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 DIY: Chic Small Bench

Southern Unique Elegance is having a banner spring! We have expanded into a new space, a room to be exact. And as a result, we have been selling more! I think it's because you can see the pieces we have on hand, it feels more like a home, and we're really giving it our TLC. We've made weekly trips to ensure the space is clean and tidy, and we're constantly adding new pieces. We only offer things that we would use in our own home, so you know your getting quality every time.

Now, just because we're adding pieces that we would put in our home doesn't mean they start out that way! We are all about purchasing things that may or may not need a facelift. And, when they do, I'm there with my DIY skills! Recently, we bought this small bench that looked like it had stepped right out of 1992! The fabric and colors were a dead giveaway. However, the piece had nice lines and was fully functional. It just needed a little tszuj. And that's exactly what I did.

I removed the cushion from the bench for starters. The whole thing needed a new coat of paint, in a completely different color, and it needed a light sanding before I painted it. If I've learned anything in DIY, it's that you need to lightly sand anything you're going to re-paint. It helps rough up the wood, takes the sheen off of the paint, and helps the new paint adhere better. And you have far less drips! Lesson learned the hard way!!

Once the sanding was completed, it was time to paint. I'm a huge fan of spray painting. It's so much easier and I feel like I get a better coverage than brushing it on. However, there are times where a brush is what you truly need. For this, I used a high gloss black spray paint. With my handy spray nozzle. That thing is a must!!

Didn't that make a huge difference? It really gives the piece an upgrade without a lot of money! Then it was time to reupholster the top. What goes with high gloss black? Black and white toile. We had the fabric on hand from when I got a new shower curtain. That's right, this is my shower curtain. But it's such a gorgeous fabric! And obviously multi-purpose. 

So here's what you do. Take the original fabric off of the cushion by removing every staple you find. I used a screwdriver and a staple remover when I couldn't get the ones that were truly stuck! Keep the fabric because that's going to be your template. Lay out the fabric you're going to use, wrong side up, and place the original fabric over that. Cut out your new cushion covering. Again, wrong side up, place the cushion on top of the fabric.

Now it's time to upholster! The main thing to remember is to pull the fabric tight. If you don't, you will have a saggy cushion top and no one wants anything saggy! Once you have the desired tightness, begin stapling. Start on one side and then move to the opposite. And remember, something I didn't do the first time, make sure you like the placement of the fabric before you start to staple! I had to take the whole thing out because the fabric needed to be horizontal and I had it going vertically!

When it comes to the corners, pretend you are wrapping a package. Just make sure you get the corners just right. There will be a pleat, and that's okay, but you don't want to have the bulk of the fabric showing underneath. Again, staple.

Once everything is completely stapled, it's time to reattach the top to the legs. Make sure you've kept all the original screws, or other supplies, because you're going to reuse them. If they aren't able to be used again, keep one for accurate replacements.

 I love how it turned out!! It's gorgeous and so chic. And the colors are perfect for anyone's home. And if you want it, it can be yours! Just head down to Louisburg! 

Are you going to attempt your on re-upholstery project or just buy something new? Let me know if you attempt it and how it turns out!

XO,

Andrea

Mama DIY: Vintage Bar Cart

You all know that I love my vintage bar carts. There is something about the 50s and 60s that I just can't get enough of and these vintage aluminum carts are one of them. Remember this one I updated about a year ago? Well, I was at it again, but this latest one took me a year!

My mom and I found this cart last year while we took a vacation to the river. It was a mess! Rusted out, bolts that had to be cut away from the legs, and completely unusable. It had to be mine! I started working on it last August, scrubbing rust for the rest of the trip, but when we got it home, school started and I just didn't get around to working on it. All of that changed when we had some amazing weather in mid February. I was ready to tackle this potential beauty.

In the beginning, I tried everything to help remove the rust. The brush seen above, CLR which I poured directly on the shelf, steel wool, and lots of elbow grease. Nothing was working. My dad even brought over his circular sander which sat in my garage until February! That's when I got started again. Over a weekend, with amazing weather, I was able to knock off the majority of the rust from the top and bottom of each shelf. I was ready to get this thing painted and back together.

Remember to wear your face mask and gloves! The dust was disgusting and flew all over the place!!

Post sanding! Can you believe how much rust is still visible? However, they were soft and smooth and ready for paint!

My work space for the weekend.

I had picked the color months earlier, a pretty Tuscan gold. Something about the gold made me think late 60s and it was perfect! After three coats of paint per shelf, we were ready to assemble. My mom worked on the legs separately to get rid of as much rust as possible, but I ended up painting those as well. 

I even painted the original casters a shiny black! The only thing not original are the nuts and bolts. There was no way to salvage those. 

And here is the finished product!

It's all dolled up and for sale in our Southern Unique Elegance booth! Want it? It's yours! Just stop by and pick it up! I love it!! If I could find a place for it in my house, I would keep it!! 

I am on the hunt for a new bar cart! I'm obsessed with updating this vintage find and I'm thinking it's my "thing"!! What do you think of her? I think she's gorgeous!

Next DIY project is an over-sized coffee table we found at Savers. It's a Mission Style table that looks horrible! It's going to be gorgeous when it's done. Can't wait to share it with you! I also have some home interior updates to share with you as well. I'm loving home decor and design these days.

XO!

Andrea