Category: In the Studio

Paper Egret Orchid Stems in a Vase

Paper Egret Orchid Stems in a Paper Vase
~ Megan
Paper Egret Orchid Stems in a Paper Vase

Today I’m sharing some Egret Orchid Stems made from paper and wire. Such a fun project to put together. I’m pretty happy with how they turned out! 

A real Egret Orchid. Such a stunning flower.

I have a friend that is a plant killer (her words, not mine) and I wanted to give her a plant she couldn’t kill. I also wanted to try out making out a 3D flower and thought I’d make my own design. 

Looking online at different flowers, I came across this beautiful Egret Orchid and knew this was the one I wanted to make. 

How I Made Them

I took the photo of the Egret Orchid and imported it into my Silhouette Software and traced it, fiddling with the settings until I got a version I was happy with. I also had to simplify the cut lines and delete a bunch of edit points to make the shape manageable. I used this tutorial from Silhouette School (love that website!) to learn to trace images. I use this function all.the.time. I even trace shapes from my library if I need an outline. Such a versatile function!  

Once I had the top wing portion and the bottom petal portions created, I found some other orchid shapes in the Silhouette Design Store I could use to create the rest of the orchid shape. I cut them out, inked them for dimension, and glued them together. 

The vase was really easy to put together. I inked the paper with several colors to give it a cement look and then glued the pieces together. Inside the vase is floral foam to hold the wire stems. Next time I would put the floral foam inside before I put the vase together. It was a little tricky getting the floral foam inside the narrow top. I also would have liked to have weighted the bottom with something so it wasn’t quite so light. I did pour some of the little pebbles in the bottom, but that’s not enough. 

I used the leftover hexagon from the top of the vase to cover the floral foam. I covered it in the black rocks and poked some holes where I wanted to place the stems. I then stuck the leaves in. I used hot glue to secure the stems and leaves and added more rocks to cover the glue. 

  • Vase with floral foam to hold the stems and leaves
  • Hexagon center covered in small back pebbles to cover the floral foam
  • Vase
    Vase with the hexagon cover put in place.
  • Wire stem structure
  • Stems wrapped in floral tape and stuck in the vase.

To create the two main stems, I took a three-foot piece of 12 gauge floral wire, folded it in half, and then twisted it to make it stiffer. For each of the flower stems, I took shorter pieces of 22 gauge wire and did the same thing and wrapped one end around the 12 gauge stem, leaving the other end free. One branch for each flower or bud. Then I wrapped the whole thing in floral tape to make it look like one stem. The twists in the wire give the stem a cool, natural texture. The flowers are hot glued to each of the smaller stems. 

The leaves were simple. I wanted a leaf that was similar to the Egret Orchid’s actual leaves, and found one in the Silhouette Design Store. I elongated them in Design Studio and cut them in a medium green paper. Then added several different green inks to give each of them dimension. I cut lengths of 22 gauge wire and attached them to the back of the leaves with hot glue. I left the wire longer than the leaf so I could use it to stick into the floral foam. When the glue was dry, I used the wire to shape the leaf so they had some life. 

  • Leaves in the Vase
  • Leaves in the Vase
  • Paper Egret Orchid
  • Side of Paper Egret Orchid
  • Back of the Paper Egret Orchids

I’m pleased with how the paper Egret Orchid stems turned out. Figuring out how to do the flowers took me a long time, so I’m really happy with how they turned out. I learned some things and next time I’ll do some things differently, but I thought this little project turned out pretty good. 

Materials Used: 

So there you have it. Pretty paper Egret Orchid stems for Christmas. And they won’t ever die. 🙂

Simple Winter Flocked Teardrop Door Swag

Winter Flocked Teardrop Door Swag
~ Megan

Today I’m sharing my simple winter flocked teardrop door swag I made for my front door. As you can see in the photos, I have a very cheery bright yellow door. Normally I love it, but it makes using traditional holiday colors a little difficult. The wreath I’ve used in years past wouldn’t work on this door. I prefer traditional holiday colors with lots of green and pops of red and white, and perhaps touches of other colors mixed in. But with this new-to-me yellow door, I was not loving the idea of using green and red.

I’ve been searching for something that would work and came across this lovely flocked pine teardrop door swag. I love the big flocked pine cones. I wanted it to have a little more body so I added a few more pine picks with smaller pine cones using floral wire I had on hand. Then I added a sparkly white ribbon to finish it off.  I looped the ribbon three times (twisting it so the sparkle was on the outside). I used a piece of floral wire around the center to form the bow and attach it to the swag. The long ends of the ribbons are a separate piece that I attached with floral wire. It came together easily and thanks to good a Michael’s sales and coupons the whole hanging was less than the original price of the swag by itself. 

I think the winter flocked teardrop door swag works well on my cheery yellow door and will be nice even after Christmas. 

Winter Flocked Teardrop Door Swag

What kind of holiday projects are you working on? 

xoxo

White Christmas Village

A white paper village sitting on a table
~ Megan ~ 2 Comments

Last year I made a pretty, white Tea Light Christmas village for my mom. She loved it. But it turned out much bigger than either of us expected–so there’s some question where she’s actually going to display it. 😂

The simple elegance of the white cardstock make the touches of green and red pop. I love it.

I just love the village all lit up!
How I Made It

I cut the houses using my trusty Silhouette Cameo. The houses are available on the Silhouette Design Store by artist Marji Roy. The designs are also available on her website in other formats if you don’t have a Silhouette. The village tutorials are here. They were pretty easy to put together–but the most time-consuming parts were adding the scallops to some of the roofs. The houses are about 4 inches square, and the hexagons are about 6 inches in diameter. As I said before, the project got bigger than I expected. No one that knows me is surprised. ha.

For the windows, I used vellum to give them a frosted glass effect. It hides the view of the light strand but lets the light shine through. For the Church, I gave the vellum windows a watercolor effect so it looks like stained glass.

The village includes:

  • 20 buildings,
  • a plethora of snow-covered trees,
  • a covered bridge,
  • fences and park benches,
  • gazebos,
  • a couple of moose,
  • a horse-drawn sleigh,
  • a TARDIS (haaa),
  • a little nativity scene (I cut off the button loops),
  • little nutcracker soldiers (also cut off the button loops),
  • and an ice skating rink.

I used white glitter on the roofs and the edges of the trees to look like fresh snow. The bows have red glitter added to them. I realized after that using red glitter cardstock would have been better. Adding red glitter to the bows after they were cut was messy!

The hexagon bases, also from the Artist’s website, are a great way to hide the lights and add dimension to the village. I used the tutorial on her website to set up the village. There’s a hole in each base that allows the strand of lights to be threaded up and into each house. Because I used bendable fairy lights, it was easy to feed the lights into each house.

Supplies used:

This was such a fun project to work on! I’m just enamored by this little (or not so little) white Christmas village. I’m tempted to make a slightly smaller version for myself, but I still remember my hand cramping from all that gluing. 😂

“The Golden Ship” Paper Children’s Storybook

Cover of The Golden Ship Paper Children's Storybook
~ Megan

Awhile after I had made Margaret’s Butterflies and The Popcorn Farmer storybooks, some of my nieces and nephews wanted a paper children’s storybook featuring themselves. Well, of course, I’ll make them a book featuring them as the main characters!

So we started planning our story. The kids decided we were all pirates that searched for treasures and fought sharks. Obviously. We came up with hilarious pirate names: I am Captain Pink Beard, then there’s “Shark-Attack Sue,” “Two-Eyed Jack” who wore an eye patch (haaa), “Sharkbait” who has a pegleg, and “Horseshoe Harry” the good luck charm. The story is based on a game we play whenever we are together.

It was so fun to plan and put this book together. It was definitely more intense than the last two books I made! A lot more cutting! And a whole lot more glitter! Yaaas!

The Story
  • The cover of the book, featuring an overflowing treasure chest.
  • The Golden Ship, by Megan McGrath
  • The Flying Fish sailed swiftly through the sea. An adventure was happening that’s a guarantee. Captain Pink Beard ordered the crew to keep a lookout. She was hoping they were on a treasure route!
  • The crew consisted of four special pirates, Who all knew they were each the Captain’s favorite. The First Mate was Shark Attack Sue, Who defended the crew against all creatures in the great big blue.
  • Then there was Two-eyed Jack. He wore an eye patch. With a sword, he had a knack. No one was his match.
  • Next was a wee one they called Sharkbait, who now was missing a leg. All thanks to a shark they named Craig.
  • Then last, but certainly not least, was Horseshoe Harry. He was the Ship’s good luck charm–always as happy as a canary.
  • Suddenly, Shark Attack Sue yelled, while pointing at the horizon, “Look there, a bottle floating on the sea! I hope it’s not filled with poison!”
  • Two-eyed Jack fished the bottle out of the ocean. Said he, “Well, ‘tis not a bottle of lotion!”
  • Captain Pink Beard gave it a close inspection, and then made a loud clap. “Ye skallywags! This bottle contains a treasure map!”
  • So the crew sailed the Flying Fish to the small treasure island. The trip was much longer than they planned. All the while, the shark called Craig kept pace. Little human legs had become his preferred taste.
  • The ship set anchor in the island’s bay, They packed up their gear and headed down the gangway.
  • Captain Pink Beard led the crew through the jungle, Until they reached four rocks in the shape of a rectangle.
  • The crew dug, and dug and dug, and dug, until they heard a dull thud.
  • Crowns, and jewels, and pearls, and coins were passed all around. There was so much treasure in the ground!
  • Shark attack Sue yelled, “Hooray! We found the treasure!” Two-eyed Jack added, “Now we can live a life of leisure!”
  • Heaps of wealth were piled in the rowboat, weighing it down. They could not wait to spend the treasure in the next town.
  • Craig the Shark saw this as his invite. He raced up to little ol’ Sharkbait and tried to take a big, BIG bite.
  • Shark Attack Sue and Two-eyed Jack stepped into action. Beating Craig back till he hightailed it in a different direction.
  • Now with their foe defeated, and their treasure stores no longer depleted, They decorated the Flying Fish with gold and jewels that were beaded.
  • They sailed away in their golden ship shining and shimmering in the sun. And now this tale with pirates, sharks, and discovered gold is done. The End.
Some fun facts about the book:
  • It took so long to write the actual story! I love rhyming books and so I wanted this book to rhyme. Turns out it’s harder to do than it seems!
  • The waves are all glitter cardstock. I cut over 60 waves for this book. Whew. The waves were then inked along the edge with a darker blue ink to give them some depth.
  • The planks on the ship were all individually cut, inked, and glued in place. Easily the most time-consuming part! I even added little nail marks. Yes, it’s okay to roll your eyes.
  • I had to design the railing along the edge of the ship. It was a bit tricky to do the angled one so the ship had depth, like on page 1.
  • My favorite page is when the shark is trying to take a bite of Sharkbait. I think it’s such a funny page. I used the trace feature in the Silhouette Design Studio to create the shark.
  • The sunset on the last page is all inked in. I wish the shimmery ink translated better in the photos. The original is quite pretty.
  • Since this was such an imaginary story, I felt like I could go crazy with the gold foil, glitter, shimmer, and sparkle. Including the Pink Glitter Beard. 😂😂
Supplies Used:

The kids looove their story and we regularly play their special game and talk about the story often. I can’t wait till the rest of my nieces and nephew are a little older so I can make a special paper children’s storybook just for them.

Do you have a fun, special game or tradition in your family? How have you documented and recorded it?

The Popcorn Farmer Storybook

Page of The Popcorn Farmer Paper Children's Storybook
~ Megan

The Popcorn Farmer is the second family history paper children’s storybook I created. It is in honor of my maternal grandparents, Vern and Sybil Bryson. I grew up on their farm and loved it. Well, loved most of it. 😉 I knew the next generation really wouldn’t remember “Great Nana/Grand Nan” and Grandpa died before any of them were born. I really wanted them to be able to know a little about these wonderful and generous people.

The title comes from a beautiful tribute to Grandpa written by a family friend. Grandpa was an actual genius and did a lot of amazing things in his life, yet he found meaning and fulfillment being a farmer/rancher and growing produce, especially corn (soooo much corn!), that he and Nana shared with the community. Hence, he became “The Popcorn Farmer.”

The Story
  • Cover of The Popcorn Farmer, featuring large popped popcorn.
  • The Popcorn Farmer by Megan McGrath
  • Once a long time ago, a boy named Vern Bryson was born on a farm in Utah.
  • As Vern grew up he dreamed of being a farmer. He loved farming and farm animals. But Vern was also very, very smart. So he went to college at BYU and studied engineering.
  • While Vern was in college, World War II started. Vern was very brave and signed up to be a pilot in the Air Force.
  • Even though it was scary, Vern worked very hard and became a very good pilot and flew huge bomber planes all over Europe.
  • Vern was such a good pilot he tought other people how to be pilots.
  • He even received a special award called the Distinguished Flying Cross for being such a good pilot.
  • Vern met a beautiful, smart, and gifted musician named Sybil. They fell in love and soon married in the Salt Lake City, Utah Temple.
  • Vern and Sybil had five kids: Britt, Forest, Craig, Nadine, and Elaine.
  • When the war was over, Vern began working as an Aeronautical Engineer, helping to develop nuclear engines like those used in submarines.
  • Vern also worked to design better airplanes.
  • When Vern retired, the family moved to a farm in California. It was beautiful there. They had lots of horses, cows, sheep, chickens, and pigs.
  • But some of the best spots on the farm were the giant gardens and orchards.
  • There were all sorts of goodies growing in the gardens. Everything from beets and blackberries, to carrots, grapes, green beans, onnions, raspberries, strawberries, peaches and pumpkins, plums, peppers, and even zucchini.
  • There were so many kinds of fruits and vegetables!
  • But the best was the corn. There were rows and rows and rows of corn! Vern and Sybil’s grandkids loved to run and play hide and seek among all the rows of corn. The corn was so delicious! Sweet, delicious, golden corn on the cob.
  • Each year, Sybil would set aside special ears of corn to dry. When the corn kernels were all dry, they were ready to be cooked into popcorn!
  • Vern and Sybil always grew more fruits and vegetables than the family needed. They loved to load up the convertible with all the fresh produce and take it to church to give it away to everyone. But all the children’s favorite was the homegrown popcorn!
  • Vern and Sybil were kind and generous sharing their food, time, and energy helping all those they could.
  • So, whenever you eat popcorn, you can think of Grandpa Vern and Nana Sybil and their great example. The End.
Some fun facts about this book
  • The plane featured on Page 3-4 (with Europe) is actually one of the planes he flew. I used the trace feature in the Silhouette Design Studio program to create the cut file.
  • A photo of the actual medal that Vern received is shown on his uniform on page 6. I used the Print and Cut feature of the Silhouette Design Studio to cut this out. I also recreated his uniform insignias on his cap and uniform. Did you notice his little wings? So cute. 🙂
  • The diagram on Page 9 is actually a simplified diagram of a nuclear engine. The one Vern helped design! I used the pen adapter to have my Silhouette Cameo draw it. Such a fun detail to include.
  • The animals and fruits and vegetables depicted in the story were all actually grown and raised on the farm, but our barn was not red–it was boring metal gray ;).
  • Grandpa really did wear a straw cowboy hat and denim overalls almost every day of my childhood, usually with a white t-shirt.
  • The cover has several large popped popcorn kernels in the center photo spot.
  • My grandma, after seeing the book, heaved a sigh of relief and said, “I’m so glad that part of my life is over and I don’t have to can anymore.” Hahaha. Thanks, Nana? 😂😂
Supplies Used

I had so so much fun making “The Popcorn Farmer.” It meant so much to tell this story and share it with my family, especially my sweet Nana. And I love to read it to my sweet nieces and nephews.

Do you have a favorite family story? How can you share it with your family in a meaningful way?

Thanks for reading! xoxo

Check out two other stories I’ve written: “Margaret’s Butterflies” & “The Golden Ship“