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NARRATOR: Creative Living-- utilizing today's technology with the best of the past to bring you innovative ideas and up-to-date information for creative lifestyles in today's active world, with your host Sheryl Borden.

Welcome to Creative Living today. We're going to learn how to create an all-white tropical centerpiece and demonstrate, using duct tape, to make rosettes, which can then be used on purses, clothing, jewelry, and even shoes. One of my guests is Casey Schwartz, and she's the floral designer and co-owner of Flower Duet in Redondo Beach, California. Casey's going to show how to use all-white flowers to create a clean, monochromatic low centerpiece. The centerpiece is good any time of the year or as a winter white arrangement. Today, she's going to use many callas and white anthurium along with white lily grass and white tea leaves. We'll begin the show today with Marisa Pawelko, and she's a crafter and designer from Winfield, Illinois. Marisa will show how to make duck tape rosettes using nonstick cutting tools and rolls and sheets of duct tape. These rosettes can be made in different sizes using a variety of colors and patterns, and they're great for embellishing. She has a special layering technique for creating outlined effects with duct tape sheets. Her business is Modern Surrealist. Marisa, thank you so much for being here. And I have to say, every time I see you whether it's on television somewhere or at your craft shows, you always have all this pretty, colorful stuff on. And you design these things and make them. How did you start doing this?

I do all kinds of bright and colorful easy projects and accessorize you according to your style. So one of the things I've been really into lately has been duct tape crafts.

SHERYL BORDEN: Who would have ever thought to make duct tape with crafts, other than to tape the back side of something so it wouldn't come loose because it really sticks well.

MARISA PAWELKO: It sticks, and it's so sticky. It usually is kind of hard to work with. But not any more.

Because it ruins scissors. It can just stick to them, and then you finally end up throwing those scissors away. But now we can solve that problem can't we?

MARISA PAWELKO: These are Wescott brand scissors. And these are the titanium-bonded nonstick scissors. So they're great for cutting sticky stuff. They never get stuck. You can cut sticky-back Velcro, duct tape, tape, you name it-- trimming sticky edges and stuff. And so they never get sticky, they never get gummed up, you never have to clean them, and you never even have to sharpen them.

Oh that's great. Last a lifetime. And then we were talking about how we have to have lots of pairs of scissors because some of us can't keep up with things. So you came up with such a clever idea. It's called a holster-- scissor holster.

MARISA PAWELKO: Yeah. Well, I'm so in love with these scissors, and I would never want to lose them. And my craft room gets so messy if I put something down. I could never find it again amidst the piles of colorful boa and tape and all kinds of stuff.

I can imagine.

So this way, you can keep your scissors handy on your hip at all times, accessible and safe.

Oh, you have them on a little belt.

And I even made this belt out of duct tape using my nonstick scissors.

SHERYL BORDEN: Of course, you'd have to do that. And then a smaller size of holster for the little bitty scissors.

Yeah. So I'm prepared for anything.

And this is kind of how they come packaged, so we know what to look for. And I love your little picture and your name down on the bottom. That's kind of special.

Thank you. Yeah. Custom-designed by me for you, and you can choose one.

They're all wild.

Yeah. Well, they're all wild. Yeah.

[LAUGHTER]

All different wild. I guess the brown one might be the most--

It's the calmest.

--calm one, yeah, earth tones.

Well, what we're going to show today, using the scissors because they don't stick on things like duct tape, are little rosettes.

Yeah. It's so easy to make these rosettes out of duct tape, and you can use them to embellish all kinds of things.

We'll look at your hair bow in a minute, but this is also another hair bow. And then you use these on little pouches.

Yep. You can use them to embellish your accessories--

And this is all duct tape? I've never seen all these patterns.

Yeah. They come in all kinds of great patterns, and so there's so much you can do. And it's so easy. It's really fun for kids.

Oh, look. Here, you did one of the stripes here, and then it sort of makes that rosette really pop.

Yeah. You're not going to believe how easy this is do.

How cute. It looks like a little skirt.

Yeah. I went for kind of a 50s kind of bad girl look on that.

Put your change in it or coupons, whatever you have. Let's look at your hair bow too, because that was what I mentioned earlier. Any size-- you can make these for little kids. You can make them for grownups.

Yeah, and you can layer different patterns and I also made this--

A bracelet. And that's what we're going to show today, too, is making a bracelet.

Yeah, it's kind of like a little corsage. You could do a belt, necklace.

Oh, and speaking of necklaces, you made me this one because you know I love black and silver so much.

Yeah.

And these are just rosettes, but they're double so that you can change the color of the gem, like if I wanted to wear all turquoise, I might want to turn them all. Yeah. I wanted to give you options. I knew you like silver and black and white, so--

Well, thank you. I love it. OK. These are a couple of the little bracelets. I thought of my granddaughter when I saw this one with the little cupcakes.

Would she love that?

That's darling. But any age of us can wear these cute little bracelets.

Yeah. And from a distance, you don't even know, you know, that it's so easy to do. Yeah. Just duct taping it's so easy. Kids love it, and grownups love it. It's great for all ages.

And a great way to use up leftover crafts because, you know, we'll have one button, or we'll have one little six inch piece of a boa, ribbon, or whatever. So what do we do? How do we start?

OK. Well we're going to do a bracelet for your granddaughter, so why don't you pick your base-- we'll just do a simple band, so maybe you want to pick something--

Well, I already know I want the little kitty because she loves that.

OK. Perfect. So I'm assuming she's--

So this is just like those rolls of black duct tape, but they're patterns.

Yeah. It's so fun. It's become so fun to just coordinate and contrast.

And we can look in craft stores and sewing stores, that type of thing to find these.

You can get these at craft stores, and they're really taking off with the teens, tweens--

Well, and now that we can actually cut it. And adults.

Yeah. Like me. I'm an adult, but I love it.

[LAUGHTER]

So to make the basic band, all you're going to do is take a piece of duct tape--

Now, do we measure the wrist, or do we do all of that?

Yeah. I'm assuming her wrist is kind of small. But first you just take-- err on the longer side because always cut away. And then you're just going to fold it over on one side.

It's just like sewing, but you don't even have to iron or stitch or do anything.

It's like sewing when you don't want to take all that time.

[CHUCKLES] I don't have a lot of free time,

so I like my crafts to be quick and easy. So let's see, her wrist, would you say, is it about--

That looks, uh-huh.

About, yea? OK.

Which she could grow into it, too.

So I'll just cut off the little edges. So easy.

That's amazing.

Doesn't stick. They're nonstick. It's so easy to do this craft with these scissors. So then you're going to also have a piece of Velcro.

Oh, OK. Oh, and it cuts through that sticky Velcro, too, doesn't it?

Mm-hmm.

Uh-huh. And that's just going to go-- it's not going to be the whole thing, it's just the closure.

Yeah, it's just going to be a little piece for the closure. Oh, and this is a little big, so I'm going to have to trim this.

Welp, that's no problem.

It's no problem because when you have these nonstick scissors, it doesn't even stick to the scissors, but, see, it sticks to your finger.

Mm-hmm.

And you put that on one side, and we will trim and put it on the other side.

Right. So when you lap it over--

I've done it wrong many times before, but--

But you can just peel it off. You don't have to take out stitches.

You can do it. Yeah, it's not like getting out your seam ripper.

[LAUGHS] So they're great for making easy gifts, like when

you don't have a lot of time. You just keep these basic supplies on hand, your nonstick scissors. You're ready to go.

OK.

And it's thrifty. So then you want to pick the pattern or a color for your rosette.

I wanted to use the pink.

Oh perfect. I like where you're going with this. Very nice. So all we're going to do is take another long strip--

oh, like about a foot long.

And this comes with this-- you've made so many, you kind of know how to gauge how long.

Yeah.

Would you say at least double the length of whatever you're working on?

Yeah, if you're pleating, I would say that. You can also use this great mat for measuring.

Oh. Uh-huh. And it doesn't stick, either.

Yeah. And it's great place to kind of park if you have to stop, answer the phone, and then you come back, get it again. It won't be like stuck to your cat or something when you come back.

[LAUGHS] So then, all you're going to do

is fold part of the way.

Just like we did. Just fold it up one side.

Yeah, on this time, you just fold it partially on one side. And then I'm going to just trim my edge, so easy. And so this is how you do the folding for the rosette.

It's a pleating.

It's kind of like a pleating. Before, we did pleating like that, and now we're just going to pleat at an angle like-- pleat, pleat.

SHERYL BORDEN: Oh, because we're making a round rosette.

MARISA PAWELKO: Yeah. We're just making a round rosette. And then you can use these for all kinds of stuff.

SHERYL BORDEN: And that part that you didn't cover up, that's what you're using to stick down.

Yeah. But I'll also reinforce it a little, because I like my stuff to really last. And after you touch it a lot with your hands, it loses a little bit.

Sticky.

Yeah. But that's OK, because then I'm going to show you my other favorite thing to use when I craft, which is a hot glue gun.

SHERYL BORDEN: Who can live without those?

MARISA PAWELKO: Yeah. With these nonstick scissors and these materials I'm using here today, I could stay entertained for the rest of my life.

And you know what? They're so inexpensive, too. And that's another thing you look for in crafts-- things that are affordable to make.

And you would never know it when you look at the finished item how affordable these really are. So then, when I get to the very end, I'm going to just trim it, and then I like to kind of fold it over a little bit.

SHERYL BORDEN: Finished edges. I like that, too. Mm-hmm.

MARISA PAWELKO: I'm like that. I have to have it that way. So then I'm going to put that aside for now. And I'm going to take the duct tape sheets, and I'm going to cut a little piece off here and cut a circle. And you'll see.

SHERYL BORDEN: Now, if we happen to not have the sheets, could we use the other?

MARISA PAWELKO: Yeah, you could just use a piece of the rolls.

SHERYL BORDEN: OK.

MARISA PAWELKO: But sometimes it's easier to cut circles.

SHERYL BORDEN: This is easier because it's got the backing.

Yeah.

[LAUGHTER]

It's not stuck to you.

With circles, I like to use the sheets. But you can cut shapes out of the rolls with these nonstick scissors. It does work. So then what I'm going to do is open up the bracelet.

SHERYL BORDEN: Oh, you're making a foundation for it, aren't you?

Yeah. I like everything to be really indestructible. I don't like my crafts to fall apart when people are using them. So then you just put that underneath.

SHERYL BORDEN: Oh, you put it on the bottom.

MARISA PAWELKO: Yeah.

SHERYL BORDEN: OK. I see.

And then you're going to take this and put it on there.

SHERYL BORDEN: Got it.

MARISA PAWELKO: And so it really does stick very well.

SHERYL BORDEN: And it makes it smooth on the back of your wrist as you're wearing it.

Exactly.

That's nice.

And so it doesn't stick to you. It covers any adhesive that might be left showing. And sometimes I take a little bit of hot glue just to really--

SHERYL BORDEN: --sort of reinforce it.

MARISA PAWELKO: Yeah. On the areas where there's not sticky to sticky, I like to just do that, so it really is indestructible.

SHERYL BORDEN: Which is mostly on the edges, the sides, I guess you'd say.

And I also use this to embellish because you got to put something right in the middle. Like this a simple one, but you could even triple these up, going bigger, bigger, bigger. Yeah, you could-- layering.

Uh-huh.

How about-- is that too crazy?

Well, nothing's too crazy in my opinion. Well, that looks great.

I like that.

I think you're probably the first to put Hello Kitty and zebra together like that.

[LAUGHS]

Well, we wanted an original.

Oh, Yeah. All about the original. And then you're just going to put that in.

SHERYL BORDEN: And you're just going to hold it in place for a second or two like we did.

MARISA PAWELKO: Mm-hmm.

SHERYL BORDEN: OK.

And that's it.

That's it. And it's finished?

Yeah, it's setting up a little bit.

SHERYL BORDEN: Uh-huh. And then we could wipe off the excess glue.

MARISA PAWELKO: Yeah. You could wipe that off. I didn't want to get burned on there

SHERYL BORDEN: Look, it's so pretty. I may not give it to her after all.

Did you change her mind? Is it for you now? OK, well we won't tell her.

Thank you, Marisa. I just love to find out new ways to do things and to use new products. These scissors are going to be great. Thank you.

Thank you.

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Casey, thank you so much for being here. I always enjoy when you come because, first of all, I learn to not be so afraid of making arrangements with flowers, and also to know what the names of some of the different ones are. I have always known if I liked them or not. But what are we going to do today?

We're going to work with some tropicals. And we're going to make a nice, low, one-sided arrangement. And some of our elements are actually available year-round. And it might be kind of surprising, you can pick up some of them in the grocery store. But we're going to use these wonderful leaves to hide our little architecture under water here. And these are called aspidistra. And they're wonderful because they bend really easily. So we can use them in an arrangement on their own, like we have here.

And this is the arrangement that you're going to create, isn't it?

This is exactly what we're going make.

It's low enough for like a dining table. You could talk over it.

Sure.

Or you could put it on a buffet table because it's a one-sided, isn't it?

CASEY SCHWARTZ: Right. Or even on the mantle.

SHERYL BORDEN: A mantle.

CASEY SCHWARTZ: So it would be nice there, too. And it's relatively narrow, so it wouldn't be too bulky to put there. So we're going to use these to wrap around our foam in a moment. But we're also-- some of our other elements we're going to use this, this called and anthurium.

Those are beautiful

I think the first time we saw these we thought they were plastic, and we just couldn't get over it, but they're actually real. And they're nice and long-lasting. So that's the great thing about tropicals, they'll do that. And there's no thorns and nothing to clean.

You don't have to spend time doing that.

Right. And then we're going to use some mini calla lilies. And often, you'll see these growing in the garden quite large. But these are really popular for wedding bouquets. But they have a lovely arc on them naturally, so we're going to work with these a little bit. Yeah. So we're going to go with nature on these and show off their curves. And then our last element is the dendrobium orchid.

Are those beautiful?

They are just so much fun and also long-lasting. And this is how you want to buy them. When you have a few blooms that are already underway, and then you have lots more blooms to go.

SHERYL BORDEN: That will open.

CASEY SCHWARTZ: That will open. You want to stay away from any of the blooms that might be yellow or brown because then, they're not going to open. So it's nice to have the green ones. But we're not going to keep them completely intact. We're going to break these down into little sections and then use them fully to fill out our arrangement.

Oh. I can't wait to see how you do that. I love those.

Great. All right. Well, the first thing we're going to do is go ahead and get our foam into our container. And you really don't want to ever see your floral foam when you've got it in a glass container or at all. So that's the first rule of business. So we need to hide that. And what we're going to do is we're going to wrap it, sort of like a present, in our aspidistra leaves.

And you've already soaked this, is that right?

CASEY SCHWARTZ: I have soaked it, yes. Good point. We've soaked that already. And what we need to do when soaking is make sure that the whole brick is soaked all at once. And that way, when you sticking your stems in it, it's going to be able to have the water pulled from there.

And it makes the arrangement stay beautiful much longer.

It stays exactly where you stick it. So, yes, it's very handy. And to prep our aspidistra leaves, we're just going to cut off the heavier part of the stem here, because we don't really need that. And we may only need two to wrap. So we're going to take these two. Now, as I said, they bend really easily. So we're just going to sort of wrap the foam around with these. How I do it is I just lay it down, put the foam on top, and I'm going to put this one here. And I'm going to take the blunt end--

SHERYL BORDEN: Opposite ends.

CASEY SCHWARTZ: Yes. And hold that one like that, and this one like this, and that one like that. And then tuck this one in, tuck this one around. And it may not cover all of it initially, but we'll get it up in there, and I'll pop it in there, if you'd be so kind. Like that. Get all of the little sides in.

SHERYL BORDEN: I remember when you used-- I think you use tea leaves some times, don't you?

CASEY SCHWARTZ: Yes, we did. There we go.

SHERYL BORDEN: It's just amazing how much more beautiful it is.

I know. So we're done. So it's a very, very simple. Now, the next thing we're going to do is we're going to turn it around and actually add to it as we build it. Since it is one-sided, and I think this might be the better front side. It's good to be able to see where we're going to be doing our placing. So we're going to place first our three anthurium. And we're going to place them three in a row, sort of like we have here. And we're going to have them coming out the sides. And, again, very easy, because we don't have to do any cleaning on the stems.

SHERYL BORDEN: So you're kind of gauging where to cut them now, by putting all three together?

Yes, and you just sort of laid it in front and think, hmm, that seems far enough out. Because we don't want to go too wide. The wider you go, the more flowers you need.

Oh.

The closer down, the tighter you go, the less flowers you need. So we're going to go with that. So I'm going to take this first one, just going to give it a trim.

And you cut at and angle.

Cut at angle. I do that because a pointy end goes in easier than a blunt end. And then we just slit it right in there.

SHERYL BORDEN: And so we have this anthurium facing us.

CASEY SCHWARTZ: Facing us.

SHERYL BORDEN: So this is the front.

CASEY SCHWARTZ: Front inside it. So we're going to place these, and then we're going to turn it around and show how it looks. And this one's going to go on top, right there.

SHERYL BORDEN: Those do look so unreal. They're so perfect.

And then the last, one we're going to just tuck right in front there. So there's our first three. Slide that around.

SHERYL BORDEN: This is our front. OK.

CASEY SCHWARTZ: Then we're going to place our calla lilies. And our calla lilies are going to come out the other side. We want them to stand out this way. So we want to take a look at them and see who's going to go where. So I think our longest one maybe should go out the furthest. So we're going to sort of stack those like that. So that gives us an idea already for where we're going to cut. Now, calla lily stems are very delicate, so we almost need to pre-poke the holes for them.

SHERYL BORDEN: Oh, unlike these.

Right. Unlike those. So best tool to use, the stem that you just used for the anthurium. So what I'll do, is we'll just poke right in, one, two, three. So it's sort of paint by number.

That way you don't damage the stem of the lily.

Right. And then we're going to slide that right in. And we're going to start with this one, going with the arch. And I'll put this one in, and I'm just going to slide it in where the stem goes in, so that way, it doesn't break. And then I'm going to give you this one to place. And we'll go a little bit-- just slide that one right in there, too, right on top. Great. And then if you'd like to do the last one, I'll make that one a little shorter. There we go. And just slide that one right in, too.

SHERYL BORDEN: You've almost made a florist out of me.

CASEY SCHWARTZ: There you go. All right. Very sweet. Just put that in here. So now we have those. So we have a little pattern going on here. And also when you're designing, odd numbers seems to work best. So we have the three here.

Decorating and mm-hmm. It's the same. Yeah. Throw pillows, that sort of thing. So we want to keep that going there. Now, we still have a lot of space to cover and we want to add a little bit more fun to the back. So we're going to take our aspidistra leaves and see which ones we like.

Oh, this is why it's so good that they bend then.

Yes. Because we're going to use something that everybody usually has at the office or at the house. We're going to us a stapler, which seems a little unusual. But we just simply fold the leaves back, anchor it to here, grab our stapler, and we just anchor it like that. Ta da. Very simple. Do you want to give it a try?

Sure. I think I can handle this.

All right.

[LAUGHS] Mm-hmm.

And just where it's sill soft. Yep. Great. There you go. You've got it. And we're going to do one more.

Oh, I love that big yellow--

Yes and. This--

--pattern in that one.

--is called variegated. And it comes in the two colors. It also, the aspidistra and the leaves come with this, and they also come solid green. All right. So this we can probably place facing out this way. And we're going to do two on one side and one on the other, sticking what with the odds. So I'll take maybe my biggest one will go by itself behind the calla lilies because they're smaller, exactly. So I'm going to give you that one. And these, two since they're so big, I'm going to put them behind, and we're just going to place them like that.

SHERYL BORDEN: Now, you did get cut off some of it.

I did cut off some of the stem. So floral foam is really forgiving. It doesn't take that much. I'm going to turn it that way. Yep. Just slide it down. Yeah. I think will do a little bit more of an angle just like that to kind of mimic what we've got going on here. Perfect.

SHERYL BORDEN: How pretty.

CASEY SCHWARTZ: So now, fill in the blank. Fill in what we need to do. So we're going to take our orchids. And as I said, they come beautiful. And, actually, I think we did a bud vase before where we just took 10 of these and put them in bud vases. And they were perfect and good to go. But we're going to do a little bit more manipulating today. So I'm going to take them in sets of two off the stem. So I'm going to come up here and take that one I'm going to leave intact, and that's the single one, and that one, and that one. So now I have all these pieces. And, basically, we just fill in. Stems close up in about 10 seconds.

SHERYL BORDEN: So you do have to work fast, don't you?

CASEY SCHWARTZ: So you want to get your flowers in once-- yes, once you've cut them. And then these ones we're going to put in throughout to just extend it. And since they're so thin, they are able to extend out without being really intrusive.

So do you want to prep that one?

You said have about two on it.

Two per a little package, we'll call it. And then leave your spear to go in separately. And then just go ahead and place-- yep. That'd be fine, or nice and low coming out the side or out the back.

Nice. And then these little guys, just fill in all over wherever the foam is.

Quickly.

Mm-hmm.

Great. Mm-hmm. That's all right. Then you have another one there. And I'm going to put this one coming out this side, tie it all in.

And you teach classes, so you actually teach people how to do these beautiful arrangements.

Yes. It's really fun. We just taught a great succulent celosia class last week. It was just beautiful, very vibrant. So it's always amazing how many techniques one can cover. But it's also amazing-- you have this one technique, and you have a group of people, and everyone's got the same set of flowers, and everyone's comes out slightly different.

Oh, I bet.

And there we go.

That is beautiful.

And that didn't take us any time at all.

No. It was very easy to do. Once you kind of know the threes, and then using these really do add a different depth to it, I think.

I think so, too. It looks beautiful.

Well, as usual, I'm just always amazed at what you can do. Thank you so much for showing us how.

You're welcome.

I hope you enjoyed the show today. Next time on Creative Living, we'll learn how to stage a home for selling. We'll review some basic techniques for cakes and cupcakes, and then we'll talk about decorating on a budget. Did you know that a house will sell 80% faster if it's been staged? One of my next guests is an interior designer, and she's going to share lots of ideas for expanded staging of a house. Another guest is going to show how to do a variety of techniques that make decorating cupcakes, cookies, and other delicacies even easier. This includes filling a cupcake, using a spatula to apply the icing on a cupcake, and how to make easy swirl designs. And finally, we'll learn how to arrange any room in the house in just five easy steps with an easy-to-use online room planner. All of these topics will be featured on the next Creating Living show. If you ever have comments or suggestions or ideas for shows, you can email me at sheryl.borden@enmu.edu.

And I'd also like to ask you to become a fan of Creative Living on Facebook. Just go to Facebook. com, and in the search window type in "create a living with Sheryl Borden." Thanks so much. And I hope you'll plan to join me next time for Creative Living

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