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! 

Linked up:

"Thrifty Thursday" at Living Well, Spending Less

New Year's Metallic Dot Wreath

Josie was curious as to why there really weren't any decorations for New Year's for sale in any of the stores. I told her that it is so close to Christmas (and everyone is broke!) that there really isn't much decorating going on. I take down my Christmas decorations usually on the 26th or 27th of December, though, and our front door was begging for something festive. So I came up with this quick and simple wreath to help ring in the New Year!

 



You will need:

 

-a foam wreath form (I picked up my 8 inch green foam wreath at the Dollar Store and covered it with white grosgrain)

 

- two different sizes of circle punches, mine are 2" and 11/2")

 

-scrapbook paper ( I bought 6 different metallic pieces of 8 1/2 x 11, but you could definitely only use 3 pieces if you didn't want as many colors. It makes this project super cheap because it is about $0.30 a piece.)

 

-straight pins

 



I accessorized with a variety of things: watches (scrapbook embellishments left over from this shower), three different kinds of metallic ribbons and some alphabet stickers (Hobby Lobby for $1!)

Not including the straight pins, watches or the ribbon (because I already owned all that, and I only used a minimal amount of ribbon) this project came in around $4! Definitely can swing that-even after Christmas.

I started by punching 6 large dots of each color, and 7 each of the small ones. I didn't need that many of the little ones. I randomly placed the dots and and used a straight pin attach them to the wreath. Since my pins were small and silver, I wasn't concerned with some of them showing.

I covered most of the wreath with the large dots and then filled in with the smaller ones, and a few more large ones. I wanted a random effect, so I didn't have any kind of pattern. I just put them on where I thought they looked good.

I cut a rectangle of paper, and used the smaller punch to round the ends. I used the stickers to spell out "Happy 2013". I was a little disappointed that there was no exclamation point.:) I simply looped ribbon through three of the watches, and overlapped them, fastening them with the watches. I attached the banner with glue dots.

 

I was very happy with how it turned out. Festive without being overwhelming. It would be so easy to use this for a variety of occasions. I think if I had tons of money I would have used a larger wreath form, but I already had the smaller one on hand. I also contemplated using printed papers, but I love the simplicity of the plain ones. It is hard to believe 2012 is almost over, but I am excited about all the possibilities of 2013! 

"Candy Corn" Tulle Wreath

I have seen these tulle wreaths for a while now, and have even helped make one, but I hadn't had a chance to do one myself. I was pondering ideas for a fall wreath, and I decided it would be really cute to do a tulle take on candy corn!

 

 



These are so simple to make and only require a few "ingredients"-all from Hobby Lobby:

-An extruded foam wreath, you can use any size you like, but I chose an 8 inch one.
-Tulle in the colors of your choice. I picked traditional candy corn colors-yellow, orange, and white sparkle! I absolutely recommend using the rolls. It is sooo much easier than trying to cut full yardage tulle. HL puts them on sale for half-price and they are only about $2 per roll. I didn't use all of any of the colors except white (sparkle is only sold in 10 yard lengths, versus 25 yds for the regular colors)
-Candy corn ribbon
- I found these fun candy corn decorations in the fall section. They are basically like the hardened "Fimo" clay.

Start by cutting your tulle in 12 inch lengths. I wrapped mine around a ruler and cut it at both ends. It is quick and easy.

I found it easiest to hold the wreath between my knees to keep it steady. I used two layered pieces of tulle. I alternated orange, white and yellow to make it look like candy corn!

 

 





All I did was simply tie the tulle on- I didn't knot it. There really isn't any need. The tulle is stiff enough that it stays in place.

 

I pushed the tulle around as I went to make sure it was nice and full. It is easy to make sure that you end on the right color by simply pushing it closer together.

 

 

I made a simple loop bow- I did three figure eight loops and hot glued them to each other. I put a small single loop in the center. I glued two of the candy pieces in the center and then made ties with pieces on each end. I always attach my decorations with straight pins- especially with a wreath like this, I can remove all the components and reuse the wreath!

 

 

I used a longer piece of the ribbon for a hanger and it was done! This is such a quick and easy project- I would say it probably only took me about an hour start to finish. And it makes such a "sweet" decoration!:)

 





 

 



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!

Pretty Paper Christmas Wreath

I  love making wreaths. It is a very satisfactory activity for someone with a short attention span, such as myself. In the wonderful world of Pinterest, I found this wreath. If you look at the tutorial, however, she has a lot of things I don't have. Like a really nice printer. She printed all the cardstock. And then she glues antique book pages to the back of each strip. Not gonna happen. Her's is beautiful, don't get me wrong, but obviously she is more patient than I am! Also, I didn't really want a year-round wreath, I wanted a Christmas wreath! So, while I needn't rewrite her perfectly fine tutorial, here is what I did.



I purchased:
- Floral pins ($4.99 at Hobby Lobby-used a 40% off coupon)
-12 inch straw wreath ($2.99 at Michael's used 20% off coupon)
-Colored card stock ($9.99 regularly at Hobby Lobby, on sale for 50% off) It is called "Christmas Brights"
-Roll of polka-dotted ribbon ($1.99 regularly at Michael's, on sale for 70% off)

(Is it weird that I want to see pictures of this kind of stuff? I get so frustrated when I can't visualize what someone is talking about. So, I posted one for you!)

She recommends cutting your card stock into two-inch widths. Since I went with a smaller wreath, that would have been a little too large. I used the really nice commercial paper cutter at our church and I chopped my paper into 1 7/8 inches (approximately). The nice part is that I also ended up cutting a few by hand, and you can't really tell the difference. The other cool part: I only used about 15 sheets of the card stock, so that made this a really cheap project, coming in around $7. You could make one for every season!

So, anyways, you cut your paper into strips, then you put the ends together and push a floral pin through the paper into the wreath. Note here: do not put your strips too close together. I found that if I put the top of one strip in the middle of the strip underneath, it was about right. If you put them too close it makes it too full and it looks funny.

That is really all there is to it! I made the little paper accordion like she did, but I don't know if I love it. I will probably leave it, anyway. It was really tricky to form it into a circle! Then I used a one inch punch on some left over paper and hot glued the little circle onto the accordion. I added a little ribbon, and it was done. The whole project probably took me about 45 minutes, after I cut the paper.

I think my short cuts made it less difficult, but not really any less cute. I am happy with it, and since I have a tendency to want to change things up frequently, it will be really easy to remove it all and start again. It will make a great addition to my Christmas decorations. I love a simple DIY, especially at Christmas time!

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!