Felt Petal Spring Wreath

    I have always loved seasonal decorating. However, as my life has changed (read: gotten crazier) and my home has gotten smaller (no room for giant Rubbermaids for each holiday) I've adjusted my style. Now, I am just as likely to gather up things from around the house and only add a very limited amount of actual "holiday" things. I also don't really do traditional colors if I can at all help it (read: red and turquoise for Christmas) and that is especially true for Easter. Pale, muted pastels are the opposite of my preferred palette, and they always remind me of baby showers. Not my thing!

     I have realized, though, that drawing in colors I already have around my home gives me many more options for creating cohesive, yet still celebratory, vignettes. So, when I turned my thoughts towards decorating for Easter & spring, I hit upon two things: the adorable tissue paper tassel garland my sweet friend sent me for my birthday, and the color turquoise. Turquoise is present in my home year-round, and I love it. After using it so successfully in my Christmas decor, I do believe it has also earned a spot as part of the two-color theme for spring!

    The other dominant color in the banner is purple, and those two clearly look great together. I decided for this wreath I wanted a sort-of ombre, and while it was a little tricky to find three shades of turquoise/aqua that I was happy with, I believe it all came together in the end. The blues are really subtle, but you can just tell that there are three distinct ones in person.

  So, on to supplies. I used a 12 inch extruded foam wreath, and what amounted to one piece each of seven different colors: 3 purples, 3 blues, and white. I needed less than 1/4 of a piece of extra purple, but that was due to a cutting mistake, so you should be fine with one of each. Not pictured: hot glue. You could use floral pins, too.

 I didn't photograph this part, but I cut a template from cardstock of a "petal" shape. It was 1 and 1/4 inches wide at the bottom and about 2 and 1/2 inches long. I gently rounded the top of the shape. I then cut as many petals out of each piece of felt as I could. It ended up being about 25 pieces per color. I then glued five pieces around the wreath, and then alternated the next row of five to cover the spaces between the first row. I will admit-this wasn't the quickest of tasks in my mind, but I am painfully impatient. I also didn't initially cut out enough pieces, so I had to keep stopping to do that during the gluing process. Learn from my mistake: cut out more pieces than you think you will need!

    I was pleased with how it turned out. I combined it (merely for your viewing pleasure because normally my microwave sits on top of that adorable blue dresser that I stole from my mom). You can see the sweet banner from my friend on the front. Love! I put a jar of Peeps bunnies (literally I shoved them in and stuck the lid on), and some Dove coconut eggs (yay for being the right color!)in my olive dish, on top. I "artfully" arranged some purple paper basket filler on top of a white cakestand, threw some white eggs on it (they were plastic "decorating" eggs-12 for about $2 at Walmart) and because I'm lazy restrained, I left them plain. I actually love how they look on the purple grass. I also framed a simple little print I put together.

Right click to save. Then print from saved location.

    I wanted to share it with you, because isn't this verse just the very essence of Easter? Jesus' death gave us peace, and we can take heart, because through His resurrection He overcame the world. Not a future "will" but a present "have". I used Picasa to print it as a 4x6 because that is the size frame I had available!

  I played around with the way it looked, but just being honest, in the end it looks like this:

 I will spare you a picture of my microwave intervening between the cute dresser and the wreath. But, that's real life, right? The nice part about this wreath is that I won't have any compunction about leaving it up until June, which is great since lately I seem to be accomplishing things at a snail's pace! Yay for decorations that work with my procrastinating tendencies! 

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"Raindrops and Sprinkles" Baby Shower

It has been a while since I posted a baby shower, the last one was the "Purple Butterfly Shower" back in May. I did a bachelorette party and a wedding in July, but since then it has been pretty quiet on the party front. It was nice to get back into the swing of things with a super cute "sprinkle" (another name for a smaller shower for second or later child).

My sweet friend, Denise, was the guest of honor-she just had her fourth! It was an honor to get to plan another shower for her-especially since she is really the one who ignited all the party planning/decorating craziness! Sarah and I did our first "real" shower together for her: the "tiny" baby shower! Honestly, even though that was three years ago, I still love that theme.

We considered this a "sprinkle" instead of a real "shower" because we didn't plan any games and it was really last minute-we pulled it off in about a week. I really believe sometimes that Sarah and I have connected minds, though, because it came together seamlessly. We decided that we would play on the rain/shower pun, and our theme was born. Sarah chose the turquoise and yellow color scheme, and I deemed that gray was a necessity. It was a great way to welcome a sweet, new baby boy!

I did these mason jar drinks for the "Hungry Caterpillar" Shower but since that was in a different state, I decided I could get away with it again. The cupcake liners were from Target, and I purchased the chevron straws at Hobby Lobby. The yellow bucket is Walmart, the turquoise one from Target. I purchased a cloud shaped punch from Amazon (my big splurge for this shower) and simply used an X-acto knife to put a slit in each punch and slid it over the straw. I used yellow washi tape (Target) to attach the straws. Note to self: attach the straws *before* putting in the cold liquid next time! It stuck okay, but it would have adhered better on the glass before it was cold. I filled them with lemonade, and stacked them on ice in the bucket.

The favors were lemon "drops" and I used Avery labels printed with "Thanks for "dropping" by Denise's "shower"! I used scrapbook paper (Hobby Lobby) and stapled it over cellophane candy bags (also HL) and added a cloud punch with a glue dot. I loved the dotted paper with the chevron contrast!

Sarah crafted this adorable topiary. She used felt circles pushed into a styrofoam ball. Then she attached felt "raindrops" on string. We found out through Pinterest that it is easy to make a raindrop by folding a heart shape in half.

I know I always say this, but truly, I loved the Scripture for this shower. It was definitely inspired by the Lord:

 "God's voice thunder in marvelous ways;
He does great things beyond our understand,
He says to the snow, "Fall on the earth" and to the rain shower,
"Be a mighty downpour"
So that everyone He has made may know His work."
Job 37:5-7a (NIV)

I really felt it was so fitting-and especially to just pray that this new little life will be a "mighty downpour" in the name of the Lord. I had so much fun putting it together, too! I positioned all my text to the left to leave plenty of embellishing room on the right for ribbon, clouds and raindrops. I found my fun fonts on Dafont (I used "Champagne & Limousines"  and "Joy Like Sunshine Through My Window"-love all the fun, free fonts, and they are so easy to download.) and typed it up in Word. I slipped it into a spray painted frame from the Dollar Tree. The guest of honor took it home as part of my gift!

I couldn't resist buying some mums at Walmart (only $1 each!) to add some live flowers. I put them in a Longaberger Oval Spring basket and finished it with some ribbon (HL, Dollar Tree and Walmart).

Another one of my favorite touches: I hand stitched the two cloud pillows. It was my first time trying a blanket stitch and I am in love! I actually really like hand stitching-I find it to be relaxing! I put together a little tutorial on the clouds that I will try to get up soon. Sarah did the open frame with the clouds and raindrops-felt shapes on baker's twine, it was so cute! She also put the monogram in the frame-it is a scrapbook sticker letter on scrapbook paper in a Michael's frame (a *steal* for $0.50!). It is easy but such a cute personal touch!

We finished the mantel decorations (my friend Christy, who also hosted the "Vintage Pink" shower, has such a lovely fireplace!) with a pennant banner (handmade by Sarah). She also added the yellow watering can-a nice touch opposite the flowers and a great pop of color!

I hung balloon "clouds" from the ceiling interspersed with giant heart "raindrops" over the guest of honor's seat. Another note to self: remember to put marbles in the balloons the next time you are hanging them from the ceiling!

I wrapped my gift in white paper from the Dollar Tree and added scrapbook paper embellishments. The giant cloud at the top ended up looking a little like a car, but oh well. I love wrapping my gifts to coordinate. It is like a decoration that the honoree gets to open!

I made a little wreath for the front door- I wrapped a styrofoam wreath form in ribbon and added the clouds. I loved the dangling raindrops! The "bow: is just knotted ribbon-so quick!

I also made the cloud chandelier (or mobile if you prefer). It was probably my favorite thing next to the Scripture. It is a little hard to see in the photo, but it was a great focal point over the food! I used this fantastic tutorial and templates from HGTV. I usually hate video tutorials, but this one is short and easy to follow. I added the raindrops (more heart punches, although I cut these in half to make them hang straighter and sandwiched the fishing line in between) for a little color. I joked with Joel that I probably use more of his fishing line than he does!

Christy made the cupcakes again-she is the baker/caterer to our decorating skills! (See more of her work here and here and here!) I used my tried and true technique of sandwiching a toothpick between two paper punches. It is a little hard to see, but I added a tiny raindrop to each cloud!

I also made a "runner" of of white wrapping paper, that I tried to cut to look like clouds on the end. It is a little hard to appreciate in the photo, but the thought was good.

The shower was a huge success-we had almost 20 women, which is excellent considering we gave them less than a week's notice. I love to do baby showers probably most of all, just because there is nothing sweeter to celebrate than the miracle of a new baby. This was also a completely adorable theme to work with-if I had more time I had a bunch more ideas on my "Bump Bash"  Pinterest board! I had to laugh because Denise actually said she stayed off Pinterest so she wouldn't ruin the surprise. It *is* pretty easy to tell what I'm working on by what I'm pinning so if you're interested in my next project follow me on Pinterest!:)

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Ombre+Fall=Love

If you aren't aware with my obsession for making garlands for my fireplace, please see here, here and here. If you are, read on. :)

I made this initial for my door, and realized I was absolutely in love with gray, yellow and black as fall colors. I do also love the traditional orange, reds and browns, too, but I was just ready for a change. Currently the trend right now is yellow and gray, and ombre everywhere! I decided that, since I usually follow all the trends anyway, to jump on that bandwagon!

This is such a great, simple project. From start to finish it took me about an hour. First I enlarged the leaf template I found here, to about 150%. Then I printed it off (I changed my print preview view to just the leaves, and chose to not print the turkey on the bottom of the page). When you are working with felt, you don't want details that are too intricate. I thought the larger maple leaf worked perfectly!

I did not end up using all the felt I bought. If you work carefully, you can use just one sheet of each color! I used two, just to be safe.

-heather gray felt, Hobby Lobby
-light gray felt, Hobby Lobby
-black felt, Hobby Lobby
-"goldenrod", from Michael's
-gold, from Michael's
-gray grosgrain from the Dollar Store (did  you know that gray ribbon is kind of hard to find?)

I toyed with the idea of using the exacto knife. I changed my mind-it was easier to do with scissors! I also opted against using the cream felt, I had enough pieces without it. However, I only figured that out *after* I cut out the cream leaves. Anyone need four cream felt leaves?

Cut out your pile of leaves. If you do not have fabric scissors (I love my Fiskars) I implore you: buy some now! Cutting felt is an absolutely dreadful task without nice, sharp scissors.  I cut out four leaves of each color. This is the most time consuming part, but once it is done, your garland practically puts itself together!

To make the slits to put the ribbon through, fold down the top part of your leaf. This doesn't have to be terribly precise, I did them in sets of two (if you have sharp scissors, you can cut your leaves out two at a time to make the process faster, too) and just eyeballed it.

 

See, how the leaf isn't folded quite in half? I then cut two slits, about an inch long and an inch and half apart. Each leaf needs two to thread the ribbon through.

 

I liked the way that it looked having the ribbon just peek through, so I threaded mine starting from the underside. I didn't secure the leaves in any way, they move freely on the ribbon. I overlapped them quite a bit, I preferred the way they looked like that.

 

I debated about putting them in pattern order, and decided instead to do them ombre style. I know it isn't a true ombre (my understanding is that is just one color gradient) and technically my brighter gold leaves should have come first, but I craft on the fly and I was just happy as a clam with the way it turned out. I love that it says fall without being blatant, and love, love, that it incorporates the gray and yellow combo that I am clearly obsessed with! 

 

I apologize for the bad photos, my living room does not have an overhead light on the fireplace side, and it was late. But you are welcome to come over and see how cute it is in person!;)

 

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A Little St. Patty's Pretty

 I tried going simple with my Valentine's decorations, and that made me really happy. Still, I love to give a little nod to even the "not-so-important" holidays. My decor for March is St. Patty's, and it is even sparser than my V-Day stuff, but I still wanted to whip up a little wreath.

I had been wanting to try one of the yarn wrapped wreaths that I had seen in a multitude of places (my friend, Sarah, had made one, too.). I decided spur of the moment to do it one night. I was pleased to find that I have become crafty enough that I didn't even need to purchase anything! I had a styrofoam wreath (I don't recommend the kind I used, an extruded foam wreath like this one, would be much neater. That kind doesn't shed like my Goodwill find, however Hobby Lobby wasn't open at 9pm on Saturday when I decided to make this!) yarn, my trusty floral pins, and some felt, buttons and ribbons all on hand!

I started by wrapping yarn around my floral pin and shoving it in the wreath, at an angle so it wouldn't come through the front of the wreath. I left the end attached to the skein of yarn initially but later realized it was too much of a pain to try to move that whole thing around the wreath. I ended up pulling out a big wad and working in sections.

One thing I decided to do was wrap a shorter amount of yarn in sections around the wreath. Because of the type of styrofoam I was working with, I couldn't slide the yarn to fill gaps. Having those pieces that weren't part of the later strands gave me something that I could move a little.

I didn't worry about how the back looked. I concentrated on the front, so the back definitely had gaps. That is something else that I am sure would not have happened on extruded foam, it would have been easy to slide the yarn, since the surface is smooth. However, it didn't affect the final product. When I would reach the end of a piece of yarn , I would wrap it around another floral pin and shove it in.

It only took me about an hour to wrap the whole thing, My wreath was about 12 inches, and I wasn't aiming for perfection. I am sure if you were more precise, or had a larger wreath, it would take longer.

My plain brown wreath needed a little "something" to make it feel St. Patty's and actually, these clovers, from Pinterest, inspired the whole thing. The blogger made barrettes with her clovers, but I spruced mine up by sewing a button in the middle and attaching them to my wreath (with floral pins, of course).

I turned a little ribbon into a bow, and added it. I decided to leave it at that! This is another wreath, like my burlap one, that will easily transition to a different season. Because I didn't hot glue anything it will be a snap to remove the clovers and replace them with other seasonal accents. But for now, I am really liking the bit o' green it is bringing to my front door!

Burlap and Felt Fall Wreath

Our moms' group at church has a delightful sharing time we call "Mom Moments" where a different woman shares about something she has a passion or talent for. This last week, one of my friends shared about wreath making. She inspired me to whip up this super speedy fall one!





This is not much of a tutorial, just because this was so easy to make, but if you want to try your hand at it you will need:

Wreath form- I used straw because I had picked one up at Goodwill for $1. I left it plastic wrapped to cut down on the mess!

4 "sheets" of felt in whatever colors you want ($0.20 each at Michael's)

1/4 yd. of burlap, and believe it or not, I did not even use all of that! (Walmart, I think it was $1.50)

Total: Less than $4!

I have never crafted with burlap before, but I definitely will from now on. The woman who cut the burlap for me showed me that if you pull one of the strings from whichever direction you want to cut in, it leaves a nice little path to help keep your cut straight. Also, it gave me that "frayed" look I was going for. I eyeballed the width of my strips, and didn't measure, I just used the inital strip to compare the others to.

Then you just stick a straight pin through the end of your strip, through the wreath and start wrapping! When you get to the end, pull up the starting strip and tuck the end of the last strip under it. It is a little hard to show in the photo, but pretty easy to understand when you are actually doing it.

Then-on to the fun part! Wrapping the wreath took about 15 minutes, the flowers can take as much or as little time as you want. I used this tutorial to make most of them, I just varied the width of the felt, and how deep and far apart I made the cuts, to get the different looks.

I also made a few using this tutorial, and I really should have followed a template. I just free-handed the shapes, and they did not come out the way I wanted them to. You can pick out those, they are the brown one at the end on the left, and then the tan one just to the right of the last yellow flower on the left. But they gave it some nice visual interest, and I really wasn't striving for perfection.

Then I stuck them on with straight pins and moved them around until I got a grouping I liked. Then some of them fell out when I dropped it trying to hang it up, and I got this. I actually moved them today, and am happier. The great part is that these would be so easy to switch out for the seasons and have a totally new wreath!