Bent Wire Name Photo Frame



Wire name frame



A little over ten years ago, I had the fabulous opportunity to visit London, England for about a week! It was absolutely fantastic, and I am DYING to go again! One of my favorite memories was of the day we spent exploring Covent Gardens, near the “downtown” area of London, and its surrounding areas.  While I thoroughly enjoyed the shopping and sight-seeing, I LOVED observing the various entertainers and street vendors, from human statues to musicians to CRAFTERS!!!

Human "Statue" at Covent Gardens-One of the MANY amazing entertainers!

Picadilly Circus-so busy yet so fabulous!



My sister and I-typical tourists

One of the street vendors made the coolest name frames, where he used pliers to bend wire into a variety of words. He charged one pound per name, so I quickly wrote down the names of about 12 of my friends and handed over my money. The name frames were a huge hit and an amazing souvenir to own! Ten years later, I have FINALLY taken the time to try this project for myself.  I certainly did not do it at the speed of the street vendor (or even come close, for that matter), and it definitely took me a few tries before I became successful, but I was pretty proud of the end result.  I simply used needle nose pliers to twist wire into my name and made a two triangular shapes behind and below my name to hold a picture. DONE!!!



The artist himself



Blossoming Tree Centerpiece



I am all about designing on a dime, so I decided to borrow from the bounty of free items Mother Nature has to offer. Using a square vase that I have had forever, I filled it with a variety of “river rocks” (that I couldn’t find in nature, so I bought from a dollar store) and placed three of my favorite branches found outside into the vase. To make the flowers, I used five sheets of tissue paper that I folded like a fan and cut into 4” pieces (for smaller flowers). I used jewelry wire to wrap around the center of each tissue paper fan, leaving a tail of wire to be used later. Carefully pull each layer of tissue paper toward the wire in the center on one side and do the same to the opposite side. Once your flower is completed to your satisfaction, use the wire to twist around any part of the branch you would prefer. Repeat this process until your “tree” is decorated the way you want.

In case you’re as much of a visual learner as I am, here is a link showing how to make a variation of tissue paper flowers somewhat like mine. http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Tissue-Paper-Flowers