every since my aunt introduced me to the paper flowers @handmadebysarakim makes, i knew i wanted to try making some of my own. while i was down in the area on vacation, my aunt and i took a paper protea making workshop by sara. i had lots of fun, made two cute flowers (and gave one of them to my favourite teacher for her birthday), and promptly set the supplies aside and haven’t made one since. i know, that was bad of me, but other things sparked my interest and life got busy so i kind of forgot about making flowers. then, my aunt attended a succulent workshop in the fall and texted me pictures of the succulents she had made. when i visited family during winter holidays, she showed me what she had learned from the class. she brought over supplies and suddenly we were making succulents! in the kitchen! without any preparation!

that was the game changer for me, seeing that this was something i could do quickly and on a whim. i’m trying to learn to start doing things rather than waiting for the right time to do them, aka diving into projects and just starting. that’s one of my goals for 2019, because i feel like i think too much. i also try to make things too perfect, which i really need to stop doing. one of the main things i learned this year was that being perfect ruins any uniqueness my personal mistakes could add to whatever i’m making, if that makes any sense. so i’m striving for imperfection and action in this coming year.

my aunt and i took a trip to michael’s (my second time ever! it’s amazing) and bought some supplies for future plants. we were looking for cute jars to pot the plants in, but michael’s had none and we ended up buying some mini flowerpots instead.

i got home, and i decided i needed to clean and rearrange and reorganize my room to start off the year with a new space. my dad was gifted some glass cups for the holidays and they came in a metal carrier that my dad had no idea what to use for. i took it, and behold, it was the perfect size for the flowerpots to fit into! so i finished my room, and decided the first project i would make on my new desk setup would be some paper succulents to add some greenery to my desk.

first, i needed to paint the flowerpots white. i was originally going to do white and blue but the blue paint was not opaque enough (what i get for going cheap and buying 79¢ acrylic paint). i liked the end result though, and i’m glad i also bought some mod podge. very useful stuff.

i watched sara kim’s video on youtube to refresh myself on what my aunt taught me, and then i dove in. the first succulent was a mess, and i recycled it, my second one, the light green plant, was slightly better but still not great and i was feeling kind of down about them. i surfed sara’s instagram and found some other inspiration, deciding to make the dark green succulent with white stripes. that one worked so well and i finally got the hang of them! then i went on a roll and knocked out my own cactus (pro tip: use pinking shears for the white spikes) and even made a mini flower based on the design of the previous succulents.

to pot the plants i cut out a square of old green foam i’ve had forever from a previous project a bajillion years ago, and that was the perfect base. i hot glued a wire (old jewelry wire from my stash) and then added some decorative rocks i bought at michael’s to cover the foam (best purchase ever! so useful!). my favourite part was arranging the succulent in the pot and adding the rocks because they look so professional! i would definitely make more of these again; it was a blast and i am already dreaming of ways to get creative with future shapes and designs!