Rose Petal Beads

When my Mom passed away we were given so many beautiful flowers in her memory.   I wanted to do something special with them.  I dried some (I'll write my method for this another time), and with some of the roses, I chose to make beads.  When searing online I found a few different ways to do this.  Here are some step by step directions including the photos I took during my process. The entire process takes a long time.  I gave myself a full day.

1.First you need to pick out the roses that you want to use.  (I did a batch of yellow and orange and this batch of Red roses.  I believe most colors will turn out very dark, but it works best if they are generally separated.)

2. Pick off the bad petals and throw them away. (You want all living petals.)

3. Put all of the healthy petals in a pile.  The easiest way to separate them, is to use a twisting motion to separate the bud from the rest of the petals. (You can store these in the fridge for a few days, until you are ready to cook them.)

4. Place the rose petals in a sauce pan

 5. Cover the petals completely in water.

 6. Bring to a boil, after boiling, allow to simmer (about 4-5 hours depending on the amount of petals).

 7. Stir the stinky porridge occasionally.

 8.Once it is all MUSHY, strain it.  

I also squeezed out the juice, and set it on a paper towel, so it was not to messy.

 9. Separate the MUSH into sections and start forming beads.  You can do any shape you want.  PLEASE NOTE: They Shrink A LOT, about 30%!

10. Slide the shapes onto a T-pin, or thin skewer stick. (You can use anything for this however metal works best.)

11. Place the pins in cork board or over something so they will dry.

12. Rotate your pins every few hours so they dry equally.  (If you make bigger beads or different shapes, such as the cross, you may want to stabilize it, as it may bend.)

 13. Slide the beads off and allow to finish drying for a few days. (Yes, they will continue shrinking a little more.)

14.  After they are totally dry...string onto your preferred material. (I like fishing line.)

Storage of your new jewelry/beads:  They will last longest if they are stored in a dry sealed place.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.  I am happy to assist anyone.

Letters

Everyone loves to hang letters in their kids room.  Hobby Lobby sells some pretty cool but boring letters.  When I was in college my roommate and I decorated our letters so we had a personal touch to our office.  We used puff pate and they turned out super cute, but also rather permanent.  Once they were dry, you couldn't make many adjustments.

When my niece was born in November, I wanted to be sure her name was hanging in her nursery.  I didn't want it to look tacky or boring and I wanted it to be letter she could leave hanging for a long time.  I bought the same letters from Hobby Lobby, but this time, NO FABRIC PAINT.  I chose to cover each letter with a different scrapbook paper.  When we had the baby shower we made invitations using a floral variety pack for a "Garden Party Shower".  I had some of the paper left and it worked great to cover the letters.  I simply applied double sided tape to the face of each letter and stuck the paper on.  I flipped the letters over, than used and exacto-blade to cut around the letter.  It worked perfect!  Just make sure your blade is sharp and your paper is stuck on very well!