Showing posts with label Wreaths. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wreaths. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

BEACH WREATH

Although the renovation of our new house is finished, I'm still putting on some final decor touches, most of which I will be making myself because buying and renovating a house sucks up all of your money.  I will say that I love my new home and every room inspires me to create. (Duh...kind of the goal, after all of that hard work,right?  I mean if I'm not inspired by my surroundings, I feel dead in the water, creatively.)  Speaking of water, since my master bedroom has a beachy theme, I made this wreath to hang on the wall over my about-to-be-painted dresser.  
My friend Natalie at NorthShore Days, in New Zealand, has always made me just a leetle bit jealous with all of her beach inspired decor and fabulous jewelry.  (I probably have more of her jewelry, than I do store-bought.)   Also my friend Del at Del's Shells, who is fortunate enough to live and play on the shores in Florida, blows me away with her cool beachiness.  And of course Tuula, at The Thrifty Rebel, who is always making wonderful wreaths. Thank you for the inspiration ladies!
I found this weird, wispy wreath on the clearance shelf at the tea room in Robins Vintage Suitcase sometime after Valentine's Day.  (Such a fun place to go!) It had a horrible red and white over-sized ribbon on it and looked like it needed a makeover. I almost passed it by, but then I realized it had great bones with all of that textural, wispy, driftwood-ness, so I rescued it from it's sad, clearance shelf life and threw it in a box for 5 months.
I cruised pinterest for some cool beach themed wreaths and liked this one.
I would love to give credit to whoever made this, but sadly, the pin didn't take me to any link.  (Always a good idea to watermark your pictures, eh?) Anyway....thank you, whoever you are for your inspiration.
I gathered up some found, purchased and gifted sea treasures.
I decided that the wreath was a little bit too wispy, so I gave it a trim.
Then I just attached them to my weird, less-wispy wreath with my trusty but lethal hot glue gun.
I cannot lie, it was incredibly fun and relaxing to just dream about the ocean and puzzle all of these beautiful sea treasures, gems and baubles on that wreath.  Here's an extreme close-up.....
I toyed with the idea of a ribbon, but the wreath seemed so busy that I dropped that idea rather quickly.
The colors in the wreath went perfectly with my blue bedroom walls.  This is my first time painting blue walls and I love waking up to these colors every morning!
I have oh-so-many more projects to share with you from this room, many of them inspired by some of your wonderful blogs.  When my friend Judy was here from Arizona twice during this renovation, we had great fun making many projects that can be adapted to any decor, and I'll be posting them soon. 
(By the way, Judy, I know that "less is more", but I just couldn't help putting more and then more shells on this wreath! LOL!)

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Thursday, December 12, 2013

LIVING IVY CHRISTMAS WREATH

I promised myself I wouldn't make my life any crazier this holiday season by decorating this house while trying to renovate the other.  However, with company coming this weekend, I felt like I needed to make things just a bit festive so they wouldn't think I was a complete scrooge.  Time to put creativity to the test, using what is at hand.  In this case it was an ivy plant I had in my kitchen.  Looked like a perfect candidate for a Christmas wreath to me. 
This went together so fast and was so easy!  You could make this out of any trailing plant.  You just need a couple of things you probably already have.
Hot Glue Gun
Twig Wreath or any wreath form
Dowel Rod or stick
 
All I did was shove a dowel rod into a twig wreath form and secure it with a generous amount of hot glue.  After it was set, I just broke off the dowel rod to the length I needed and shoved the whole thing in the center of the plant.
At this point I separated the ivy vines and began winding them around the wreath form.  Every now and then I secured it with a few "twist ties" I made from this twiggy looking paper-wrapped wire stuff, which I loved because it blends right in.  (Floral wire would work fine too.)
Add a pretty bow and you have a lovely living wreath that won't dry out and lose needles.
Add a wooden deer with a festive ribbon around his neck for that extra holiday decor cuteness factor.
How easy was that?!  After the holidays, I'll just remove the bow and leave the wreath form in for a pretty ivy topiary.  (I suspect it will make a grand reappearance sometime around Valentines Day.)  Not bad for just using stuff I had.  Zero dollars......perfect for my holiday budget!
I still have one or two more easy holiday decor magic tricks up my sleeve.
  

Thursday, March 21, 2013

SPRING MINI WREATH #2

Purple and yellow are such great colors for spring!  They remind me of the Grape Hyacinths, Lilacs, Johnny Jump-ups and Sweet Williams that are some of this seasons first arrivals.  I used a little of both in this mini wreath I made for my kitchen.
 I've used some of these scrappy butterflies before and if you were one of the few followers I had last spring, you might remember this...
Scrappy Butterfly Wreath
 Those cute scrappy fabric butterflies are so easy to make and we'll get to that in a minute, but first, here are the supplies I used to make the purple mini wreath.
 First, I wrapped the purple raffia ribbon (.50 at Goodwill and given to me by a thrifty friend) around the mini grapevine wreath and tied one end to the back and made a loop for hanging.
 Next, I clipped some of the faux flowers and stuck them in the wreath, filling in some bare spots with just the flower tips.

 I like to add a little depth, dimension and sparkle to my wreaths with beads (because you all know that I don't love glitter), so I just glued them on randomly throughout.
Last, I added a scrappy little butterfly.  These are so easy to make it's not funny.  Just trace 3 butterfly shapes onto some fabric, cut them out, crinkle them up, straighten them back out and sew them together right down the center.  The crinkle, kind of makes them look fluttery.  I added a button to the front of mine.  If you need more explanation on making these, you can see my tutorial HERE.
 That's pretty much all there is to it and now I have a little wreath to remind me of the colorful beauty of spring that's to due very shortly here at Silo Hill Farm....right after the snow storm that is heading our way today!
Here are all 3 of the spring wreaths that I've made.....
I hope one of them inspires you to make a pretty wreath of your own!

 
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Tuesday, March 19, 2013

SWEET SPRING MINI WREATH

This is a little spring wreath that I made last year.  Although I did this project as a guest post, I realized that I never posted it on my own blog, so I'm sharing it with you today.  I did this as a teacher for an online class, so it's a little wordy in the instructions, but there's a good tip or two included.

The emphasis here is little!  This wreath measures only 6" across.  Somehow, to me, that just makes it sweeter.  So, lets gather our supplies and make this in less than an hour!
Supply List:

1 small grapevine wreath
1 bunch of wire flowers/buds
wire cutters
mushroom bird
floral wire
ribbon
beads in complimentary colors
pop can tab ring
tacky glue/E-6000 adhesive

Before we begin, let me just say a word about the grapevine wreath I used.  It came as 2 wreaths fastened together, but I really didn't want the double thickness, so I just clipped them apart. (Now I have a spare!)
If you would rather use a big wreath, a foam form or some other type of base, go right ahead!  I just liked the size and texture of these mini grapevine wreaths.
Now, on to our project.
Using your wire cutters snip the floral stems so that they are about the size to go half way around your wreath.  (If they are short or sparse, you may want to use more than one, like I did.)  While you have your wire cutters out, go head and clip a piece of floral wire into about 3" pieces. 
Wire your floral stems to your wreath using the floral wire to anchor them securely, twisting at the back of your wreath.  Now is the time to add that little mushroom bird so that you can define what is the top and bottom of your wreath.  If your bird comes on a wire, like mine did, then just use that wire to fasten it to your wreath.  If not, use some Tacky Glue and give it 10 minutes to dry.
This next step is actually my favorite part.  We're going to glue some beads onto our wreath in a semi-random way.  I like to put my beads on a paper plate and my Tacky Glue on a piece of waxed paper that is NOT on the plate. (You don't want all of your beads to roll into the glue.....ask me how I know this.)  I use a toothpick, dip it in the glue and then just touch it onto the bead.  You really do just need a dot.
In some places, I glued 3 beads close together so they kind of looked like berries.  Other places, I just put the bead on singly, sometimes tucking them in between the vines to give some depth to the whole wreath as you can see in this picture:

Let the glued on beads dry for about 10 minutes (the #1 reason I love Tacky Glue....it dries really fast!) and then make a little bow out of your ribbon and glue it on at the bottom near the bird.
I put a little sparkly gem in the center of my ribbon.  You could add a button or a bead, or nothing at all if you choose.  I just like a little sparkle that does not involve glitter!

To make a super easy hanger, use a pop can tab/ring.  I used E-6000 adhesive (it works great on metal) and fastened the pop tab to the back of my wreath:
Let dry about 10 minutes.  Cut a piece of ribbon to your desired length and run it through the tab and either glue the ends together or tie it, whichever you choose.  
There you have it... a cute mini spring wreath that won't take up too much space on your wall.

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Saturday, January 12, 2013

VALENTINE WREATH

I cannot stop myself from making a holiday wreath and I think this one is my favorite....so far.
Obviously this season I seem to be liking birds since my first Valentine's project was a bird cage.  I had several of these cute little tin doves on my Christmas tree and left some of them out to use in my crafting.
I started with my basic burlap wreath that I made last year for St. Patrick's Day and have since madeover 5 times.  I'm telling you that wreath has held up well!  If you want to make your own reusable burlap wreath, you can find my simple directions HERE.

Using my rotary cutter, I cut some strips of red fabric.
I wrapped them around my burlap wreath and attached them with straight pins.
I tried to just hang my birds from some fishing line and attach them, but they really wanted to spin around and wouldn't face each other the way I had hoped, so I went to plan B.  I fastened a piece of gauzey ribbon to the back, also using straight pins.  (I doubled the ribbon because it was so thin and airy.)
Using some hot glue, I attached my doves and my heart to the ribbon.
I really like a simple wreath and didn't want to have it be too busy, so I just cut out a few of the centers from some doily hearts and attached them to the bottom of my wreath using straight pins with some beads.
 
I opted for a finial-type top on my wreath instead of a ribbon.  I made it out of a long straight pin and some beads.
The reason I did this was because my wreath is attached to a stand as opposed to hanging.  You can see how I made that cool stand HERE.  Because everything is attached to the wreath with straight pins, I can take it all apart and use the burlap wreath base for another holiday.
I'm hoping to have time to make one more Valentine wreath for my front door.  If I do, you can be sure I'll share it with youI have a few more Valentine's Day projects up my sleeve........I did 14 projects for it last year, which is a little excessive, but I do love Valentine's Day. 
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