diy: party wreath

This is another one of those projects that has been kickin' 'round the noggin for a few years now. After months of not being outside-of-school crafty I was determined to get it done! The party blowers were a dollar store purchase and the sparkly bits came from Target' holiday clearance. They were thirty-cents for two silvery puff balls. I bought five packs and if I had bought more, the wreath would have been larger. As it is, it is a mini wreath built upon a six inch embroidery hoop. I first attempted it on a twelve inch hoop but it was a mess so mini wreath it is!

Gather up your materials...blowers, festive bits, hoop (I ended up with a smaller hoop), and tacky glue. I suppose you could use a glue gun but I have such bad luck with them...nothing ever really sticks...so I used tacky glue. Play with the bits before gluing up the hoop. My first attempt was to create a wreath made from blowers only but I could not get the bits to round out and it kept looking like a pentagon. Everything was coated in glue from all the moving around I was doing I ended up fleeing the room with a frustrated scream, hands up in the air, fingers covered in tiny bits of tinsel. It was a mess!

Once items are arranged to your liking, add glue and affix. I used three blowers and extra tinsel from two other blowers that got eaten by the glue. The entire cost of the finished wreath was four bucks! The hoop was a fifty cent thrift find, blowers were a buck and the tinsel puffs totaled a buck fifty. Whoo-hoo!

Hang in a happy place or pro it up somewhere inside. Either way, it brings a bit of festive cheer to your day. Use leftover blowers and bits for a party or string 'em up into a garland! Happy New Year!

scrumdilly diy: 4th of july pom pom wreath

Like I have mentioned before I'm think in the frenzy of pom pom making. I'm having too much fun and am making quite the mess. I decided to turn my compulsion into something pretty for July and thus the pom pom wreath was born.

 

I used a particle-board type base found in the floral department at my local Michael's. It was larger, sturdier and less expensive than an embroidery hoop or foam form of the same size. I also like it because it is flat and has hole drilled in it. It's multi-useful! A couple of coats of white paint on my wreath form just in case any part if it shows through and I was ready to go.

 

 

I created a happy pile of independence day-festive poms and popped them into an egg carton for storage.

 

 

 

I began by wrapping red yarn around the wreath-to-be in the style of weaving a dream-catcher. When I was happy with the wrapping, I flipped over the form and added a blob of glue and a clothespin anchor to keep it all in place. To ensure the yarn remained where I wrapped it, I added additional blobs of glue for good measure.

 

To anchor the poms to the form, I used healthy amounts of tacky glue. I find that yarn needs a bit more glue to stick to things and I never have good luck with hot melt glue (my poor poor army of love lost a few troops). My poms were on the larger, shaggier side so needed a bit more glue than usual otherwise the weight of the poms would dangle from the form instead of staying put.

I entertained the idea of layering more poms on one side to whimsy it up a bit, or maybe even adding a bow but I really liked the simplicity of using just poms and red yarn.

Here it is haging on our front door...

and here over the bed...

july 4th: odds & ends wreath

I am quite tardy in this wreath making post. I don't even have tutorialized photos of the whole shebang. Truthfully, I was stuckity stuck on it for more than a week but it all came together (somewhat) just in the nick of time. Phew!

To begin with, I think I asked mr. a-go-go to cut too large a wreath shape for me. That is what I get when I answer "steering wheel sized" to the question of "how big"? I had the egg cartons all painted up and imagined them to be all fire-worky but when I liberated them from each other they looked less like fireworks and more like...painted egg cartons?

My next mistake was gluing on the crepe paper ruffle before I had a chance to wrap any yarn or string or twine around the large white donut thing. That kept me quite limity-limited.

I kept playing around with the cut egg carton bits placing them all the way around the wreath, stacking them on top of each other, clustering them to one side or the other...balancing them on my head as if they were tiny hats.

Thank goodness I rediscovered a small stack of small white doilies. I think the doilies saved the day. Rather than plan it all out, I kinda just dumped them in place added glue and hoped for the best.

I would really like to thank those cupcake liners. If not for them I do not think the egg carton bits would be making any appearance except of course as tiny hats. I should have planned a parade. So there ya go, a holiday wreath created from scavenged recyclables. A cardboard box for the wreath shape, stitched crepe paper trim and bow and a smattering of paper doilies, cupcake liners and tiny paper hats...er...egg carton cups.

Happy Fourth of July! May you have all sorts of pic-nic-y fun on pretty blankets with oodles of homebaked goodies, fresh fruit and lemonade.

sweet (sweet} november: day 3

Lately it seems I'm a bit mad for yo yos. I think it is because crafting is in my blood and even though I currently appear to be lacking in crafting space I still need to do something. Yo yo making is a super easy take-along craft, if you shell out for some yo yo makers it is even easier. I have a few makers but they're somewhere in the garage so I have been whipping these out old school. They don't take long but they do take long enough, it all depends on how much of a perfectionist you are. Here I have, just for you a fall pretty wreath you can make for yourself or as a gift. All you have to do is rethink up your colors and bits and you can make a wreath for every holiday!

Materials
*woven stick wreath from craft store
*acrylic paint
*paintbrush
*container of water
*handful of handmade yo yos
*hot glue gun & hot glue
*fall leaf sprig from craft store

Craft it up:

To make your yo yos, you can use a yo yo maker like this or you can do them by hand. If using a maker, you'll want a few different sized bits and they will come with templates so use those as your guide. Otherwise, hunt out a variety of bowls and glasses (or use a handy compass) to create your templates. When making yo yos, don't forget that the actual yo yo will be MUCH smaller than your original template so don't go too small. Check out this awesome tutorial on Heather Bailey's blog.Paint your wreath. I used a happy green acrylic paint and painted the front side of my wreath making sure to keep my brush wet so as not to dry out the paint. I did one coat but if you want a shiny, glossy wreath, do two coats and seal with something shiny like a Mod Podge, etc. Allow for drying time though. Mod Podge takes a while to dry while the acrylic took but a few minutes (about 15).

Disassemble your fall sprig by pulling the leaves and bits off of the stem or cutting them. You can get uber crafty and make your own leaves from newspaper like Alisa Burke or maybe some felted sweater leaves like these from Design Sponge but I think the simplicity of the fabric/plastic leaves enhances the handmade yo-yos.Gather up your yo-yos and fall bits. Plug in the glue gun and as it heats up, play with the whole shebang to see what tickles your fancy. Go for one side at the top and cluster all that happy for maximum effect.Once you're delighted, glob on a bit of hot glue to each piece and wait a moment for it to gel then gently adhere to the wreath. Take your time and be careful, hot glue is very HOT. Layer up and take it slow...you can always add more later but removing bits may be more difficult. Once everything is set and you have banished all those gluey threads, loop a length of ribbon, string or wire through the back, hang in a happy place and admire (wearing !

I hope you like my happy little fall wreath and I hope it inspires you to make something. If you make a wreath this week (any kind of fall wreath) send me a link and/or a pic and I'll make sure to post it here. You can also add it to the flickr group and don't fergit to pop on over to the pink couch to see if Tara has any little bit of pretty to share.