Paper Easter Grass

Last Easter our daugther partook in her first egg hunt and festivities. And wouldn't you know, I couldn't bring myself to by a bag of plastic grass at the store. Even as a kid, I hated the stuff. But as a mother who treasures her vacuume and her little one even more (both of whom digest foreign objects freely), I decided to make my own Easter grass. Very simple, and easy...

I use all scrapbooking paper, any size. I usually keep scraps in a drawer so that's what I go for first. This is also a great project for using up any hideous scrapbooking paper that has been collecting dust for a few years that you know you're never going to use, but feel to bad about tossing.

To get the crinkled look I use one of these 'crinkler things' (like my terminology?).

I purchased mine at Michaels (using a 50% off coupon of course). Simply crinkle all your paper, then shredd it! I'm sure an electric shredder works great, but ours cuts both ways so I like to cut by hand.

It sounds time consuming but it's not- I promise! I just sat down last night to watch 'Glee' while making my grass and before it was even over I had plenty of paper for at least five baskets.

Tulle YoYo Tutorial

The other day, while shopping at Kohl's I noticed this cute number in the kid's section....

What wasn't cute- the $27 price tag. Oh well I could live without the skirt anyway, but the adorable tulle yoyo's on the shirt were to much. So I went to the craft store picked up some tulle and a packet of rhinestones and came up with my own version, costing me only $2.00 (and leaving me with extra tulle for another current project).

Supplies:

Shirt (or whatever you wish to put these cute yoyo's on)
rhinestones
glue gun or fabric glue
tulle
thread, needle, scissors



Layout your tulle and trace a circle using any handy object you can find. For mine I made the middle yoyo larger so I used a cereal bowl. Then for the two outside yoyo's I grabbed a Tupperware lid that was slightly smaller than the bowl. Trace and cut out.

Then using wide stitches, stitch a circle around the tulle you just cut out. Make a stitch that is about 1/4 inch into the circle. (I would recommend using the same color of thread as your tulle. I'm using a different color so it would be more visible in the tutorial)




Next, very gently pull on the thread to gather the tulle. It will first start to look like a bowl as you pull. During this step, tuck the 1/4 inch tulle into the inside of the yoyo so it doesn't stick out. Gather until it resembles a flower and is even on all sides (move gathering around if it isn't even). Then to finish your yoyo up hand stitch the middle, going from the front to back to secure the center and tie off in the back.

After making my yoyo's I then hand stitched them onto the shirt and glued the rhinestones on. Very simple and no sewing machine or much time is needed for this project!