Monday, August 16, 2010

B-Y-O-Birthday

My family was a little surprised when I brought my own birthday cake to the party they had for me on Sunday, but I just wanted pink frosting from Magnolia Bakery and special candles from Caspari so I thought I might craft my own birthday for a change.
Those paper flowers are from Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Crafts: cut a standard 20" x 30" piece of tissue paper into 12 pieces that are 5" x 10" each.  This will make 3 flowers as each one has 4 layers of tissue.  Stack 4 layers on top of each other and start folding like an accordion fan.
Secure the folded piece in the center with floral wire (I used a fairly bendy 28-gauge wire) and twist.  You can cut the edges in a rounded shape, or into points to vary how the petals will look.  i also added some color to the ends with a pink marker like I did for my Mother's Day corsage.
Then the fun part!  Carefully pull the tissue layers apart and you'll have delicate petals: it's easier to see on a black background, just do one side at a time....
and then you will have a flower with rounded petals.
Or more pointy ones.
I hung them outside from the deck umbrella 
by the pink hydrangea and votives I brought.
And my family loves cheese so I brought Oregonzola (and misspelled it on the marker, oops!), brie with mushroom, smoked gruyere and chevre with herbs and garlic.
We sipped pink lemonade and rose wine by my Mom's lovely flowers and she was even growing tomatoes and strawberries!
It was a lovely pre-celebration, thanks, Mom and Dad!  And since tomorrow is *the* day, we're heading to the beach since it's always been my happy place.



23 comments:

Cathie said...

happy birthday Jen!!!!
love your pics.
I tried making those pom pom flowers following martha stewarts link but they didn't work out aswell as yours.
i pulled both sides at the same time! ahhh, now I know.
thanks for the tip & happy day to you

Mary Bergfeld said...

Happy Birthday, Jen. I hope the "real" day is as lovely as the one you described here. Blessings...Mary

Sabrina said...

Your birthday looks like so much fun! I recently got married and made a ton of those pom poms for decor. Yours turned out beautifully!
Happy Birthday!

Small Burst said...

Happy belated birthday. what a sweet birthday gathering. Also love paper flowers. We used to make these in high school for our asian club parade floats except we used napkins. LOL. That was days and days of flower making parties. Anyways, I digress. I hope you had a wonderful birthday at the beach. That last picture is tooo cute!

Unknown said...

Happy Birthday! Lovely, lovely party :) Hope you're having fun at the shore!

♥peachkins♥ said...

Happy Birthday!

CraftyMummy said...

Happy birthday! Your flowers look great - I'll have to try them. Thanks for dropping by my blog earlier - I LOVE your blog! Adding to my reader right now ;)

Content Director - Strong Female Leaders said...

Happy birthday! Aww! Look at that cute, little girl! You do look happy on the beach!

I love making those paper flowers. I learned it in grade school but forgot how to do it. Thanks for showing the steps!

Craftiness NOW said...

thank you SO much to everyone for visiting me on my birthday and for your kind words! i LOVE that so many people have made these paper flowers before, they're so fun and easy.

justin wrote a re-cap of my family party here too:
http://justcooknyc.blogspot.com/2010/08/happy-birthday-to-jen.html

and then we had an awesome day at the beach :-)

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday!

wow you are so talented, you always make it look easy (when i know its not :P) hehe. The cake looked every bit yummy!

Hezaire said...

happy birthday!

i love the idea of hanging the flowers from the umbrella! i'm not especially crafty, but i'll have to try that at my next party. looks easy and fun! thanks!

www.heatherensley.blogspot.com

Craftiness NOW said...

thanks Nic Nic, these flowers ARE actually really easy, and yea, i wish i had more cake right now ;-)

hi Hezaire, thanks so much for visiting, and yes, the flowers just take a few minutes each!

Lori said...

Happy Birthday!

I jsut love those flowers you made. SO delicate and pretty.

Unknown said...

That is beautiful and I think they look so real.
Fun ideas for party!

Vicky said...

Happy belated birthday. Mine was at the start of this month and got my cake a day later. Better late than never I say.

I love the paper flowers and actually thought of making those for my daughter's birthday. Yours are so pretty especially in pink.

Craftiness NOW said...

hi Lori, thank u so much and thanks for visitng :-)

thanks, MerryDay, thank u for stopping by too!

hey Vicky, happy belated birthday to you! i say cake anytime = good ;-)

Creative Coquette said...

Jen!!! Happy belated Birthday!!! I send loads of wish-come-true juju your way :)

Sorry it's late but hey, I'm all for birthday months anyway, hee hee. Haven't had much blog time of late...the big day is getting closer and closer [wink]

Helen said...

Happy belated! I love that you brought your own cake! So much pink and prettiness. Hope you had a great day :)

Craftiness NOW said...

hey, Creative Coquette, thanks so much! thinking good planning thoughts and sending them your way, hope it's going well!!

hi Ashley, thank u very much for following and commenting! i must see the doily-embellished tube top!

thank u, Helen! it was an awesome day, this year is looking good :-)

Anonymous said...

Oh très joli...

Craftiness NOW said...

hi Beautiful things, merci! a belated thank u for stopping by :-)

ARK said...

I made some of these recently too...yours turned out beautifully!

Craftiness NOW said...

thanks so much, they're fun, right? i can't figure out how to make the really HUGE ones, but i guess u just use bigger paper, right? ;-)

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