I love Hometalk! As a craft blogger, it's my favorite DIY home and garden community site on the internet! I enjoy the interactions and the responses I receive from my postings, and as one staffer stated, "it's a certain friendliness, willing to help . . . and of course, a cozy-homey-ness!" You just can't get any better than this! So I guess you can imagine how excited I was when the email came from Hometalk asking us to help with decorating their offices with our diy creations.
We were asked, if possible, to incorporate some element of Hometalk like the color teal, the word, Hometalk, or the logo into our decorative item. I was inspired by the logo and color. The five sided design reminded me of a popular weave pattern for a handcrafted newspaper vase, and I kept thinking about using different shades of teal - the gradual blending of different colors into another - that would be perfect for the many tubes involved in making this kind of vase. A light bulb had gone off, and I knew I had an item I wanted to make.
Materials needed:
Newspaper/skewer stick
Cardboard
Scissors
White tacky glue
Hometalk logo
Acrylic paints - ombre colors
Brushes and or sponges
To Make the Newspaper Tubes:
1. Fold and cut newspaper section into four parts.
2. Open the paper section and place a thin wood skewer stick on the bottom
left corner at an acute angle.
Wrap paper edge over stick and begin rolling the paper with your fingers.
3. Just before reaching the end, brush on white glue and roll end closed to
secure.
4. Make 75 tubes and divide into five different ombre color paint groups of 15
tubes.
5. Place plastic cover over work area and paint the group of tubes in different
colors.
colors.
6. Let tubes dry completely.
To Make the Vase:
Cut out a four inch Hometalk logo and trace two on cardboard and cut out.
2. Take five tubes and place on each corner of logo. Place an additional tube
on top of one tube.
3. Glue tubes in place and let dry.
4. Glue second cardboard logo on top and let dry. Take a sheet of paper and
outline the logo 1/2 inch larger, cut out and glue on bottom.
5. Cut out corners of paper at each tube.
6. Apply glue to cut-out edges and fold over, gluing in place.
7. Glue Hometalk logo on opposite side.
8. Paint bare side with color of tubes. Let dry.
To Weave:
On painted side of logo, bend the extra tube along edge of shape and over next tube. Take that tube and bend over next tube, and so on.
Continue bending tubes over the next tube along edge, moving around the design.
When tubes become short, simply add glue to tube end and insert new tube into end and let glue dry.
Continue weaving tube over the next tube using one color group at a time until all the colors have been woven into an ombre effect and you are left with short tube ends.
To finish, apply glue to end of last short tubes and insert inside of weave, hiding ends. Cut off any excess ends.
Can you still see the logo in the weave?
How cool is this?
The vase can be sprayed with a sealant to protect the finish.
This is how the bottom looks - after adding the sealant.
I really love how the vase looks and hope the folks at Hometalk love it, too!
Take a little time to
enjoy
and
Happy Crafting!