This brightly coloured curtain is created using a simple technique. The chequered design is achieved by a combination of masking out the basic grid and hand-painting the colours in layers. Read the rest of this entry »
Ingredients
A light and airy arrangement for a formal dining table. The multi-petalled pink ranunculus echo to perfection the shapes of the old-fashioned roses on the coffee cups. Instead of foliage, stems of delicate genista and sprays of pink-berried snowberry have been used.
This kind of design looks complicated to do but is in fact very simple if you work in the right sequence and aim for a balance of flowers and equal spacing between the larger blooms. The arrangement needs to be symmetrical and viewed from all angles if it is to be put in the center of a round table.
A container with a small stem works well and lifts the flowers off the table just enough to give an elegant feel combined with lightness. Glass is a good choice as its transparency reveals the flowers as the important part. A plain white porcelain stemmed vase would look fine too and practically disappears against a white tablecloth. Nerines are long lasting as a cut flower and are available from autumn to spring. Their pretty curled petals make delicate but sophisticated arrangements.
1 Cut foam to fit the vase level with the surface. Soak foam and push into place. Prepare flowers and cut everything quite short.
2 Completely cover foam with the genista. Spread the snowberry stems evenly throughout.
3 Add the nerines round the vase and across the top of the arrangement. Insert ranunculus between nerines, and throughout the genista.
Here pink tulips have been used in a rather unexpected way utilising their regular shapes to make a formal and organised arrangement reminiscent of a Victorian posy. Read the rest of this entry »
Using a simple sponge and some paint, it is easy to liven up a child’s bed linen. As an alternative, translate a child’s own drawings into sponge prints and let them have a go themselves.
This project is for one single-size flat bed sheet and one plain pillowcase. Read the rest of this entry »
