sharing my fresh, fun ideas

Mother’s Day is just around the corner and it is not to late to order flowers. Here is some pics of some of the arrangements and baskets that have headed out so far and also some of the flower arrangements that are just made in the shop waiting to be taken to someones deserving mother. We will be making deliveries on Saturday and Sunday to insure that your mom gets her flowers for Mother’s Day. Give us a call at 208-433-9691.

Why not surprise her with a bottle of wine or champagne with her flower arrangement. We can even add it to the arrangement and put the flowers around it. After all we are probably the reason our mothers drink.

If you are looking for something a little different this year why not get her a gift certificate to one of our cooking/design classes. We have a different class every Thursday night here at the shop. Everything from BBQ to Seafood and Succulents to Willow Wreaths and Baskets. We even have a cooking and gardening with kids class coming up. Look at our website for a complete schedule of classes coming up, http://www.craigerton.com

Our shop ours for this weekend are;

Thursday-Friday 9am to 5pm

Saturday 10 am to 3pm

Sunday 8am to 2pm

We are located on 1414 Grove St. Boise, ID 83702. Next to the Linen Building and Big City Coffee.

Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook- www.facebook.com/pages/Craig-Co/353521191328138 

www.craigerton.com 

I learned a great trick this weekend to create amazing dyed easter eggs and not having to deal with food coloring and dies that make messes all over your kitchen, your clothes, and your fingers.

All you need for this project is some old silk ties, scarfs, or shirts.
Eggs
White Vinegar
Yarn or twist ties
White Fabric- I grabbed some old pillowcases from the thrift store
Pot to boil the eggs in
Measuring Cup
Then of course water and a Stove top.

I raided my closet and found some old silk ties that i don’t wear any more and then went to the thrift store and found some more for pretty cheap and also picked up a scarf and shirt. Look for fun patterns and colors. I found that darker colors seem to work the best.  Make sure to check the label to make sure the fabric is silk and not a polyester, which can look and feel similar. When looking for silk remember it may be an ugly scarf or tie but it can make a beautiful egg. Hard part is you never know how it will look till after you try it so try to use a selection of different colors and patterns.

Usually it will tell you if it’s 100% silk right on the main label of the tie, but some don’t, and if that’s the case, check that little tiny end, it’s usually hiding there.

If you are using ties you need to deconstruct them. Snip the seams and remove the lining so you are just left with the silk.

Next you cut a piece large enough to cover an egg. Wrap the egg with the right side (the side the dye is printed on, outside of the tie) of the fabric making contact with the egg.  You want to try to wrap the fabric as tight as you can without breaking the egg. The more direct contact the silk has with the egg shell the clearer the imprint of the pattern. Where there are folds in the fabric you’ll get kind of a swirly water color effect. Use your yarn and  tie the fabric together. I used string but twisty ties work just as well.

When you tie your eggs notice where you want your pattern to be. The side of the egg opposite the knot will have the best transfer of the pattern so depending on how you want to display your eggs take this into account. You can either tie the fabric off at the top or on the side of the egg. Just make sure you wrap them as tight and as smooth as you can.

After the eggs are wrapped in silk, you’re going to wrap them again with a light colored light weight piece of fabric. This is where the pillow cases that I grabbed form the thrift store come in handy.

Put the eggs into a pot of water and add 1/4 cup of vinegar and bring it to a boil. Let the eggs boil for 20 min and then remove them. Set them on a towel to dry and once they are cool enough you can remove the fabric.

Now the fun part! Carefully unwrap your eggs to see what they look like. And display them for everyone to see how amazing they look.

Here is how these ones turned out. I included a picture of the fabric with each egg so you can see how they transfered.

Some fabrics don’t transfer as well but still leave a great design. 

The details of the paisley pattern really transfered well on this egg.

I thought the Reds in the scarf would come across great on the egg. When i unwrapped these ones they had great detail but the reds were a greenish yellow on the egg. Still look great but like i said you never know what you will get till you unwrap the egg.

Love how well this one worked.  

You can see that some colors and patterns really transfer well and create beautiful eggs. Have fun with it and remember that an ugly tie can make a beautiful egg.

Send us your pictures of how your eggs turned out. Have a great Easter! Follow us on Facebook at Craig + Co.

http://www.craigerton.com

Now that we are getting into the rainy season this makes a great project for those rainy afternoons when you just want to stay warm and dry.
We had some scraps of burlap laying around from a previous project and used them to make this great eye-catching wreath.

All you need for this project is burlap, a wreath form, hot glue gun and glue sticks, scissors, and a stapler.

I used a white styrofoam wreath form and didn’t want the back of the wreath to be a bunch of white flaky styrofoam so I cut a strip off the burlap about three inches wide and used that to wrap around the form.

Cut your burlap now into larger strips. I personally did not measure these strips, I eyeballed it because i did not want everything to be exact. Keep that rustic flair! I did try to keep it around 6 inch wide strips.

Then you can take those strips and cut them down into squares and then triangles. Again you do not have to be exact in your cutting.

Next you want to make a bunch of the “petals” for your burlap wreath. This is where your stapler will come in handy. First take one of the triangle pieces.

Give it a little fold, not quite folding it in half.

Now fold from the other side over the top, you will have a little excess on the side of your petal.

You can wrap that excess around to the back or cut it off your choice. Take your stapler and staple the petal at the base. You only need to staple it once after you do all your folds.

If you take some time and create lots of petals it makes the actual putting together of the wreath a fairly quick process. I wish I had the answer for how many petals to make but it all depends on how big your wreath is and how many you want to add to it. I made a ton of them and ended up having to make more. So just use your best judgement.

Take your petals and glue them to the wreath. Again I do a lot of eyeballing in this step. Seeing what petals look good here and there. I found I did follow a pattern for the most part with a row of 4 petals then a row of 3 but really let your creative eye take over and do what looks good to you.

A tip to remember is to stagger your petals from each row to the next. Doing this will keep you from having any holes and give you a fuller look on the wreath.

 Once you have finished gluing on all your petals take a second to look at your wreath from all diffferent angles, seeing if any holes are visible or if any more petals need to be added. Then you get to explore how to hang your wreath. You can tie a ribbon around the whole wreath and attach a bow or do like  in the picture below.

 Have fun with it and make it your own. You can make these wreaths in any size and also burlap comes in many different colors so explore what you can do with that.

 To hang the wreaths up in the shop i just rested them on a nail that was in our blue wall panels. I love the color contrast from the burlap and the wall color.

Let your creative juices flow and have fun.

Please send us your pictures of your wreaths. We would love to see how they look and how you display them.

Follow us on Facebook so we can keep you posted on all the fun things happening at Craig + Co.

Also you can follow us on Pinterest at http://pinterest.com/craigandcompany/

You might want to shout out MOTHER’S DAY, but what about St. Patrick’s Day? March 17th is just around the corner. We have some fun ideas for you to share flowers with your loved ones, friends, family, co workers, or anyone you want to send a little something to for the holiday.

Nothing says Happy St. Patricks Day like sending an arrangement in a Guinness can.

Plus it comes with the rest of the 8 pack! And we don’t have to settle for just Guinness we use Stella as well, and are always up to requests.

We have a great supply of Cut Glass wine bottles that make a great creative way to hold flowers.

One of the great things about the flowers you can find at Craig + Co. is that they will be fresh, modern and fun, like these Parrot head tulips in one of our cut glass wine bottles. The Parrot Head tulips have a large feathered bloom that closely resembles a parrots head. They come in bright reds and yellows and bi-colors with green shading. In the picture below they are still pretty tight, you will have to come into the shop to see what they look like now.

Keeping it green for St. Patricks day

Hope you enjoyed the “Green” Pics and hope to see you in the store soon!