One of the websites I browse frequently - as in, more than once a day - is Craftgawker. The whole premise of the website is inspiration for crafters. I check it out to get ideas and try some of the tutorials that are posted. Or just to put myself in a better mood. :)
Anyway, I ran across a tutorial at Nifty Thrifty Things for an origami flower while browsing Craftgawker one day and decided to make some out of some of the millions of magazines I have floating around my room. This is what I ended up with:
I got so excited about them that I decided to make a bunch of them one night while I watched Hotel Rwanda with one of my roommates - amazing movie, btw. As I was making them, I discovered that I could cut off the back pointy end so that it would sit flat without messing it up. Genius, I know.
I originally planned to arrange mine around a round picture frame but couldn't find one. So I opted for the mirror instead.
So here's how you make the mirror (one day I'll remember to actually take pictures as I'm making this stuff):
- Buy a mirror. I'm pretty sure the one I have is a 10 in. I got mine at Michael's for $4 or $5. I'm sure I could have found it cheaper somewhere else, but I had a gift card.
- Make eight of the origami flowers using the tutorial in the link above. You might need more or less based on how big you make yours. I made mine out of magazine pages. I didn't measure the squares of magazine paper, but they were probably about 4 in x 4 in.
- Once you've made the flowers, cut off the back end in such a way that it sits flat. It's not hard to do. Just be brave and snip it. If you made them correctly, they shouldn't fall apart.
- I put a dab of hot glue on the back side where I made the cut just to make sure it doesn't fall apart.
- Once the hot glue dries, arrange them - evenly spaced - along your mirror's edge, and hot glue each one in place.
- Add a loop to the back so you can hang it on the wall.
And you're done! Pretty easy and definitely cheap! I especially love that it has a certain tropic feel to it that rings in the summer. Happy crafting!
