The Hydrangea Kit....Part 1

Hello everyone.  I sure have missed y'all.

Things have been a bit busy in my life between trips to Maryland and job hunting, but I promised you that I would start on the Hydrangea kit and I can't let my followers and fellow miniature fans down.

This kit is going to be in multiple steps as it is a more complicated kit.

To start with, let's look at the picture on the front of this kit.  This kit was created by Kimberly Hammer of Ambrosia.  Sure is a pretty picture on the front of the kit.  Let's see if I can make something even resembling her beautiful picture.

Here is everything that came in the kit.  There are seven stems with beads attached on the end, a lump of florist clay, a make-up sponge, two micro brushes, a beautiful white porcelain vase (I won't be using this as i bought a turned wooden vase for my arrangement), some extra wire for leaves, punched leaves and a small baggie of punched petals. 

The first step in the process is to paint the beads a dark shade of green.  As I was going to be doing a dried arrangement instead of the pretty spring flowers, I chose a slightly lighter shade (kelly green) instead of the pine green she suggested.  After you have painted all the beads, set them aside to dry.

While the beads were drying, I went ahead and started the next step.  You need to take each petal and use a ball stylus to gently cup them and soften the edges.  She suggests that you use a mousepad for this process and I should let you know that it would probably be best to use a white pad.  I wasn't thinking and used my black mousepad I use all the time.  This caused the bottom of each petal to be turned a bit dark, but as I was doing a dried flower instead of the pretty spring colors in her arrangement, I didn't mind and actually liked the shading it provided.  No mistakes....only happy accidents.

After the green painted beads have dried, your next step is to glue the petals to that bead.  She says to use a small amount of Tacky glue and then a touch of Zap-A-Gap.  Ok...I don't have that glue in my arsenal of supplies so I just used the Tacky glue and was happy with the results.  Starting at the top of the bead, you pick up a petal, touch the bottom to a puddle of Tacky and then gently place the cupped petal on the flower.  Continue in a random pattern until you have completely covered the bead.

This is what you end up.  This is one of the larger flower heads supplied in the kit.

On my next installment, I'll color the petals and finish the rest of the flower balls.

I know...much shorter than my usual blog posts, but don't look at it as being cheated, look at it as I'm stretching the post out to further enhance your reading pleasure.  HA HA!

Till later!