Juice Can Bouquets: Upcycling is Beautiful

I love this bouquet every time I walk through the family room.  My master plan is all coming together in the form of beautiful flower arrangements.

Remember when I visited Uwajimaya in Seattle and shopped for interesting Japanese juice cans? This can is a yellow and purple Sugar Cane drink marked Puli Specialty product of Taiwan. I absolutely love it and the flowers I found in bloom were just what I had in mind for it. Success!

Instead of a traditional glass vase, I love having texture, pattern and color as the foundation for my small flower arrangements.  If I had my own flower shop, I know that these would fly off the shelves.

I am home and able to pull from my own garden to make juice can bouquets. This arrangement has Honey Dijon roses, purple verbena and a sprig of mint.

If I do one thing this summer, it should be to convince you to put flowers in soda or juice cans.  Will you?

Painting Jam Jars: Yoga for my Inner Crafter

I couldn't have felt more relaxed as I dabbed dots of paint onto a collection of empty jam jars. Remember when I showed you how I was upcycling Bonne Maman jam jars in my craft room?  Well, I asked Kim to keep saving them for me (her husband eats a jar of raspberry jam a week!) as I had big plans for flower arranging.  

The process is easy. Use enamel paint from Michaels (be sure that the labeling says the baking process on it) and make dots with a Q-tip or small brush in a pattern that is pleasing to you.  Allow to air dry for 1 hour.  Place jars on a the baking rack in your oven, close the door and preheat to 350 (allowing the jars to heat up slowly with the oven). Bake for 30 minutes. Turn oven off and allow the jars to cool in the oven.  The jars should be now dishwasher safe! I don't foresee needing to wash vases in the dishwasher, but the claim gives me confidence that the design won't ship off.

Of course you should follow the actual instructions on the label of the paint you are using, but I wanted to explain it here so that you could see how perfectly easy it is.

Now my little army of vases are ready to be filled with flowers and given away.  I have tied matching ribbon around the rim of some of these and they look wonderful!  I spent an hour painting dots last night and I could feel my blood pressure going down.  This is yoga for my inner crafter.

Flower Arranging: Vintage Canister is an Unexpected Vase

In the spring, summer, fall, I am flower driven. My interests collide when I can take a vintage oatmeal canister (my mom's find from an antique show) and fill it with flowers from the garden.  Could this arrangement be any prettier?

A melange of color and texture that gets your attention and holds it for a few beats.  When I see this arrangement, my brain ping-pongs around these thoughts:

• How can the colors of that hydrangea be so delicate? Pale celery green and puff pink together is perfect. 
• Why don't they make more pretty china canisters - clear plastic Oxo containers are just not beautiful.
• This grouping would translate beautifully to fabric. Where is Laura Ashley when I need her?
• I have to plant bellflower and more yarrow next year (then I write that in the Notes portion under May in my 2014 calendar.)

Looking at beautiful things is good for you.  Making a bouquet and seeing it every time you walk into the family room is even better.

Unusual Vases, Sequined Hawaiian Juice Cans

Sparkling juice can vases.  A perfectly normal thing to add to my Etsy store, right?  I absolutely love them and it is time that I shared.

Lately my art has been exploring the intersection in life where flowers, packaging and color meet. I have been giving friends and colleagues pop cans full of flowers for years. 

When I lived in Hawaii for a month, I was thrilled to find specialty juice cans more beautiful than any I had seen on the mainland. I mailed a huge box of empty cans back to Michigan (I know, try explaining that to my husband) and have enhanced them with unusual colors of sequins. 

You can see them all at  my Etsy (online marketplace for artists) store here. I know that they are a little crazy...but crazy beautiful, right?

 

 

 

 

Bling Vase

Can you hear the angels singing?  

This project turned out exactly as I wanted it to.  I had a million inexpensive flat back "gems" and I arranged lots of different patterns or crests on my kitchen counter to see which combinations I liked best.  I thought that the amber and gray "brooch" was my favorite, but this one is giving it a run for its money.  

To make this project yourself, you will need an empty jam jar (this is "upcycling" at its best), some Gem-Tac glue, a bag of flat backed gems and your imagination.

It's a little bit preppy and a lot cute.  All it needed were a few pink roses (Paul McCartney) and a sprig of chocolate mint.  Magnifique!