Hey, Spring! It's About Time.

We all know that the seasons flip off the Gregorian calendar on a regular basis.  But a girl can dream, can't she?  Today is the first day of Spring and let's hope the sun wants to stick around for a while.

Yesterday was a beautiful day, despite a grey & rainy start and a pretty strong breeze.  ER and I broke out and went to the park.

She tried her trike for the first time this season...

we made time for a selfie (like that's ever hard)...

and we (meaning she) explored a muddy puddle.

It was interesting to watch her explore the playground after not having been there for several months.  ER developed such a mastery of the equipment by our last visit in the fall of 2012, but she was a little hesitant getting back into it today.  I have no doubt that her muscle memory will begin to remind her where to put her hands and feet as she climbs.

Yesterday, at several different times, I also worked bit by bit on my "Flower Showers Garland" that I previewed on Instagram a couple of days ago {request to follow me on Instagram at handmade_mama}.  I needed something springy to put on the vintage ladder in my kitchen but I wanted it to be fun, one of a kind, and free, or at the very least CHEAP.  I was intrigued by a very simple little tissue paper flower I saw on Pinterest a while ago.  You can go here to see the actual pin.

I always have extra tissue paper because unless I get a piece that is ripped or becomes ripped once it is in my home, I fold it and save it for gift giving.  Or crafts.  Or wrapping a present.  Or as filler in the bottom of a bowl.

Chances are you have most of the supplies to make these sweet flowers ready to go in your home!

Flower Showers Garland
Supplies Needed:
Tissue paper
Small hole punch (mine is 1/8")
Tiny brads/fasteners (you could also use eyelets with an eyelet setter)
Strips of fabric (mine were about 12" long and 1/2" or so wide)

So what you'll wanna do is take your tissue paper and fold it into long strips.  Cut the strips into square-ish sections.  Punch a hole in the middle of the square-ishes and put in the brad.  Cut a flower shape as best you can.  I say "as best you can" because I found that kind of tricky.  I ended up with some Gingerbread Man-esque shapes after cutting some of mine.  BUT, once the shape is cut, you can rotate the layers of tissue paper on the brad so that different layers are jutting out different places.  This adds a lot of texture and makes it look more like a flower!  If any parts didn't get separated in the cutting, just snip them so that all the layers move freely.

Keep doing this until you get as many flowers as you want.  You could certainly stop with just the loose flowers and use them to fill a dish, sprinkle on a table top for Easter dinner or a party, stick them on your fridge, put them on your bulletin board, cover your license plate with them...  Heck, I don't know.  Do whatever you want with them!  They'd even make cute DIY/scrappy wedding flowers attached to dowels or something...or for a flower girl to sprinkle out of her basket?  I digress.

Once I got all the flowers made that I wanted to make, I attached them to my fabric strips.  The strips were 2, 3, or 4 pieces long and I just knotted the strips together to lengthen them.  I snipped tiny (TINY) holes with the point of my fabric shears at different points on the strips through which I'd put the brad and then re-fasten it around the back of the fabric.  Oh, and I reserved one entire strip from each length to tie around the rungs of my ladder.  Are you ready to see?

Adorable, right?!  So fun, and just the look I was going for, although I didn't quite know how it would look when I started.  That's always how the best projects begin :)

This would look so cute in red, white, and blue for 4th of July, shades of pink and blue for a baby shower, and I think they'd make super sweet photo backgrounds/props!  The different colored brads really add a cute detail.  ER has requested a Minnie Mouse birthday party so I think I will make some of these in black/white/red/pink to use as decorations.  Do I have any black tissue paper?  I might have to go *gasp* buy some.  

What do you think?  Do you like it?  Is a Flower Shower Garland something you see yourself making? Happy Spring!