Recycled Jack Daniel's Bow Headband Tutorial

My friend, Mandy and I are guest bar tending this Saturday, March 31st at The Ole Smokehouse in Madrid to benefit Relay for Life.  The event starts at noon with different bar tenders every hour.  It is a lot of fun, teams dress up and have themes and its for a great cause so if you can, stop by and check it out.  Mandy and I are the last ones from 5 - 6.

Inspired by the challenge I created these Jack Daniel's Bow Headbands made from the box that the 4-pack comes in! I tried to use the Jack Daniels Aluminum bottles but they are just to thick to be bent into a bow.

Anyways this could be done with any cardboard or soda can box, such as Coca-cola or food boxes.  You easily could cover the box with scrap book paper for a pretty design as well.

So here they are:

Supplies needed:
Cardboard boxes with design you like
Scissors
Clothespin
Glue
Headband (I was lucky I found some at walmart on clearance, 5 for $1)

 Step 1: Cut a section of the box apart with the design you want on the front of the bow is in the center and double the size of the bow you want.  Ex.  If you want a 3" bow make sure you have 6" to work with.

Step 2:  Cut a strip the width you want your bow.  Make sure again the design you want on the front f your bow is centered.

Step 3: Gently fold over the two ends, centering your design on the front of the bow.  You DO NOT want to put creases in the ends or your bow will be flat!  You can put a dot of glue on the back to hold this as well, but its not necessary.

Step 4:  Cut a strip long enough to wrap around your bow to make the center portion.  Again make sure the design you want to appear on top is centered.  In this case we want to see the words "Old No. 7".

Step 5:  Fold small strip cut in step 5 over the bow and secure with glue and hold tightly with clothespin until dry.

Step 6:  Once it is dry, glue it to the desired location on the headband and hold with clothespin until dry.  I normally try to glue mine a little to the side.

DIY Giant Whimsical Paper Flowers

I am not sure if I mentioned this in my previous blogs, but I am maid of honor in 2 weddings this spring and I have truly enjoyed being able to put my crafty side to work creating again.  Not that I don't enjoy bed springs and recycling, but sometimes you just need to do something different.

I originally found this tutorial on Pinterest, the pin was from the Design Sponge website but the flowers were created by Ruche.  Which if you are in love with all things vintage and have never been to Ruche, check it out they have beautiful clothes and decorative items. It is one of my favs!

Anyways so I followed the tutorial, but have a few notes on how I altered it for my creations.

1.  When you are filling your cups with the cement make sure you have at least 3/4 of a cup, this will make them strong enough to hold up taller flowers.  My current ones are about 1/2 a cup and definitely won't hold flowers any taller than the ones I'm showing (about 4' tall).   I had to have a quick lesson from the BF in how to use quickcrete and strongly suggest before putting any cement powder in your cups add a tiny bit of water to the bottom, it definitely helps in the mixing process.

2.  Instead of using stucco corner, I used chicken wire, which we had out in the barn (so I guess this is an element of recycling)  It worked great and I didn't have to wire it closed I just bent it to the stem shape and taped it with masking tape.

3.  Lastly, my flower tops are different b/c I attempt to make one like theirs and failed!  Well not completely, but I didn't like the end result.   It is very difficult to tape the flowers together b/c tape and tissue paper do not work well together.  If it sticks, it rips!  So I decided to use five sheets of tissue paper and create blossoms like I used in my phone book flowers.  So much easier and created giant blooms!  I also made the wire "stem" of my flower long enough that I just stick it in the large chicken wire stem and cover it, no zip ties needed.

4.  For my centers, I took a darker purple tissue paper and cut it up with my fringe scissors, sprayed the centers with spray glue and dropped it on!  Spray glue may also be a good option for glueing the green tissue paper to the masking tape, as using plain white glue is very time consuming.

The finished result:

They remind me of the giant singing flowers from Alice in Wonderland, while the BF says the remind him of the flowers that come up through the pipes on Super Mario.  Either way excellent bridal shower, wedding or even to decorate your little girl's room!

Enjoy!