Fabric Covered Tissue Roll Pumpkins Tutorial

Fabric Covered Tissue Roll Pumpkin

This year is just zooming on by!  I can't believe September is almost gone- and the holiday season is quick approaching.  I have so many fun projects in store for Fall- thanks to lots of great inspiration from my favorite guilty pleasure- Pinterest!

In fact this next project was inspired by a few different versions of Fabric Covered Tissue Roll Pumpkins I saw out on the"Interweb".  I put my own little spin on the project and combined several ideas to create a fun design.  These are great projects for folks in Memory Care- but some of my Assisted Living  and Rehab folks have enjoyed making these as well.  If you find remnants or find a great sale on fabric-  these pumpkins come in at around $1.50 each.

Quick Tutorial and supplies needed to make this project:

Toilet Tissue Roll
Batting
1/4 yard fabric for each pumpkin
Brown paper to make stem
Brown  pipe cleaner
Silk flowers and leaves
A pen, glue stick or wood skewer to "poke" with
Glue Gun


Instructions-

First Smoosh your roll of toilet tissue so that it is not obvious what your pumpkin is made from.  Cut two pieces of batting about 3-4 inches wide and long enough to just tuck into the cardboard roll.  Take your fat quarter and center your batting on top in an X. 

First Step is to Smoosh your Toilet tissue roll

Tuck your batting and  fabric into the center of the tissue roll

First tuck in your batting, then start tucking your fabric starting with one of the longer corners.  Remember to tuck in one direction, and turn your project as you tuck and pleat the fabric into the center of your toilet roll.  You may need to use a little muscle to make sure you get it all tucked in nicely!

Ready to add the stem!

Once all your fabric is nicely tucked in, you take your brown paper and roll it into a tube, then twist and scrunch it into a stem for your punkin'.  No glue is needed, just stuff in in.

Wrap your pipe cleaner around a pen or your index finger to make a vine, then fold it in half.  Glue your pipe cleaner, leaves and fall silk flower at the top- and you are finished!

Ta Daaa!!!

Even the Gentlemen at Horizon Bay in Arlington like this one!

Our pretty pumpkins all in a row!

This is a fun fall project and could be modified to be jack-o-lanterns or apples.  You could wrap with burlap but if the fabric gets too thick it is hard to stuff in the center of the tube.   I highly recommend this as a project for Seniors who are in Memory care- as it is a very easy project with attractive results.

Till next time-  Stay Creative and Enjoy the Cooler Weather!

Stephane

Busy Little Bees Part 2

Since I haven't posted a lot this year, sometimes I have technical difficulties.  I couldn't get Blogger to let me add more info to the last blog- so I decided just to go with the flow and split the post in half.

Love the dangle earrings!

As I was saying- we have had some successes lately with our Poly Clay Jewelry classes.  Another of our recent winners is our Mokume Gane earring and bracelet sets.  Here is an example of one of my ladies' jewelry.

This summer we have also completed a lot of painted wood projects.  From small birdhouses to plant pokes, to decorative butterfly and flower glass pebble embellished projects-  Wood has been our friend!  Here is a great example of our butterfly and flower projects class.

My ladies at Chambrel hard at work!

The finished project

Great Colors!

I love that every time we do a project- they all turn out so different and really show each individual's personality!

Our last Summer project was a 3-D Paper Piecing Floral Design.  I have to say that this project was one of the all time favorites of the year.  With a little adjustment, this project was actually appropriate for all of my seniors- from those in Memory Care to Independent Seniors.  I simplified the design slightly for my Memory Care residents, but their projects turned out really great!  Here are some of my students in action:

Working away at Atria in Carrollton

Close up of her pretty bouquet!

I even have had one of my ladies do about 10 of these in her room.  She's planning to give them to her family and friends as Christmas presents this year!

Well that's about it for the Summer projects- wish I had taken more pictures because we did some great room diffusers, tumbled stone decoupaged tile coasters and some fun patriotic door hangers as well.

Next up- Fall projects!

Until next time- Have Fun and Stay Creative!

Stephane

It's my "almost summer" post!

Wow!  This is year is just flying by.  I am having so much fun working with my Seniors and am teaching more and more classes every month!  I just have not had a chance to post much this year or tell you about our Spring projects.  This is only a small fraction of the projects we've done since half the time I  forget to take pictures of our completed projects.  I would like to share some of the fun projects and classes we have been busy with the last few months.

In February we made some great Polymer Clay heart necklaces using a few simple additional charms and silk cording.  These projects were great projects for my ladies in Assisted Living residences and we had a wonderful time making them.

Polymer Clay Heart Necklaces

 In March we made some fun Door Hangers for St Patty's Day using paper plates, tissue paper, fun foam shamrocks and pipe cleaner hangers:

We also had a lot of fun this Spring with gardening projects- not to mention making some fun plant pokes:

This project is our container garden at Autumn Leaves in Rockwall- we started all these plants by seed!

Fun Wooden Spoon Flower Plant Pokes

We had a great time planting out the large planters at Winters Park in Garland- hopefully the plants will get regular watering and will grow throughout the summer months!

In March we started working on Spring Door Hangers, Spring Wreaths and Spring Topiaries:

My Ladies at Franklin Park in North Richland Hills!

Punched Paper Flower Topiaries at Atria in Richardson

In May we celebrated Cinco de Mayo by making festive Paper Flowers  at Horizon Bay in Arlington and they turned out as pretty as the ladies that made them!

Dollar Store Embellished Canvas Bags- just in time for summer outings:

And let's not forget our Cinco de Mayo Latin Rhythm party with the Seniors at Chambrel at Club Hill!  We had a fun afternoon being silly and making music together!

The Latin Music class has been lots of fun for both my Independent Seniors and Seniors with Alzheimer's.  It is a great form of exercise and a good deal of fun.  We encourage dancing as well as playing instruments!

I guess that's it for now!  Off to teach a Latin Rhythm class tomorrow and am going to scour Pinterest for a few arts and crafts ideas for my class tomorrow afternoon!

Till next time--Have a great Memorial Day holiday and always Stay Creative and Have Fun!

Stephane

Valentine's Day Inspired Projects

I admit it, I am now officially addicted to Pinterest.  I just love trolling the site for hours at a time but my Pinterest habit has seriously eaten away at my blogging and creative pursuits this year.

But Pinterest is a great source of ideas and we have been very busy doing some great Valentine's Day and Winter themed projects inspired by some of my great finds out in the blogosphere, so I'd like to share a few of our fun crafts we have been doing so far this year.

Since it is one of my most popular projects- no matter the season- I've brought back Fabric Topiaries for Valentine's Day.  They have been a big hit with my ladies and always turn out pretty- and so unique- even though everyone starts out with the same exact supplies.  Here are a few of our creations at Franklin Park in Plano.

  

Valentine Topiaries at Franklin Park

Close up of the fabric topiary

I just love this picture of one of my ladies heading home with her masterpiece!

This project takes a good amount of prep time in advance- I estimate that each topiary- and these are very small styrofoam balls- takes at least 1/3 to 1/2 yard of material cut in 1 1/2 to 2 inch squares ( depending on how fluffy you want your topiary to be.

And it takes my classes at least an hour and a half to paint their clay pots, paint their stems and poke all their fabric into their styrofoam balls.  Then they have to que up for me to do the finishing touches.

I have never had anyone leave that was not completely happy with their project no matter the season, or their skill level so I would highly recommend this project for all ages!

Button and Scrapbook Paper Framed Hearts

This project was actually inspired by a couple of crafts that I found on Pinterest.  With a couple of tweaks, it was great for both Active Independent Seniors and my Memory Care Residents as well.  Unfortunately I did not get photos of the projects I did with my Memory Care folks- but did catch a few of my ladies at Franklin Park Canyon Creek before they could run out the door with their finished projects.  

This project is fairly inexpensive but the finished product is quite cute!  I always try to use the $1.00 frames from Michael's and love it when they have their 25% off everything coupon.  I used old book pages, pretty Valentine's day Scrapbook papers, buttons and ribbon to embellish the frames in some of my classes.  My small round hole punch came in handy- and I made a template for the large heart out of cardboard.

Here are a few shots of the finished projects:

When we did these projects with the Memory Care Residents, we just left off the background book page and the buttons, otherwise the project looks much the same and my ladies were all very pleased with the outcome!

January has been a very busy month full of fun crafts, Latin Rhythm Classes, Gardening and so much more.  Will share much more in my next post!

Until next time- Stay Creative and Have Fun!

Stephane

It's A New Day!

Late last year I became really busy with my fledgling Seniors Activity business, and did not have much time to post here on my blog, but as the song says:

It's a new dawn,

Its a new day,

Its a new life for me-

And I'm Feeling Good!

I thought this year I might take a different tact with my blog and share more than just craft tutorials and pictures of my proud students.  Since I am a rabid, er, avid Pinterest junkie, I have found loads of great ideas and sources for everything from free printables to use in our crafting efforts to really unique craft ideas to yummy vegan recipes (in honor of my newly vegan daughter) and I am adding more great ideas every day!  I've also started teaching spa indulgence classes and started playing with all kinds of wonderful spa recipes and will share those with you as well and am expanding my jewelry making classes to not only include polymer clay but shrinkable plastic, paper beads and other mediums as well.

This year, I hope to learn how to link to other people's blogs and get more involved with the blogging community at large.  The projects we do at Elder Life Engagement are not only fun for Seniors, but are also great for kids and younger adults as well, so I'd like others to benefit from the creative crafts  and projects we create. So I hope you will embark on this exciting journey with me and let me know how you like the projects and ideas I share with you in 2012!

Hope it is a great year for us all!  Have fun- and Stay Creative in 2012 along with me!

Stephane

Pinecone Turkey Centerpiece

This is one of my favorite projects from last fall so I had to bring it back for my classes this year.  The supplies needed for the Pine Cone turkeys include So far they have been a big hit with everyone who makes them or sees them!

• Medium to large size Pine cone
• Pair of Google Eyes
• Red Felt for Gobbler
• Yellow Felt for Beak
• Orange Pipe Cleaners
• Styrofoam Disk
• Brown Paint
• Foam Paint Brushes
• Moss
• Silk Flowers
• Hot Glue/ Tacky Glue

Pinecone Turkey Closeup

 Here are my ladies from Atria in Carrollton, TX.  They really had fun making their turkeys!

We've also been making some great hand warmers made from denim.  Will try to put a tutorial together for that project soon.  Since most of my students have a touch of arthritis, they are looking forward to using them this winter.

Till next time-  Have Fun and Stay Creative!

Stephane