Wreath Week: Easter Blooms

            The final day of Wreath Week is here and the last DIY wreath is probably the easiest! I wanted a wreath I could put up around Easter that wasn’t the usual 'eggs and bunnies', and that still had a ‘Spring’ feel to it. Plus I was limited to the supplies I had since my goal was to not spend any money on this week’s wreaths. I picture pastel colors and lots of blooming flowers when I think of Easter décor, so that’s exactly what I did, a giant, cheery, blooming flower. Let’s jump right into it… All you will need to make this wreath is:

-         Cardstock (regular or construction paper work, but I prefer cardstock)

-         Scissors

-         Glue (I always use hot glue)

-         Cardboard

-         Something to hang the wreath with

Step 1: You’ll need some cardboard, any cardboard, grab a cereal box if that’s what you have! Cut a good sized circle out for your base, it doesn’t have to look good or be perfect- it won’t show at all.

Step 2: Get a stack of paper, about 15 sheets, and cut them into fourths.

Step 3: Roll your pieces of paper into little ‘burritos’- from corner to corner so you have a nice point that sticks out at the ends. Glue your little burrito together, and keep on rolling baby, roll all pieces of paper!

 

Step 4: Begin gluing your rolled papers onto the cardboard base. Start on the outer edge of the circle and work your way in. Leave small gaps between pieces at first, and fill them in as you go.

 

*As I got into the center of the flower I cut some of the rolls in half, it definitely helped with the spacing!*

 

Step 5: Attach your ribbon (or whatever you wish to hang it with) by gluing it onto the back of the cardboard.

          Ta-da!! You have a beautifully large 3D flower that will bring you joy every time you see it on the door! I know everyone has paper and some type of cardboard they can use to make this super simple wreath. You can even make smaller versions, in any color combo, and join them all together!

That’s all for wreath week, thanks for letting me share over the past four days, it was fun to see what I could do with what I had, and I’m happy with the variety I ended up with! Send us your crafty wreath creations, we love new ideas and inspiration! Happy wreath-ing everyone!!

          xoxo,

                   Rachele

Wreath Week: Play Ball!

              It is day 3 of wreath week and this wreath is pretty fun! For those that know us well you know that we are a baseball family, a big time baseball family! My hubby played most of his life and in College, and coached college ball for a few years before we moved. Baseball season is right around the corner, and we’ll be there opening day, Diamond Backs vs. Giants! Go Giants!! It’s Spring Training right now and living in AZ has worked out in our favor since a lot of the Spring Training games aren’t too far from our house. We still love going to the park and playing a little catch when we can, so I knew this wreath was perfect for us.

          Thanks to a very sweet family friend who sent me the idea I checked to see if we had the materials needed and went to work. (Actually I put the hubs to work and asked him to help me get started). All you will need for this wreath is:

o       Baseballs (10-12 of them)

o       A wire hanger (or sturdy enough wire to hold the weight)

o       Ribbon or décor (optional)

o       A drill and drill bit long enough to go through the baseballs

Step 1: Drill a hole through the middle of each baseball, try and make it as straight and centered as you can. Remember to be safe! (A bunch of black stuff will come out of the ball, don’t worry, that’s totally fine)

Step 2: Straighten your wire hanger out and try to get any kinks to lay flat. It won’t be perfect and it doesn’t need to be.

Step 3: Start stringing the baseballs onto the wire. You may have to wiggle a few on with a little pressure. If you are having a hard time then run the drill bit through the hole again, it will clean out anything that may be blocking the wire from going through.

Step 4: Once you have all baseballs on you can bring the two ends of the wire together, it will naturally form the circular shape of the wreath. Twist the ends together, or make a hook with one end and wrap the other wire end around it. I used a pair of pliers to help me so I knew it was secure.

Step 5: This step is optional, you can add décor or ribbon or anything you’d like to customize it. I added a little bit of Jute Twine and a left over red ribbon. (I really wanted to spruce it up and customize it to one of our favorite teams, but because I told myself I wouldn’t spend any money on these wreaths I didn’t have the supplies needed)

          *I wanted the baseballs to looks really warn, so I went outside and literally covered them in dirt and rubbed it in so they were nice and dirty*

          That is all! Hang it up and enjoy! It’s great for baseball season, baseball fans and families with little ones in T-ball! Thank you to my husband for helping me on this one, I know it was very unnatural for him to drill holes through and ‘destroy’ baseballs. Nineteen days and counting until Opening Day! Tomorrow is my last post for wreath week and I have a little something for Easter time to share!

                  xoxo,

                           Rachele

Wreath Week: Spring into Spring!

         Wreath Week, day 2! And like I said yesterday, I LOVE this wreath! Again, I gave myself the challenge of not spending any money for the 4 wreaths I made this weekend. I was stumped for a minute on this one, I had an idea of what I wanted to make, but I didn’t have a base to begin with, so I created one.

          Cardboard! Cardboard has been my friend this week and I’ve used it multiple times. I cut a cardboard box we had in our garage and gave myself two pieces to work with. I traced a circle (from a serving bowl) onto the pieces of cardboard and cut them out. I traced a smaller circle in the center of them and cut out a donut hole to create my wreath base. The reason I cut two of these circles is to double them up, you don’t need to have two circles, but I wanted to make the base a little thicker so I hot glued the circles together.

          I knew I would be using left over moss, and I wanted to make the wreath very “earthy” for Spring, so I went with Jute Twine and wrapped the cardboard with a good layer of twine. I had moss and a few faux butterflies left over from a previous project (random I know), so I figured a Spring wreath was the perfect time to use them.

          I simply spread the moss onto the wreath and hot glued it down. Last was arranging the butterflies and gluing them down as well. I tied an extra strand of Jute Twine around the top to hang the wreath with and voilá! The moss and butterflies can be found at any craft store, and you can replace them with anything else you may have that reminds you of Spring. This was sooo easy to make, the most tedious part was wrapping the twine around the cardboard, but I think it was totally worth it. I love my earthy Spring wreath!

          Tomorrow’s wreath is actually pretty cool, even the guys will like it, so check in tomorrow as wreath week continues!

          xoxo,

                   Rachele

Wreath Week: Lucky Shamrock

           It’s wreath week! Over the weekend I made four, very different, and super simple wreaths. First up… St. Patrick’s Day! It’s coming up, exactly one week from today. I usually like to put a few decorations out for fun occasions, but I honestly didn't have anything for St. Patrick’s Day, so I decided to try and make a little décor piece for our front door. A shamrock is what I came up with, it doesn’t hurt to have a little luck, right!?

          My goal was not to spend any money, $0 on all four wreaths, so I had to use supplies and materials I already had in the house and in my crafting scrap box. I had to get creative, but it worked out! To make the shamrock wreath you’ll need:

         - Cardstock (or construction- but I like that cardstock is sturdier)

                   - Scissors

                   - Glue (I always use hot glue guns)

                   - Something to hang the wreath with

          First I took a few pieces of cardstock paper and cut them into strips- 18 strips that were 2 ½ inches wide. Next you’ll need to divide the paper strips into 3 stacks of 6. Leave one stack of strips alone (it should be 11 inches long). Cut the length of one stack to 9 inches, and the last stack to 7 inches. You’ll have 3 stacks like the picture below shows.

 

          Start making the shamrock leaves by folding the shortest strips of paper over into a tear drop shape, joining ends and gluing them together.

          Continue by gluing the medium strips on, folding them over and gluing the ends together into a larger tear drop.

          Finish with gluing the longest strip onto the existing two “tear drops”.

 

          Now that you have 6 individual “petals” you’ll glue two together to form a heart. You have 3 large sections of your shamrock done! Join them together by connecting the ends and gluing them into place.

          Don’t forget the stem! You will cut 3 more strips of paper and adjust the lengths so you have a short, medium and long. Fold them, but this time you’ll fold them into triangle pieces, one over the other and glue. Attach the triangle stem to your shamrock leaves.

          I also took my handy heart punch and cut a few hearts out to put together a mini shamrock for the center. If you don’t have a punch you can use scissors. You don’t have to do this, but I wanted something in the center to cover the area where I connected the leaves and stem.

 

          Once you have everything glued together you can add your ribbon and hang that baby up! It seems like a lot of steps but it will only take a few minutes to cut, glue and assemble. Best of all its free, I love an easy and inexpensive project, plus I think it would be perfect to make with kids!

          Wreath week continues tomorrow, and I really really love tomorrow’s earthy spring wreath!

          xoxo,

                   Rachele

Love is in the air

It’s LOVE month!! What better way to celebrate love than with a brand new baby girl!? Our teeny little niece, Audrey Joy, is here and she is as sweet as can be! I’ve been waiting to show off a few pictures of her and I figured a Valentines post was the perfect time!

Speaking of love and Valentine's Day I have two DIY crafts to show off from two of my favorite girls, Heather and Channing.

My Cousin, Heather, is super woman, I am always amazed at what she can accomplish in a day. On top of her busy schedule she took the time to make us the cutest Valentine's wreath for our front door. It is an argyle wreath made from yarn and felt hearts. Thank you, Heather, I love it! Heather also has a blog where she posts everything from recipes and crafts to parties and school projects. The name of her blog is Teaspoons & Twine and you can check it out and follow her by clicking HERE.

A while ago I made a trip to California and stayed a few nights with one of my girlfriends, Channing, who wanted to make a project that she had seen on Pinterest. So, we headed to Hobby Lobby for the supplies and went to work making decorative vases. We used left over wine bottles, jute twine, yarn, chevron burlap, buttons and a lot of hot glue. In the end we had four wrapped wine bottle vases that spelled out the word ‘love’. I think they came out really great and I love the color scheme she chose to make them in.

That is all for my Valentine's post. A lot has been going on here and I can’t wait to share the projects that are under way. Our house is slowly getting the face lift I have been daydreaming about. We still have work to do, but within the next month I’ll be able to post pics and give a sneak peak at what we are working on this week. Happy Valentine's Day to all, don't forget to show some extra love this month!

     xoxo,

              Rachele

Wreath making machine

Each evening for about 2 weeks I was making wreaths like a machine. I had my own assembly line going and hot glue guns spread out over our living room floor.

We celebrated Christmas with our families pretty early this year, in the beginning of December, because of JD’s work schedule. I wanted to have a small gift for everyone so I decided to make wreaths! I tried to make each wreath as different as I could, and use a lot of materials I already had. Most all of the wreaths have bits and pieces from events or things in our lives; our wedding, family baby showers, yarn from my grandma’s sweater knitting supply, paint from house projects, and our own Christmas décor. I like that they have personal touches from things that were meaningful to us at one point or another.

I made 13 wreaths and it wasn’t until we got home from our California Christmas trip that I realized I hadn’t made a wreath for our own home. I hung a few stockings on our door for some holiday cheer, but I need to get a wreath made for next year! Any input on the style I should make from looking at the pictures below?

 

     xoxo,

              Rachele

 

Getting my autumn on- DIY style

I’m posting a couple quick pics to show my pumpkin and wreath projects from the other night. It is still pretty hot here in AZ, so I am faking my way through fall and living vicariously through our friends and family who are enjoying Apple Hill and sweater weather at the pumpkin patches. My autumn crafts are as close to fall as I think I’m going to get this year.

For our wreath I gave myself a small budget and hit up Hobby Lobby (with my coupon pre loaded on their app!) and picked up a few supplies. Later that afternoon I spent a little time with my glue gun and voilá, I had a quick and simple wreath to help me get into the fall spirit. There might have been a slightly traumatizing incident that happened while making our wreath, and I may or may not have mildly panicked about a lizard in our house! After watching it run all over (including up and down our curtains) I trapped it under a big mixing bowl and waited for my husband to come home to my rescue. I have no problem admitting to being squeamish, jumpy and grossed out around a small harmless lizard in our home.

The pumpkins I made for our dinning table literally took 3 minutes each and I had everything needed to make them which was great. We have a bunch of mason jars that we use as glasses so the lids and bands really had no use to us, until now. I cut a strand of jute twine, strung a bunch of mason jar bands on, tied the twine together tightly to make a circle and spread the bands out around the twine to make the shape I wanted. Once the bands were in the shape of a pumpkin I hot glued a few cinnamon sticks in the center to make the stems and cut a few pieces of burlap into leaves. Ta-da! I also attempted to wrap one of them entirely in the jute twine, I think I like the idea of it more than the final outcome, but it works.

In non crafting news, we are doing wonderful! I had a great friend, Kaitlyn, come and visit for a few days, it was so nice to spend time catching up with her, she is awesome in so many ways. We are also fully reaping the “benefits” of being home owners and have had more appliances, pipes, water systems, bathrooms, and tables break over the last few weeks than I even want to count, but I’m thankful we have a home and we are learning new things from each situation. JD has a chunk of days off work soon and we are both looking forward to it so much, lots of fun things planned, cant wait! Happy autumn everyone!!

     xoxo,

              Rachele