Valentine's Ribbon Wreath

Apparently, I'm obsessed with wreaths.   

I guess there could be worse things.

In honor of Valentine's Day, Alexa helped me make a new ribbon wreath.  She cut ALL of the ribbon pieces for me and really did a great job.  

We followed the same steps as we did with our Halloween Ribbon Wreath but this time we covered the foam wreath in about 3 layers of red tulle before starting.  I'd highly recommend this!

We hung it on the mirror that is above the couch in our living room and we love it!

Happy early Valentine's Day!!

Halloween Ribbon Wreath

Ribbon Wreath's are all over Pinterest right now and I think they're super cute.  Most of the images direct you to an Etsy page and they are charging up to $100 for one. So...I thought I should try and make one myself (with a little help from Ms. Alexa, of course).

I've had a lot of nice comments about my ribbon wreath and some people have asked for directions on how to make their own so I thought I'd post a very quick tutorial.   I don't think there is any right or wrong way to do it and I just went with what was easiest.

Supplies:
Foam Wreath - whatever size you want
Ribbon in various widths and colors - LOTS OF IT!  I believe I used at least 12 different colors of ribbon.
Scissors
Straight pins (or hot glue if you're braver and less prone to burn yourself than me)
Embellishments, if desired.

Directions:
Something that you should do before you start is cover the wreath with either wide ribbon, tulle or spray paint so the white doesn't show through.  I didn't do this but wish I would've.

Next, start cutting strips of ribbon.  I decided I wanted varying lengths to give the wreath more dimension and texture.  This made it easy because I didn't do any measuring, I just cut where it looked good.  If you want your wreath to be more uniform and perfect, go with the same length of ribbon each time - probably around 4-5 inches.

Next, start making loops of ribbon and fastening them to the wreath with a straight pin.  Depending on the size/location of the ribbon you may need to use 2 pins per ribbon loop.  I chose to make my loops like this:

Then I stuck them to the wreath.  I did one type of ribbon at a time to try and place them uniformly around the wreath.  I also chose to change the direction of the ribbon loops and use no particular pattern because I liked that look better.  You could place them in the same direction in rows if you'd rather.

Then just fill in the entire top and sides of the wreath with ribbon.  This part took me several days to accomplish because I didn't have enough time in one sitting to do it all.

When the whole wreath is covered you can add embellishments if you want.  I chose a cute little spider that Alexa picked out at Michaels in the discount section.

You're done!

Children's Art Wall

The thing about having a four-year-old in preschool is we end up with A LOT of artwork.  Which is great...but I only have so much room on my refrigerator.  Alexa loves to display her creations and I thought there must be a better way.  So...I made an ART wall.   I looked on Pinterest for inspiration and although I found a bunch of cute ideas, I ended up going in a bit of a different direction than anything I had found.

I started by finding several frames that I already had but weren't currently being used.  I laid them out on the floor to try and get a feel for what the final conglomeration might look like.  I ended up using a couple more frames than what I had laid out originally.

Then I got my bucket of acrylic paint out and painted all my frames a different bright color.  Paul thought I was going crazy because I typically don't go with BRIGHT colors but I assured him it was going to be OK.

I put fabric in some of the frames, left the big center frame open and added a couple of different accents just for interest and texture.  Then we added the artwork.  We've already changed the artwork out many times and Alexa has a great time picking out pictures to hang up next.

It was a fun project that definitely adds a bit of color and fun to our dining room!

Yarn Wreath with Felt Flowers

I love Pinterest.  For a non-creative person like me, it gives me all sorts of good ideas.  Here's my latest Pinterest project:

I took a styrofoam wreath, covered it in strips of quilter's batting and then wrapped yarn around it.  And, yes, it does take a long time but I did it in stages over several days.  Then I made flowers out of felt, cut out a few felt leaves, hot-glued them in place and then added some floral pins for a finishing touch.

For a more detailed tutorial, click here.

I think it would be fun to make more for each of the seasons and major holidays.  Now if only I can justify spending time on wrapping yarn in a circle for hours!  It's not like I have anything else to do, right?    

Pinterest Project #2

This project was relatively simple...in theory.  I took a 12X12 canvas and painted it with two coats of acrylic paint.  This took me two days to get accomplished even though each coat of paint only took about one minute to apply. Next I cut out all sorts of leaf shapes from scrapbook paper.  Then I spent Parker's entire nap time one afternoon fidgeting with those leaves and cutting out different sizes to try and come up with a flower design that I liked.  Eventually I just got tired of doing that and reminded myself that I am too much of a perfectionist so I took a break.  Then when Paul got home from work, I forgot about the perfectionist part and started fidgeting with the leaves again.  At some point, I decided I should probably feed my family dinner because it was 7:30 pm.  After my family had eaten, I decided enough was enough and went with the design I had.  I used a paint brush to cover the back of the leaves with Mod Podge (starting with the inner circle) and stuck each leaf down on the canvas.  After those dried, I put a coat of Mod Podge on the whole thing.  Then for good measure, the next day I put on a second coat of Mod Podge over the whole thing and four days after I started this project, it was done!!

I would definitely use a different background color, scrapbook paper with smaller designs, and different sized leaves if I were to do this again.  Other than changing the whole thing if I could, I guess I kinda like it.

My First Pinterest Project