Nylon Flowers: Daffodil

Daffodils are one of my favorite flowers.  I don't know if it's the vibrant yellow color, or if it's just usually the first flower I see popup in my garden during the spring time.  It's also the flower of hope, and particularly used for the American Cancer Society's Daffodil Days program.  So, I decided to make this my newest nylon flower project to pass on to you guys.

Materials:
 - #24 gold wire
 - #2 stem
 - yellow nylon
 - light green floral tape
 - nylon thread
 - stamen
 - rings (or a round with a diameter of about 1.5 inches)

1.  Cut 3 wires about 3 inches more than the length of around the ring.

2.  Holding two wires together twist together wires about 3 inches from one side.  Take the third wire, and twist it about 3 inches from the other side of one wire.  Take the two free wire ends and twist together about 3 inches from the end.  You should end up with a cone shape when you put together all the wire ends.

3. Put the wire ends together, and twist closed to form the cone shape.  You can attach it to the stem at this point, I attached it later, but either way works.  Bend the wire up and down around the opening of the cone.

4.  Open the nylon tube and place the stamen inside.  Next slide the tube in from the open part of the cone.

5.  Tie down the nylon end that meets in the closing of the cone with nylon thread.

6.  Stretch the other end of the nylon tube from inside the cone to outside to the twisted end (like shown).   Tie down with nylon thread.

7.  Make 5 petals using the #24 gold wire and the yellow nylon.  Stretch the petal wire forms before wrapping with nylon.

8.  Attach the 5 petals evenly around the cone shape of the daffodil, as shown.  Shape the petals around to have a somewhat pointy tips.

9.  Wrap the showing wires and nylon thread (under the flower) with the light green floral tape.

That's it, you have a daffodil. :)  For a few tips on making nylon flowers check out this post:  http://radlinccrafts.blogspot.com/2010/07/making-nylon-flowers-part-2-technique.html

Let's have a Giveaway

The WINNER has been announced.  GIVEAWAY has ENDED! Thanks for entering!!

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In honor of National Craft Month, I think we should have a giveaway to celebrate.  My friends at New Sheer Creations have been gracious enough to sponsor their new book for this giveaway.  "A Complete Guide to Nylon Flower Making: Basic and Advanced Techniques" by Hai Yan Chen is a great book full of beautiful pictures and a lot of detailed step by step images and instructions.  The author is a renowned master of the nylon flower art.

Here are some pictures of inside the book:

Okay... so the details of the Giveaway!!!!:  

Dates:  Now to March 31, 2011 11:59pm PST.

Prize:  A book : A Complete Guide to Nylon Flower Making: Basic and Advanced Techniques by Hai Yan Chen.

How to enter:  Leave a comment on this post before the end of March. Please make sure to leave a way for me to contact you (email, twitter userid).

Okay... let the contest begin.  :) The winner will be drawn in random and will be posted early April.  I have a nylon flower tutorial on the way (probably end of March or early April) and a few other things projects to share with you.  

Hope to hear from you soon.   Good Luck!

Oh BTW, if you want another chance to win, it looks like New Sheer Creations has a giveaway going on too... Go check it out!

Amigurumi Totoro

Not only is this month National Craft Month, it is also National Crochet Month.  Yay to crafty crochets!

For my third amigurumi project, I wanted to make a Totoro.  Totoro is a character in an anime film called My Neighbor Totoro.  He's a magical spirit keeper of the forest. :)  And he's cute!

I found the pattern for this amigurumi here by Heaven's Hellcat.  The pattern was well done and easy to follow.  Thanks Heaven's Hellcat!

Here's my finished Totoro.

If you want to check out the movie, here's a link to it in amazon.

Alicia's Dino Phone Pocket

First off, Happy National Craft Month, everybody!

To kick of the month, I thought I'd introduce my friend, Alicia. She's a good friend, a baker, an animal lover, and a loom knitter. :)  Alicia is actually the one that introduced me to loom knitting, as well as participated with me on pledging beanies for head huggers.  She has probably made several dozens of beanies since she started loom knitting.

Here is one of Alicia's latest projects.  She calls it the Dino Phone Pocket. Isn't it cute? She used the blue knitting loom, while holding 3 yarns (red heart).  She started as if she were making a small beanie, then whipstitched the bottom close.  Small bits of yarn were threaded on the yarn on each peg and tied in a knot before removing the yarn from the peg.  That created the top fringe.  The dinosaurs were then added as large buttons which fits in the large button holes from the top row.  It took her about an hour and a half to complete this project.