Mama DIY: Valentine's Day Wreath

Well hello there, everyone! It's February and I haven't been around in a very long time. January was rough! I lost my mojo and honestly, I'm not sure if I've found it yet! I've been down for the count over the past week with some sort of horrible virus that apparently turned into pneumonia! I'm supposed to do nothing, which is super hard for me, so I'm thinking you may be hearing a lot more from me during this laying low period!

Even though I haven't been around, I've been busy. If it isn't being a mama to an active six year old, it's designing a gallery wall in my den or creating fun DIY projects like the one I have for you today! I made a Valentine's Day wreath for the front of my house and I love it! I had so much fun designing my front porch for the holidays that I couldn't just stop at Christmas! I had to spread the love. 

It started with an inspirational search on Pinterest which resulted in these darling wreath ideas.

And then I made this one for our booth in Louisburg! Because of this one, and how cute it turned out, I decided to document the process for the one I made for me. I didn't use flowers for mine, the one below has fake flowers I found at Michael's. The things I used for mine were on sale at Joann's. 

Let me start off by saying that I got the above grapevine wreath at Michael's, but found the one I used for mine at Savers. Check them out, people! Deals are everywhere on every day things you might use for home decor or DIY projects. Just wait until I show you one I found for the gallery wall.

You Need:

Grapevine Wreath, fun Valentine's Day decor like these felt ornaments or the above fake flowers, twine, hot glue, felt, scissors, and puff paint.

Start by stringing your twine across the wreath. You can take it across the center or at an angle. Tie the twine on the back and add a little hot glue to the knots to keep them from slipping. 

 

Now, for the felt, measure the length of your strips based on how big you want to the letters to appear in your wreath. We cute ours to 4" long and 1.5" wide. And my sweet mom used her rotary cutter to make a cleaner cut. But you can use scissors.  

 

 Fold the piece of felt in half. From one corner of the felt, cut toward the center and stop. From the opposite corner, cut to meet the original cut at the center. You are creating a V shape.

To make life easier, lay the cut piece over the additional pieces of felt and cut the V shape for the remaining pieces. Put aside.

I found these darling padded felt hearts on sale at Joann's. They came six to a pack, a perfect amount. I cut the strings off to make them more suitable for the wreath. Place them

 on the wreath before you glue. Once you've used hot glue, you're done with placement! I did this for both the top and bottom of the wreath.

Once you have them where you want them, start gluing! 

 

Next up, place your felt pieces across the twine. Spread them out across the wreath at your desired width. Using the hot glue, glue them shut. And watch out for burned fingers! It hurts!

 Then take your puff paint, in any color you desire, and write out love across the four felt pieces. 

And here is the finished product! I LOVE IT! Pun intended! It's so sweet and perfect for Valentine's Day. This doesn't have to be for outdoors. Place it anywhere your heart desires. Just spread the love where ever possible!

Of the inspired Pinterest photos, which is your favorite wreath? Which one will you recreate? I would love for your to share your creations. It's what inspires all DIY creators!

I hope to be around a lot more in the coming month. I have so much to talk about, so much crafting to share, and a ton of home decor ideas to provide. This house is always a work in progress!

Happy Monday!

XO,

Andrea

Mama DIY: Jingle Bell Wreath

One of my favorite things to make, and gifts to give, is the old fashioned jingle bell wreath. I started making them a few years ago and then McKinley got in on the action and began helping me. And, he's been giving them as teacher gifts every year since Preschool. They are a great teacher gift, actually. Nothing like giving a handmade/homemade gift. 

This year wasn't any different. We made a jingle bell wreath for McKinley's first grade teacher, but we also plan to make on for our neighbor who so sweetly gifts McKinley things throughout the year. I love gifting to our neighbors. And these wreathes are so easy to make. Follow along below.

You'll need:

Jingle bells of different sizes, stem wire (I used 16 gauge), crafting pliers, and ribbon.

Using your pliers, start with the stem wire and make a small loop at the bottom of the wire.

When you start stringing the jingle bells, start with a small one at the end. It's helps cover the loop when finishing off the wreath.

Then start stringing the bells. Go with any pattern of colors you like. I am loving these more metallic bells and the blush colors! A little modern take on the jingle bell wreath.

Your strand will start looking like this. Add a smaller jingle bell along the way. I added two after three larger ones to help balance out the look.

When you come to the end of the wire, leave yourself enough room to string the end through the loop you made at the beginning. You probably don't need this much, but you can snip off the extra like I did, after you make the loop.

Once you string the wire through, use your pliers to make a loop to close the wreath. Snip off the extra and continue to try and hide the wire behind the jingle bells.

Once you've finished off the loops, shape your wire to create the roundness you desire! It's going to need a little finesse to get to the circle you want!

Now it's time to add the bow. I add the bow to the bottom of the wreath where the loop is. Yet another chance to hide the entrance! And if you can get your mom to make it even better! Gives me an excuse to take pictures of the bow making process and have someone make a better bow than myself! My mom is an expert bow maker!

In the past, we've made the bow and then strung floral wire through the back of the bow and attached it to the loop of the jingle bell, but it doesn't lay as well. Making the bow around the bells helps it hold its shape.

And here is the final product! Isn't it so pretty? I love hanging them from doorknobs, but they also look cute on smaller trees as a large ornament! We've done that in the past when displaying multiple wreaths in our booth. 

What do you think of this Holiday DIY? Is it something you will try and make and then give as a sweet gift? What are some of your favorite things to make and give as gifts? I would love for you to share.

XO,

Andrea

Mama Crafting: Deer Head Holiday Pillow

I'm not sure that I've ever shared the news here, but about a month ago or so, my mom and I opened a booth space in Louisburg, KS. That's right, we are business owners. Or at least my mom is. I merely help her find the finds, make the crafts, and set up the booth. I'm the hired help! And, just recently, we expanded! We now have two booths side by side which allows us to house way more stuff! And we have stuff.

Within this booth space, I mentioned that I was in charge of crafts and I've been crafting like mad! Our newest creation is a deer head silhouette holiday pillow and I'm kind of obsessed with them! And because I love them so much, I thought I would provide a how-to. Not that I really want you running out and making your own, I would prefer you buy ours, but who I am to keep a good thing to myself. Consider this my holiday gift to you!

First you start with an image. I found a free image and had my dad format it to fit a 15X15 pillow. Next, print out the image. Here is what you need: scissors, a stencil sheet, black permanent marker, Exacto knife, the fabric you want to cut the deer out of out, the fabric for the front and back of the pillow, Poly-Fill to stuff the pillow, and fabric glue. 

I cut out the deer head image and laid it on the stencil sheet.

I traced out the deer head using a permanent black marker.

  From there, I attempted to cut it with the Exacto knife, but my dad stepped in when he realized I wasn't doing it correctly. I was getting jagged edges and you can't have that! 

I took the hollowed portion of the stencil and placed it on the fabric. I traced it out using the marker, but I would suggest a white crayon. (I used those on all of the other pillows we made.) I didn't account for the trace marks bleeding through so I had to make sure to cut a little on the inside of the trace marks. 

The cutting out of the deer head took FOREVER! You need a lot of time and a lot of patience. But, he was super cute in the end. So now you need to place it on your pillow front. To find the center, fold the fabric in half and the deer head silhouette in half. I placed it on the fabric and began measuring from the bottom of his chin to the bottom of the fabric and from the beginning of his head to the top of the fabric. From there, I just continued to move him up and down on the fabric until there was the same amount of space between the top and bottom. 

Now you're ready to start gluing. I just started at one of the deer head, applied glue, pressed down, and continued all around the silhouette until it was completely glued. After it dried, I went back and lifted the edges to see if any were loose. If so, I just added small amounts of glue.

Here are our fabric choices.

Now it's time to sew. I left this task up to my mom. She pinned the pillow together, leaving space at the bottom so she could stuff the pillow. 

She sewed all the around the pillow, stitches showing, until she reached the stuffing point. 

And then she stuffed it!

She then sewed up the bottom and a deer head pillow was born!  

This was our prototype and it resides in my living room. We have since made two more and we've done things a little differently. Instead of sewing the stitches on the outside edges of the pillow, my mom has turned the fabric inside out and now the stitches are no longer visible. It's just more aesthetically pleasing. 

And there you have it! The how-to for the cutest deer head holiday pillow. Is this something you're going to attempt to make or take a little trip to Louisburg to purchase? If you can't make the trip, we can make them to order! Just ask.

Happy Crafting!

XO, 

Andrea