The Funkie Junkie: Tussie Mussie

Saturday, April 16, 2011

A Vintage Easter Project

Welcome back to my post for Our Creative Corner. We're kicking the weekend off with an Easter project. I've been looking forward to this challenge. I knew I wanted to do something vintage and thought it would be an opportunity for one last springtime blast of crinoline flowers. Then this week I received some Melissa Frances vintage crepe paper and thought it would be so perfect to work into an Easter project. I decided to make a tussie mussie, using some of the vintage songbook paper I picked up recently. I have to tell you, this was a blast to make. It was a little tricky and I had to improvise as I went along. I knew what outcome I as looking for so I just kept at it changing this and that and the final result was pretty much as I pictured it.

I started by rolling a page of the songbook and spritzed it with my homemade glimmer mist (Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls, a couple of drops of Vintage Photo Reinker and water in a mini mister). I printed a few vintage Easter images in a fairly small size, cut them out, ink distressed them and glued them down. About a 1 inch strip of the crepe paper was cut and sewed with a basting stitch down the middle and then gathered. Then I folded the crepe paper strip in half along the line of basting and affixed it to top inside rim. You can't see it too well, but I love the double ruffle it made. The vintage crepe paper is very stiff and nice to work it. It has almost a crisp feel to it.

Next I created 12 crinoline flowers, 3 of each type/color. (If you are new to my blog, I have two tutorials on making flowers from crinoline - here and here.) Most of them have a brad for the center so I took a wire and wrapped it around the base of the brad on the underside of the flower. I wrapped the other end of the wire around a toothpick to create a floral pick effect. Once all 12 flowers were finished I arranged them together in bunch and then wired all the stems together for stability. The inside of the cone is filled with shredded paper so I pushed the pick ends of the flowers down into it and arranged it to sit up the way I wanted it.

The handle is a 1/4 inch satin ribbon. I repeated the same steps with the crepe paper again and glued the ribbon to the underside along the basting line. I cut a few strips of pastel card stock and ran them through my crimper, then wound them into a spirals so they would curl nicely. I added a little Venise lace and some darling Venise lace tri-florals. Watch for these and more yummy Venise lace for sale on my Funkie's Junk blog. I just received a shipment and will be getting pictures and prices uploaded over the weekend.

I think that's all the details but if you have any questions, leave them in the comments or email me privately. Thanks for stopping by today and for your lovely comments. Be sure to stop by Our Creative Corner to see the Easter projects that the rest of the team have made.