Monday, November 9, 2009

A Christmas cactus for the kitchen


I worked on this last night while watching TV with hubby. A tray on my lap kept everything close and contained. I used Becky Windsor's tutorial in American Miniaturist issue #44. However, as usual, I didn't have everything on hand so was forced to improvise a little. Becky used a handheld oak leaf punch and the little leaves were just the right size. I don't have an oak leaf in that size but I do have one that's the size of a one inch scale oak leaf. So I punched my leaves with that and then took a small set of curved scissors to cut each pair of leaves down to size. I tried to cut the leaves freehand but that didn't work well for me. Having a basic shape to start with made a huge difference. My cactus leaves probably should be a bit smaller but that just wasn't gonna happen last night, lol. My flowers are made from tiny stars punched out of red tissue paper, again not how Becky did it but it worked. A few more stems would have looked nice but I got tired of cutting little leaves and it still looks pretty good. I don't think I'll be making any more of these in the near future but I do like this one. It looks good on top of Mrs. C's cabinets, too.

2 comments:

Kathi said...

I love your little Christmas cactus!
I've been wanting to make one myself but it looks so difficult... I haven't tried to make any plants yet but they do add so much to the room!

De said...

It really wasn't difficult at all, Kathi. Just a little fiddly. If you had the right kind of punches I think it would be very quick and easy. I'm getting better at plants. Mother-in-law's tongue is pretty easy and ferns aren't difficult either. I made a philodendron which was the most challenging, I think. Glueing all of the leaves to tiny stems and then glueing those together. I just couldn't breathe while doing it, lol. Just jump in and try. I think you kind of have to learn while doing. Good luck!