Yarn Wrapped Wreath Tutorial!

Last night I made a sweet yellow and gray yarn wrapped wreath for a birthday present.  With Mother's Day just around the corner, I wanted to share this tutorial with you!  Before we get started, please excuse the quality of the photos, as I was making the wreath LATE last night!  :)

Materials:

• Skein of yarn (nothing fancy- I bought mine at WalMart)
• Foam wreath (I used a 12" form- purchased at JoAnn's with a coupon!)
• Felt for assorted flowers
• Ribbon for hanging (optional)
• Glue gun
• Scissors

1.  Where the wreath connects, glue down a small portion of yarn with the glue gun.

2.  Continue to wrap the yarn around the wreath. 

3.  Once you've wrapped the wreath 7-10 times, slide the yarn to the left, towards your starting point.  Wrapping and sliding the yarn will give your wreath the messy look!  :)

4.  When the entire wreath is wrapped, trim the last piece of yarn, and glue onto the wreath.  (Easy enough- right?)

5.  I made two types of flowers for my wreath.  I used Mrs. Priss' tutorial for the white pom pom flowers, and I'll show you how to make the yellow and light gray flowers.  The photos below are for the 'big' yellow flower.  First, cut 8-9 freehand circles (they don't have to be perfect).  Just remember, the larger the circles, the larger the flower.  Second, cut a circle for the base of the flower (1.5 - 2").

6.  Fold the first circle in half, and then half again.

7.  After the circle is folded, trim off a snippet from the base, so that the flower now has a flat bottom.

8.  With the glue gun, adhere the bottom of the flower petal to the base of the flower.  Start with placing petals around the outside of the base, and fill the center of the flower as needed.  Note- you may need more than 8-9 circles to fill the entire flower, depending on the size of your circles and placement of petals.

9.  With the glue gun, randomly place the flowers on the yarn wrapped wreath.  If you're a planner like I am, you can tentatively place the flowers with a sewing pin in the middle of the flowers, until you're happy with the placement.  When you're ready to commit, remove the sewing pin and glue the flowers to the wreath.  Note- If for some reason you're not satisfied with the placement of the flowers after they're glued in place, gently rotate the yarn (under your flowers) to one side or the other, by doing so you'll be able to manipulate the placement of your flowers- woo hoo!

10.  Step back and admire your work!!!  :)

Bachelorette Party Goodie Bags!

As you all know, my sister Megan is getting married (in 17 days to be exact!), and being the Matron of Honor I planned the Bachelorette party. I worked closely planning the details with one of the Bridesmaids (thank you Vanessa for the help!), as we tossed around ideas such as wine tasting, spa day, San Diego weekend, etc. and ultimately ended up in Las Vegas for the weekend!

We stayed at Caesar's Palace, within the Palace Tower; the room was recently renovated which made it a stylish and chic home away from home! We had a great time in Vegas- nothing too crazy like The Hangover (thankfully!), just a nice girl weekend with some great memories! :)

Now for the crafty part of the Bachelorette party... Growing up, hands down my favorite part of a birthday party were the goodie bags- honestly, what's not to love?


I had grand plans for the goodie bags, but was unfortunately set back by my finger incident (as I cut it while cutting the fabric for the goodie bags!). My wonderful and talented Momma offered to make the reusable grocery bags for me, one for each of the girls (including me). I absolutely LOVE how the bags turned out! We used the Jane Market Bag pattern by Alicia Paulson, two fat quarter bundles for the sides of the bags and handles, and additional fabric for the front and back panels and lining.

My bag! The white bags had a black patterned lining.

Megan's! The black bags had a pink-flowered lining (same and front and back panels).

While browsing Etsy I spotted cute polka-dotted custom wine glasses and I was in love! The price per glass was much more than I wanted to spend on the goodie bags, so I did some research and came across this! The wine glasses were instant gratification (which I love!), as the tutorial I followed was spot on! My friend Christine (thank you!) donated the vinyl, as she had scraps, which made the cost of the wine glasses very feasible! :) In addition to the wine glasses, the goodie bags were filled with snacks and hot pink beaded necklaces.

Wine glasses for all of the girls: Vanessa, Anna, Candice and Megan.

As previously mentioned, I've always been a fan of goodie bags; at the end of the day the goodie bags were a fun surprise for the girls, but were also a token of appreciation for spending the weekend with Megan and I, in celebration of her big day! Thanks for a great weekend girls!

Mementos From Texas!

Growing up did your parents ever bring you home a little memento from their trip/vacation? I can't particularly pinpoint what or when, but I know that my parents did, and this time will be no different! My momma is in Houston (technically southeast of Houston) for the week with my Dad, and because she's the best mom in the world, she went to Hobby Lobby with a shopping list. Yes you read it right; the great state of California, home of eternal sunshine, Disneyland, beaches, happy cows (he he he), delicious wine, and avocados is not lucky enough to be home to Hobby Lobby (we have Michael's and JoAnn's- both which do not compare to the selection and prices of Hobby Lobby!).

source

Word has it that my momma is coming home with all of the supplies needed to make Ashley's Apothecary Jars. If you're not familiar with Shanty2Chic's blog, you should totally take a look around as Ashley and Whitney are two very creative sisters!

Mod Podge Rocks!

I'm almost a week late with this post, however I wanted all to know that my Mod Podge plaques were featured on Mod Podge Rocks (awesome blog- go check it out!).

A special thank you to Amy for hosting such an inspirational blog, and for including my plaques!

It's Calling My Name!

I stumbled across The Toy Society (TTS) today, in which volunteers (like you and me!) spread love throughout the streets of the world. Per TTS's blog, "Nothing to it really just a bunch of handmade toys looking for a nice home. What started as a small street art project in Australia is slowly spreading around the world. Should you come across a member of The Toy Society on your travels collect them up and take them home with you!".

The whole concept makes me smile- the thought of handmade toys replacing the dangerous mass-produced toys, the surprise on a child's face, the joy of giving. My December is proving to be a bit hectic, but I'll make sure to carve away some time for TTS...now the question is where should I leave the toy?

One last thing. If you're interested in participating and questioning what kind of toy to make, TTS offers links to a couple of tutorials on their blog (left hand column). I have my eye on the Softy Scottie Dog!

Craft Swap #2 Item- Revealed!

I'm happy to report that we had another successful Craft Swap, and are already talking about meeting again in the Spring! :) I'll post photos and a recap of today's events before the weekend's end, but in the mean time I hope the following photos satisfy your curiosity!

My Craft Swap project were Mod Podge scripture plaques, with verses hand picked for every member of the Swap! I'm so very happy with how the plaques turned out and hope that they are displayed proudly (I know our plaque will be {that is once I get around to making one for our house- isn't that the way it always goes?}).

Megan's (1 Corinthians 13:4-8)

Debbie's (Isaiah 41:10)

Robbie's {aka Momma's} (Proverbs 3:5-6)

Sherri's (Joshua 1:9)

Kiara's (Jeremiah 29:11)

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A bit off the Craft Swap topic, however in addition I was commissioned to make a Mod Podge scripture plaque by my friend Kara. I love the colors and tone of the plaque, and I must say Kara was a happy customer- woo hoo!


Note to all- I'm thinking about/working on opening an Etsy shop in hopes of offering my Mod Podge scripture plaques to the world (however first things first I have to figure out the shipping issue, as I hate to pay a great deal for shipping and I'm sure my future customers feel the same way!).

Productive Weekend...and Then Some!

The weather this weekend was absolutely beautiful (more so today than yesterday as the air conditioning was on constantly Saturday)! I was able to snap some photos outside of my recent projects. The first is the Thanksgiving decor plaque I mentioned on Thursday (cute, isn't it?).


I also finished both pairs of pajama pants, which will be sent to Alan's best friend's kids in Georgia (I still have to make the apron for the sister). Side note for my faithful readers- I figured out why originally the crotch of the pajama pants I made was 3 inches longer than my pajama pants...according to my mom its because I don't know where my waist is! :o) I'm so thankful to have my mom close by to help!!!



I also must confess that I broke [chipped] a cereal bowl while loading the dishwasher Saturday evening. I was/am so sad...thus I'm posting about the incident for everyone to read! Looking back it is quite coincidental as just last week I was reading the archived posts of NieNie Dialogues (is anyone else a faithful reader???) and came across her postings from December 2005 where Stephanie posted their wedding anniversary tradition of buying latte bowls from Anthropologie, as with a house full of kids and a dog, bowls are bound to break. As I read Stephanie's post I remember thinking to myself that it was such a cute anniversary tradition, but that Mr. D and I wouldn't have to think about buying new bowls for a while as we're the only two in the house that use them- I guess a chipped bowl is what I get for thinking like that! :o)

P.S.- I owe my mom a HUGE thank for retrieving the chipped bowl piece from the inner workings of the sink!

Wood, Paint, and Mod Podge

As promised in the post below, the project is complete and thus a little show and tell!

I've found myself to be in awe of (and very inspired by) hopeink's scripture art. I first started toying around with a blank digital canvas in Photoshop, but decided that it just wasn't 'my style', thus the finished project below (click on the photo for a larger view)!


The piece above was made with a very special lady in mind, Jayme, my church small group leader. Just a little parting gift on behalf of our women's group!

Deep Breath!

Saturday I cleared off my sewing table (aka the dining room table) and stored my sewing machine, as I've been tinkering with a new medium (wood, paint, paper and Mod Podge)! The 'newness' and 'unknown' are quite exciting, and the 'ideas' seem to flow the most just as I lay my head on my pillow for the night; then comes reality and my fault of perfectionism!

Last night is not one I'm proud of! I was working with my new medium (I'll post photos upon completion), got Mr. D's approval (he determines if someone other than my family would be proud to display my handmade work in their home!) and yet kept working at it until it became a gloppy mess- ugh! I took a deep breath and proceeded to sand the painted section, to prepare to repaint and start over, yet the more I messed with the damaged piece the worse it got. It was about 11pm (way past my bedtime!) when I decided to scrap the project all together and start over- so very frustrating! To think that I had a perfect piece (in its own handmade way), a piece that would have been loved by someone for what it was, yet I kept doting on until it was wanted by no one.

Tonight is round 2- let's hope for a better outcome! :)