Another wreath...

Since my Christmas fabric wreath broke and I didn't get to show it off to anyone... I decided to make one for Valentine's Day... I love it.  It took 3 days of naptime to accomplish, because Maxell (12 weeks, wow) doesn't sleep too long during the day.  Here it is...

This is what it looks like on our door, but I can' figure out how to make it look correct, please turn your head to the left to envision the beauty. ;)

Picture of my mantle... Lots of blogged ideas

prints:  owl, subway art left, subway art right, wreath, heart bouqet ( can't remember)

I'm officially done making things for Valentine's Day!  I have to work on a couple of gifts now!

Gift Wreath

For Christmas, I got my Sister-in-law a too small jacket- of course I lost the reciept and couldn't return it.  So... I promised to make up for it, I decided to make her a couple of things.  First I made her a tie scarf and sent it in the mail.  Then I made her a wreath.  A yarn wreath to be exact.  It's beautiful (if I do say so myself).  I love the yarn.  It's super easy to make and I think she liked it!

I used a straw wreath from Hobby Lobby.  I then wrapped it in batting (stuff you use for quilts).  I then wrapped it over and over with the yarn(from Michael's).  I took 1 yard peices of yarn and glued them onto the wreath.  The balls are small styrofoam balls (from Dollar Tree) wrapped in cream yarn.  It's attached with some ribbon.  Took me less than an hour.  It's so soft, I couldn't stop myself cuddling it....

Valentine's Day Decorations

I have been having fun searching blogs and looking for fun crafts to keep myself busy- like I have trouble keeping busy, but I love it!!

I have about a million and one things I want to make... I have had to start a pintrest... check it out, it's a fun website.  Gives me a place  to "pin" my ideas and intrests, then I can go  back and see what I like.  It's really neat!

 First off... subway art on a canvas.  It was fun to make!  I found the subway art at Not Just a Housewife, she also made some for other holidays and boys/girls.  So adorable!!  I had mine printed at the local photo lab so it was about $2 for print, $1.50 for the canvas and I had the  paint and  modge podge.  I hung it on the wall  with a little ribbon.  This website, My Delicious Ambiguity also has a HUGE list of free Valentine's Day art.  Jenny and I made one for her, too!  I am going to make one for my MIL for watching the boys on Saturday!

 This is another fun no-sew activity, since my sewing machine is not working-- still need to figure out if the bobbins are moving... anywhoo...I used fabric glue, ribbon, and a white bath hand towel.  I got the  idea from She's Kinda Crafty. It was SUPER easy, but the ribbon kind of buckled up a bit when  washed, but if I wasn't lazy (and we weren't wiping our dirty hands on it) I would iron it and I think it would look okay.

The BIG project

A Cupcake Liner Wreath

My friend Sharon and I constructed these Cupcake liner wreaths from Tatertots and Jello.   It was fun!  We got the wreaths at  Dollar Tree (for  a dollar) and the cupcake liners from  Walmart.  They were a little smaller than I wanted, but way fun!  We both burned our fingers, but the little boys played super awesome in the sensory bin (will post about this later).  Anyway, we finally finished a project and we were both pleased.  Mine is the "redder" one. These cupcake liners were perfect... maybe I should do another one?!?!?!  Actually, I think I am going to make a topiary that I saw on Adventures in Crafting.  Hmmmm... or should I start on all the Christmas crafts/gifts I want to accomplishs for the year?!?!?!

Last wreath of the season

My entire mantel... notice my "Wise Men still Seek Him" (another blog find)

I wanted a fun way to display cards this year and I needed something to hang over my fireplace (awesome to have one in our new house- even if we don't have any wood), so I scoured the pages of the crafting blogs I belong to... I found two that I really liked this one from Clover Lane and this one from Craftiness is not Optional. I couldn't get the supplies for the first one, so I did the clothes pin wreath instead... actually, I was going to do BOTH, but I didn't have time to drive an hour to a craft store to get the supplies I would need... plus, we moved and we aren't getting as many cards this year... hmmm...

Here is my example of the clothes pin wreath. I don't like my bow.... something I have to work on, but overall I love the outcome. A bonus was that Jman got to practice some small motor skills while we were working on this wreath, because he strung the beads for me. :)

Fabric Wreath

I LOVE this wreath!

I got the fabric at JoAnn Fabrics and it didn't take too much time... I made a pretty big wreath so it took about 1.25 yards of fabric. I chose to only use 3 different kinds of fabric, because that was what I could find in the fabrics I liked (50% off though). I got the idea from Polka Dots and Pizza. She made a tutorial that you can take a look at. I wish I had a pinky blade for my roatary cutter, because cutting all the squares was hard on my fingers!!

Yarn Wreath

So I finally tried one of the 1,000 cool ideas I found online for Christmas ... this does not mean I have any of my Christmas presents finished... ha ha!

I found some really cool wreaths on all the crafty blogs I follow... but I thought I would like one of these yarn wreaths. I found tutorials here and here. I bought all the stuff to do this wreath from Polka Dots and Pizza... but I definately need to get my Christmas presents finished BEFORE I can start on this one!!

I decided to use a 10 inch straw wreath for 2 reasons 1) it was only $2.79 at Hobby Lobby, so if I didn't like it or never got to it this winter, I wouldn't feel so bad. 2) I wanted to go small so I could have time to finish it! I used Sugar 'n Cream cotton crochet yarn called Misteltoe (mostly because it was cheap and had all three colors I was looking for on 1 roll... red, green, white). Anyhoo... I really like how it turned out. :) I finally was able to finish it last night when my 2 year old had finally headed to bed and was actually STAYING in his bed!!

Things I learned from this wreath:

1. Thicker yarn might be more expensive, but it won't take as long to wrap! :)
2. The wreath needs to be covered before you put on the yarn- I saw someone use some batting. I think it would make it smoother, the straw sticks up and makes it uneven.
3. It's imporant that you look at the back to make sure you aren't overlapping the yarn, because it will leave gaps.
4. USE the GLUE GUN A LOT!!