Paper Crafted Spring Mantel

Now don't think for one second that I believe anyone is sitting around on pins & needles waiting to see what I've done with my mantel for spring.   I know darn well that is not the case.

However, I did do some stuff.  So I will share.  Next year I hope to get it done & up earlier.

First of all, I'm a paper crafter from waaaaay back.  It was my first crafting crush.  Paper is cheap, easy to work with and the options!  Endless.  Fabric always seems like such a commitment.  But not paper.   And that's just how I like it.

So I decided to try and make several projects this spring out of paper...or at least using paper.  And here it is in all its springly glory.

Projects were:

1) Egg Garland.  Made simply by tying together oval shaped pieces of patterned paper with some cute ribbon.  Easy enough.

2) Decoupaged Eggs.  I took them from this:

To this:

I just decoupaged strips of the same patterned paper I used on the egg garland onto cheap plastic eggs.  They aren't perfectly smooth or anything but I like the end result.

I also found this beauty at Goodwill for 99 cents:

And then subsequently decoupaged the crap of it too (see my SPRING PRINTABLE there in the background?):

4) The Wreath.  I got 8 yards of ribbon to wrap my straw wreath and apparently needed 8.5 yards.  I did the whole close-my-eyes-and-take-a-deep-breath thing and then decided to look at this as a chance to flex my creative muscles a bit.

I figured I'd just pin some strips of the same patterned paper I'd been using all along and no one would ever know.

I now think it turned out much better that way than anything else I was planning on doing.  I mean, what else WOULD I have done?  Right?  So, thank goodness for happy accidents. 

I then cut a bunch of different sizes of the same flower on several different sheets of paper with my Silhouette,  inked the edges a bit and pinned them on in an aesthetically pleasing manner.  

5)  Hydrangea Ball & Egg.  The second I saw this on Lolly Jane I knew I wanted to make one for my mantle!  So cute.   

Easy to make too.  

Step One: Drive to Michael's and throw down $10 for the Martha Stewart Hydrangea punch.  

Step Two: Justify purchase all the way home by thinking of several other things you plan on using it for besides two little things on your spring mantle.

Step Three:  Punch out a ton of flowers!  Or better yet, make your 5 year old daughter do it.  I decided to do a multi-colored one to make it a bit funkier/non-traditional.  

Step Four: Stack two flowers on top of each other, skewer with a pin & fluff petals.

Step Five: Attach to styrofoam egg or ball.

And that is it!   I grabbed a few things I had around the house (birdhouse, empty frame, my framed spring printable, pedestal thingy) and I stood back to enjoy for the next week or so.

Did I mention I love paper?

PS  Linking up to some fun parties here.

PSS  For those of you "in the know," how hard would it be to build a mantel around that lame drywall one I've got going on now.  I mean, wouldn't it just require some molding and a nice piece of wood on top and a bunch of white paint?  Really, it must be done ASAP.  Either by me or a professional (if you all agree it's too hard & tricky), but it MUST be done.