetti glitter

Simply wash and dry your vases.
Use a paint brush to paint glue onto your vase. Be uneven with your strokes at the top so that the glitter line will not be perfectly even. {If you want the glitter to be perfectly even us a piece of tape to mark off the spot where you want the glitter to stop}
Sprinkle your glitter on, making sure all of your glue is covered.
Go back with some glue on your brush and just lightly tap it around the top of where you ended your glue/glitter. Sprinkle more glitter on. This will give the glitter a gradual diminishing look.
Stand your vases up right and let the glue dry as it will dry clear and you are done!

Simple Tea Cup Favors

If you follow us on Facebook you know that we are planning a little Japanese Tea Party for my twins birthday this weekend! We are so excited to share all of the details with you, but we just had to share this extremely simple tea cup DIY. If you have littles you know that they love anything with their name on it...especially when you have twins marking their territory is a must! So we thought it would be so sweet to have a little tea {or sake} cup at each child's place setting. But, even sweeter to have them personalized with thier names so they could double as one of their take home favors! This project is nothing new, but it really is as sinple as it seems so we wanted to share it with you in case you ever wanted to try it!

All it requires is a sharpie {or ceramic pen} and an oven safe cup! We used little sake cups from World Market and a pink sharpie!  Wash and dry each cup. Write each child's name on the cup {and this is the best part if you don't like it simply wash it off until you are happy.} When you have exactly what you want bake the cups in the oven at 350 degrees for a half hour and you are done!

What's on our Plate...

As much as we love blogging and sharing our projects with you, we also have a lot of behind the scene things going on with our Etsy shop. We are constantly filling orders and working with our awesome customers. We thought every once in a while we would share just a few snapshots of our work with you. So here is a peek of a few orders we have worked on over the past couple of weeks.

Simple Mother's Day Paper Flower Corsage or Present Topper

We, here in the Chicagoland area, are finally feeling sweet touches of spring. Beautiful flowers are blooming and warm sunshine is filling the sky! So we know Mother's Day is right around the corner! What mom doesn't appreciate flowers!?! As you know, there is something about paper flowers that we just love...maybe its that they last forever! Why not make mom a beautiful paper flower corsage that she can wear proudly or use it to top her gift! These simple DIY flowers are sure to bring a smile to any mom's face!

Materials

Card stock of your choice

Scissors
Hot glue
Safety pin
Circle punch {Optional}

Take a piece of white paper and draw the shape of the petal you desire, it should be not bigger than 1 ½”. Be sure to have a rectangle shape at the bottom, this is important for creating the flower shape. Cut it out and use this as your pattern

Take your pattern and lay it on top of 2-3 squares of your cut out card stock and cut out. {you can create

2-3 petals at a time depending on the thickness of your card stock}

You will need 11 petals for each flower {you can make the inner ones smaller if you desire}

Where you have your rectangle at the bottom cut a slit a few centimeters up

Cross one side of the slit paper over the other and hot glue it to hold it in place, this will give the petal shape and dimension

Cut a small 1” circle out of your card stock, or you can use a paper punch

Start to glue the bottoms of the flowers around the circumference of the circle. You will need about 4 petals. You can add another layer of 4 and the inner layer will have 3 petals. 

Punch two more circles out. Glue them on top of one another {glue in the middle} and cut slits in them. 

Glue the middle of the flower in and pull the slits inward to make it look more realistic. You can add leaves if you desire {just glue them to the top of the base or the bottom of the flower. Add a safety pin if you are making a corsage, otherwise you can simply glue in onto of your package! 

What's in your Party Box with The Cakegirls!

So, we are a little bit giddy over the guest bloggers we have with us today. If you have an affinity for cake in any way shape or form you are familiar with sisters, Mary and Brenda Maher, otherwise known as The "Cakegirls"! This amazing duo is responsible for some of the most gorgeous and unique cakes ever! They have won Food Network challenges, appeared on Oprah and had a fabulous show called Amazing Wedding Cakes, giving viewers a behind the scene peek at the girls and their business!

After a devastating fire destroyed their downtown Chicago bakery, the sisters decided to open a on-line shop. Their new website thecakegirls.com, is a DIY website selling sweet supplies for at home cake makers! After years in the business Mary and Brenda have curated their favorite tools, recipes and step-by-step ideas to throw and easy at home party!

The Cakegirls are here with us today, sharing what in their 'party box'! They have come up with some beautiful ideas for a "Bold and Bright Garden Party"! From hanging paper decorations to rose baking cups to a must have pink and white chevron cake stand, you can find it all right here! We are in love with their new site, and we know you will be too...so what are you waiting for, go and check it out and tell them Icing Designs sent you!

Visit Mary and Brenda, The Cakegirls: 

Here on thier new Website

Here on Facebook 

Here on Pinterest 

&

Here on Twitter

Thank you Cakegirls!

Watercolor Floral Cake Crown DIY

As promised here is the watercolor floral cake crown DIY...

Materials

Floral Wire 

Green Satin Ribbon 

Hot Glue 

Watercolor Paper 

Watercolors/Paintbrush 

Tissue Paper 

Floral Stamens {craft store/baking department} 

1. Take your floral wire and twist it together so it forms a circle. 

2. Wrap your floral wire with green satin ribbon using hot glue to secure it. 

3. Take your watercolor paper and cut {about 14} 2 inch circles out. Rip the edges a little bit to make it look more life-like. Cut a small slit in the bottom of the circles. Punch out one circle to use as a base to glue the petals onto. You can also cut a few leaf shapes as well.

4. Begin to paint your petals with the watercolor of your choice. You don't have to be neat, leave white space and paint the edges darker. 

5. Begin to assemble your flower. Cross one side of the slit paper over the other and hot glue it to hold it in place, this will give the petal shape and dimension. {If you are having trouble envisioning see here} Begin by gluing 5 petals to the base and layer from there. Just hot glue the petals on until your flower is full. You can curve the final 3 petals in or leave them open.

6. The tissue paper flowers can be made by following this simple DIY .

7. Use hot glue to assemble your floral cake crown however you like!