DIY Easy and Elegant Baby Rattle Decoration

Hello again!  I have been bustling around the last few months preparing for the three craft fairs I have done the last three weeks... it does not leave much time for crafting.  However, with the exciting news of my friend's pregnancy, I have started looking for innovative and exciting ways to decorate for the baby shower I am throwing!  We will be using this design as our door decoration for the shower, and then putting it on her nursery door afterwards.  I saw something similar on Pinterest, and decided to give it a try.

When I decided to make it myself, I figured it ought to match both the Nursery and the Shower.  The baby shower colors are Lavender and Pearl, so I went to Hobby Lobby, and found my supplies.

Materials Needed:

Styrofoam Balls.  This will depend on the size you would like to make.  I chose a 6" and a 4" ball.

Plastic Dowels.  I found these in the cake decorating aisle.  You will want to have hollow plastic dowels, as they are both lightweight and easy to position in the styrofoam.  I did not do anything in addition to my plastic dowels, as the slightly pearlescent color was perfect, but you could, at this point, paint them.  You could also use wood dowels, with a little altering (You would have to carve out a little space for them into the styrofoam, though make sure to make it smaller than the actual dowel so that there would be pressure on the dowel to keep the styrofoam on once you put it into the ball:  this is not necessary with the hollow plastic dowels).

Scissors and Ribbon.  Pick a ribbon that matches your flowers or your theme that you are going with, or any other color that you prefer.  I picked a sweet lavender satin ribbon that was 1.5" wide, and two sheer ribbons, one in lavender and one in ivory, both 3/4" wide.

Flowers.  Choose faux flower bunches in your choice of color.  I chose petite tea roses in a sweet lavender. Each flower 'bouquet' that I bought had nine flowers on it.  I needed approximately 150 flowers to cover both balls (100 for the larger ball and 50 for the shorter ball), so I bought enough 'bouquets' to cover that.  I also used two slightly different flower bunches, to give a little bit of a variegated effect.  My flowers were all approximately an inch in diameter.  You can choose any size flower you would like, but keep your flower size in mind as you choose your brad size (next).

Brads.  I chose to use mini heart brads with little pearls at their center.  They were on the very small size, as brads go, but they were perfect for my mini tea roses.  Keep in mind, if you choose a large flower, you will want a larger brad.  I went through five and a half boxes of 25 brads for the whole project.

Pull your flower 'heads' off of the 'bouquets'.  In preparation, remove the flower buds and heads from off of their bouquets.  I have never seen flowers sold apart from the bouquet, but if you do find them, you can skip this step.

Make a starting point.  Now we are ready to get started!  Simply take your dowel firmly in hand, and stick it into the styrofoam ball.  Do your best to go straight in, and do not wiggle the dowel around as you do so. This will ensure that the styrofoam has a strong hold on the dowel, and that the ends will not fall off.  It is up to you how far you would like to stick the dowel in.  I went in about 2", and have had no problems with that.  Now, remove your dowel the same way you stuck it in.  You should see a clear ring where your dowel went in.  You will leave this space uncovered with flowers, and reattach your dowel there once you have covered the ball.

Disassemble the flower.  Next, we simply disassemble the flower heads.  You will want to do this one at a time, as you go, so that you do not get petal bunches mixed up.  It is generally rather simple:  flip the flower over and pull the plastic backing off of the 'stem'.  Then, remove the flower petals from the stem by sliding them off the back.  Keep them in the order they were on the stem, for best effect.  Do not rip the off of the stem or cut them: this is an exercise in finesse, though you will find it pretty easy for the most part.  You are trying to replicate the exact same look, while only changing the center.

Poke your flower into the styrofoam.  Now it gets both easy and tedious :-).  Take a brad, and stick the metal prongs through the hole left by the 'stem'.  Then, without messing with the prongs at all (in fact, sometimes I straighten them even further), poke them straight down into the styrofoam.

Rinse and Repeat.  Simply continue the last two steps until your ball is covered.  A few tips:  If your brad does not stay in (this will happen once in a while), simply pull it straight out and move it over slightly.  Also check your brad prongs;  if they are not straight and smooth, they will create a bigger hole than necessary, and will fall out easier.  Remember to leave a hole for your dowel (as pictured below):  I had my flower petals mostly covering the hole so that when I inserted my dowel, it would cover the base.

Once I had gotten a fair bit covered, I decided to reattach my dowel and use it to hold the ball.  This made it easier to attach my flowers as I went on.  (When doing this for the second ball, remove the first ball so as not to ruin it while you work on the second.)

When you have completed your first ball, repeat the last few steps for the second ball.  Then, simply attach both flower covered balls, position them as close or far apart as you would like to make it look like a rattle, and you are done with the hard part!

Attach your ribbons in a sweet bow.  As long as you can tie a bow, you are safe!  You have a few options here:  write on the bow, tie it with all three ribbons, etc.  I simply tied the two sheer ribbons to the dowel, and then tied the bow on top of them, but you could also have a three layer bow!  The possibilities are endless, and it is all up to your own preference!

Congratulations!  You are finished!  I added a fourth, very thin, line of ribbon that I used to hang the rattle from my door.

Now you have a personalized bit of elegant door decor for a nursery, a shower, or just for fun!  Please let me know if anything was unclear or if there is anything I can do to improve this tutorial!  Thanks for reading!

Yours in Beauty and Love,
Marijke

DIY Rick Rack Fabric Rosettes

Hello Again!  I am currently running errands, and found a WiFi connection, so I figured this was a great time to post another fun weekend crafting tutorial!  This week, Rick Rack Rosettes!  My favorite thing about these is that, with a little patience and effort, you can make an adorable accessory for very little money and in very little time!  When finished, these rosettes call to mind the beautiful porcelain rosettes of the 1950's and 60's, with all of the class and charm, and for a fraction of the price.  So, let's get started!

What You'll Need:


A package of Rick Rack of your choosing.  This can be purchase at any store that sells sewing notions:  Hobby Lobby, Joann's, etc.  I found that Joann's had the best selection, though I have purchase my packages at both.  You will have the choose of either medium or jumbo rick rack:  the size you choose will dictate the finished size of your rosettes.  A good example would be the above picture:  the two side flowers are made of medium rick rack, while the middle rose is made of jumbo rick rack.  Rumor is that medium rick rack is easier to work with, though I have not found a marked difference, so it is purely your choice.

Decorative items for the middle (if you would like them, not necessary).  I personally use little pearls a lot.  There are two ways you can do this:  either buy cute little pearl brads, which make it easier to roll, or buy a package of sticky back pearls.  The brads will be much easier to work with, but they are far more expensive.  The picture above is the little sticky pearls:  at the bottom is a picture with a blue pearl that is on a brad.  I also occasionally use the sticky rhinestones.

Felt or a jewelry finding to mount them on.  When you are done with your rosettes, you will want to "seal" the bottom by hot-gluing it to a circle of felt.  You can also just hot glue the rosette straight to a ring finding (found in the jewelry making section of craft stores like Hobby Lobby), or attach to a headband (also at a craft store in the jewelry making section), or a hair clip.  Both the headband and the hair clip options will require felt to help you attach it, though.

Hot glue gun, a ruler, scissors, and a sewing machine.  You will not actually need a sewing machine, as you could conceivably have hand stitched everything, but I found it much faster on the machine, and it turns out very nicely.  It is just a straight stitch, so nothing fancy is necessary.

Let's Get Started!  Cut your rick rack to desired lengths.  The length you cut your rick rack to will determine the size of your rosette.  Most of my rosettes are cut at 12 inch lengths, with a few at 18.  I like the look of both.  If you want a smaller rosette, I wouldn't go much smaller than 10 inches, which is the size I use for rosettes I am putting on a ring.  Keep your cuttings in pairs:  I have found one package of medium rick rack will give me three sets of 12 inch cuttings, and one set of about 10 inch cuttings.

Weave your rick rack together.  When I do this, it feels a lot like braiding.  I have found the most success when I clip the ends of the rick rack pair together, and then weave/braid from there.  You are simply trying to put the "highs" of one piece through the "lows" of the next, if you think of them like wave crests.  Be careful not to leave any spaces, or any wrinkles:  simply connect them at each junction, and you will be fine.

Sew a straight stitch to secure your braid.  Next, simply take a coordinating color thread (I chose matching colors, though in some cases I just matched closely, because you are not really going to see it), and sew a single straight stitch along the bottom.  I would stay just right above the lower ridges:  it will not hold quite right if the thread is jumping from bottom wave to bottom wave, and you don't want to be too high, or you will have to see it and the petals will not fold out quite as nicely.

Roll your braid.  This is where you need a little bit of patience and finesse.  You will take your braid by one end (after trimming off the excess thread, etc.), and begin to roll it in on itself.  You will quickly start to see a rose shape forming.  IMPORTANT:  Make sure that your stitch is at the bottom of the rose, not at the top or it will not open at all.  As you start your roll, place a small dot of hot glue right on the inside of the first roll to hold it together.  It is at this point that you can either add your pearl brad, your pearl, your rhinestone, or nothing.  The rosettes look beautiful any way.  You will notice with the sticky pearls and rhinestones that you will really need to play with them to get them to stay just right, facing upward.  I have found that rolling it a little first to get the shape, then placing a larger dot of hot glue, and then letting the hot glue stiffen just a little, makes it much easier to properly place your pearl/rhinestone in.  If you find something that works well, please comment and let me know!

Secure the back.  Once you have rolled your rosette, tucking the last little end underneath and hot gluing it securely in place, it should look something like the above picture.  You can see my end pulled down and tucked under.  Your last step is the fun step!  You can do a few different things, so I will break them down.  The easiest, if you are just using them by themselves as a table decoration or such, is to simply cut a circle of felt slightly smaller than the back of the rosette, and hot glue it in place.

Attaching to a ring finding.  If you are attaching to a ring finding, simply put a large dollop of hot glue on the bottom of your rosette, and push the pad of the ring finding into the hot glue!  Once it has started to cool a little, you can use your fingers to smooth the glue into a pleasing smooth bottom of the ring.

Attaching to a headband finding.  Cut a small circle of felt slightly smaller than the rosette bottom.  Simply hold your rosettes where you would like them, with the bottom against the headband, keep your fingers out of the way, and place a dollop of hot glue on both the headband and the rosette (just one dollop, that will smoosh over both).  Then, place your little circle of felt on the other side, creating a sandwich of rosette, headband in the middle, and felt circle.  This will harden and secure the rosette to the felt and headband.  You can move it a little while the glue dries, but I would suggest being very careful to have it positioned where you want before you glue.

Here are some of my creations!

Good Luck!  Let me know if you have any questions/improvements!  Also link to your successes!

Yours in Beauty and Love,
Marijke