wedding party hangers: guest post!

You're in for a real treat! Not only is this a non-wreath post (FINALLY!), this craft and DIY is courtesy of my sister! Unlike me, she's always been very crafty. She has been into scrapbooking for years, always making such creative and cute books. I may be a little biased, but my favorite is the scrapbook she made of my wedding. :)

Now, as hard as it is for me to believe, it's my sister's turn to get married. She is and always will be my LITTLE sister (we're seven years apart), so it boggles my mind that she's an adult now. The big day is fast approaching: May 25th! We have done a couple of DIY crafts for the event so far- some still in progress. This craft was actually one we didn't know Julie was making: personalized wooden hangers for the bridesmaids! When our dresses arrived at the bridal shop, she had displayed them all on our own hangers. I immediately commented that they were so cute: she got them on Etsy, right?? I had seen them on Etsy, and how nice of her to buy them for us!

To my surprise, she made them herself! Despite her crafty nature, I seriously was taken aback for a few seconds that she made them herself. They're so nice, and personalized with the main wedding color, title of each girl, and each girl's first name.

I asked if we could please feature these here, because I bet a lot of brides would like to do this for their girls. So, here is the surprisingly simple DIY: enjoy!

Supplies:

• Desired number of wood hangers (1 per member of bridal party)
• Big pack of black scrapbook stickers 
• Desired color sparkly paint by Martha Stewart (found at A.C. Moore) - my sister chose purple, which is the same as her main wedding color
• Medium sized paint brushes 
• Desired color ribbon (recommend it matches the sparkle paint)

Instructions:

Step One: Place stickers on the hangers in this order: title- name- wedding date

Ex: Mine says... Matron of Honor  Emily  05.25.13

Step Two: Paint the entire surface of the hanger with the glitter paint. It's okay to use paint over top of the stickers. Be sure to let the paint dry completely before moving to the next step.

Step Three: Tie ribbon around the top of the hanger (metal hanger part).

Step Four: This comes verbatim from my sister: "Ta da! :-)" LOL...oh, that's my sister! ;)

Below are photos of some of the supplies used and the hangers during various points in the process.

Total time for the project was 4-5 hours with the help of her lovely fiance (yes, somehow she got him to partake in crafting! He's a keeper! :))

Go ahead and make your own- your bridesmaids will love them (we totally do!)

lucky wreath (yes, another wreath!)

Another wreath post, but this one is timely since I'm catching up and actually posting BEFORE the holiday passes!

This is a St. Patrick's Day themed ribbon wreath. The idea of a ribbon wreath was inspired by this blog post and Pinterest find. I really liked the idea of choosing different kinds, colors and patterns of ribbon to convey a theme. I don't know about you, but when I go to the craft store and roam the ribbon aisles, I'm strangely mesmerized at all the choices. Maybe it's this horribly grey winter that make the endless spools of color splash so exciting, lol!

Anyway, my weird affinity for ribbons aside, I decided on a St. Patrick's Day wreath. My husband's favorite color is green, and he's extremely Irish, so I thought this was a nice wreath to display on our front door. Here is the finished wreath - then, keep reading for the DIY! After which you will go and make your own!

Supplies: 

• 12" extruded Styrofoam wreath
• 7 or 8 different kinds of corresponding types of ribbon. I didn't pay attention to how big the spools were, I'm sorry! I was able to make two wreaths with the amount of ribbon you see below.
• TIP: The best kind of ribbon for this project is grosgrain. Wire ribbon is okay, and actually is easy to shape into a loop. I do NOT recommend sheer ribbon; that was very problematic for me. Also, variety is good in terms of how thick your ribbon is, but the more thin ribbon you buy, the more it takes to cover the wreath.
• Dressmaker pins
• Decorative element if desired (mine was a glitter foam cutout that says "Lucky" and a corresponding glitter shamrock. Only $1 at A.C. Moore!)
• Glue gun

Instructions:

Step One: Wrap your wreath with one of your ribbon choices. The thicker the ribbon, the less you waste on this part. I say waste because you will barely be able to see this when the wreath is covered in ribbon. It's better than leaving it white underneath, though, which is definitely visible if you miss any spots. I used a solid green grosgrain ribbon because it was cheap and wrapped easily. Use your hot glue gun to glue the ribbon on at the start and ending of your wrapping it.

 

 Step Two: Cut your lengths of ribbon. I found conflicting posts online regarding how long the strips should be. For my first wreath, I made them 4" long each. For my second one, I did 5.5" each. I think 5" would have been ideal in terms of the ribbon being easier to pin but not too droopy on the wreath. Start by cutting 20 pieces of each type of ribbon you bought. The photo below shows the 4" cut pieces before I started pinning them on.

Step Three: This step is optional. I did not do it for the first wreath. I thought it would be an extra unneeded step. I was wrong. You see, looping the ribbon (especially if it's just 4" long) and pinning it to the wreath can be tricky at times. You get one side pinned and then the loop comes undone. It was maddening at times! So, for the second wreath I decided to glue the ribbon loops shut before I pinned them on. Again, I originally thought this step would be a waste of time, but it saved me frustration and a string of curse words later on! :) All you need is to form a loop with your ribbon and use your glue gun to put a small dot of glue on each corner to keep it closed. It sets quickly. The photo below was taken when I made my second wreath- these are the 5.5" lengths of ribbon, glued into loops before I began pinning. 

Step Four: Place any decorative elements on your wreath in the beginning. You will be working around them with the ribbon loops; you don't want to glue the decoration on top of perfectly nice ribbon loops. It won't be super sturdy and it's a waste of (now flattened) ribbon. Use super glue or a glue gun to adhere your decoration in place.

Step Five: Pin the loops onto your wreath. You need to cover the front, outer circle and inner circle only. The back is left uncovered. Alternate your ribbon evenly. For example, I would pin one of each kind of ribbon, then started over again. This way, there was a fairly equal amount of each ribbon type/pattern on the wreath when finished. I used two pins per loop to keep the ribbon securely in place.

Step Six: Cut a length of ribbon in the same color scheme as your wreath. You will be doubling it over, so make it twice as long as you want your hanger to be. I wanted to use one of the two special St. Patty's Day ribbons I had, so that I could really showcase the theme. I cut it about 12" inches long and folded it over. Then I pinned the open ends to the back of the wreath using 4 dressmaker pins, and I was done!

Below, you will see both versions of the wreath. You can decide for yourself if you like the one with shorter loops (thus more ribbon loops needed), or the one with longer loops (thus less ribbon loops needed). I will say that I like the one with the shorter loops better, BUT I liked that the longer loop ribbon took me about an hour less to complete. Total approximate time for this project is 4 hours.

I went crazy and bought spring colored/themed ribbon, so look for that in upcoming weeks! For now, I'm going to step away from wreaths, though (as promised!)- a couple new posts will be coming over the next 2-3 days, so stay tuned. 

If you make (or have made) a ribbon wreath, please post a link so that we can see it- I love seeing all the different versions that people make! :) 

pinked felt wreath

By this point, any visitors to my blog probably think I only make wreaths, lol! There is some truth to this, as the majority of the projects I've done so far have been wreaths. That's where I felt a "comfort zone" for a bit- not to mention that I found so many on Pinterest that were cute!

I do promise that soon, we will move from wreaths to some home decor, signs, Mod Podge projects and wedding DIY projects. Those are still in progress, though, and I've already completed two more types of wreaths that are super easy and fun to make. I'm sure you'll want to try these, so stick with me and my wreath posts a little while longer. :)

This next wreath is one I made for Valentine's Day. It has a very simple supply and instruction list. I won't lie, though- it is time consuming. It's something you can work on while you watch TV at night, though, so that makes it go pretty quickly.

Here's the finished product:

List of supplies:

• 1 yard of felt - for V-Day, I chose pink and a purple-ish pink for my sister's wreath. You could choose any color depending on the holiday or season you want the wreath to represent!
• Dressmaker pins
• 12" extruded styrofoam wreath (an extruded foam wreath holds pins very well)
• 3" circle template: I used a plastic cup that had an opening 3" across. You could make a template out of cardboard, but to get a perfect circle, just find something around the house that's about the right size (mug, cup, cans in your pantry)
• Pinking shears
• Glue gun
• Pencil
• Decorative element - mine was a glitter heart that I found at a local craft store

Instructions

Step One: Use a pencil to trace circles on the felt. I cut the felt into smaller pieces to make it easier to move around, and it's easier to cut later when it's not one in-tact big yard of material.

Step Two: Use pinking shears to cut out your circles. You will need a LOT of circles - you'll use about 3/4 of your yard for a 12" wreath. I estimate I traced and cut over 200 circles for this wreath - no joke! So settle in for awhile; steps 1 and 2 take a lot of time.

As you can see below, here are what your cut felt circles will look like. The ridged edges really add visual interest and depth to the wreath. You could just use regular fabric scissors, but I do highly recommend using pinking shears. 

 

















Step Three: Fold a felt circle in half, as shown in the photo.

























Step Four: Push a dressmaker pin through the bottom of the folded felt circle, about 1/2 inch from the bottom (as shown in the photo).














Step Five (Through Step 200 :)): Pin your felt folded circle to the wreath. You will only need to cover the front, outer circle and inner circle of the wreath - the back is left undone, since it won't be seen when it's hanging. Some tips when you are doing your pinning: you can turn the circles in different directions to make the wreath look more interesting. For example, with the folded part facing left, facing right, facing down, etc. It's kind of hard to describe, but you'll see when you start doing it. Also, pin your circles extremely close to one another. The idea here is that you won't see any of the white wreath underneath when you're done.

Step 201: Use your hot glue gun or super glue to attach your accessory anywhere on the wreath. In my case, it was a super cute glitter heart from the craft store.

Step 202: Cut a length of ribbon in the same color scheme as your wreath. You will be doubling it over, so make it twice as long as you want your hanger to be. I love the ribbon I found - it's a grosgrain pink and white polka dot ribbon. I cut it about 12" inches long and folded it over. Then I pinned the open ends to the back of the wreath using 4 dressmaker pins, and I was done!

Once again, the finished wreath! I ended up making two of these and gave both away. By the time I was done, I didn't want to make one for myself because they're so time-consuming!! :) I'll have to go back to it later when I'm not quite as burnt out with this particular project. I estimate spending 8 hours on each wreath. Well worth it, though (I think!) - what do you think?

Credit to: all things simple, the blog that provided me with the original inspiration and DIY to make a pinked felt wreath.

Christmas Ornament Wreaths: {re}visited

As promised in my first post about Christmas ornament wreaths, here is more information on how to make these festive decorations.

When I made my first wreath, I noticed a couple of things that posed a challenge. First, I added garland/extras to the wreath at the very end. This was a mistake, because by that time the wreath was very full. It wasn't easy to navigate tiny open spaces to hot glue these sprigs and glittery leaves!

Also, I learned that it might have been better to have more than two sizes or Christmas ornaments. As I filled in the wreath, I did have empty spaces where the ornaments I had just wouldn't fit. I used small and even mini ornaments to solve this problem.

Buying the Ornaments

Finally, I did research regarding the best places to get Christmas ornaments for an affordable price. I was lucky because I started this crafting venture in November, which was prime time for ornaments in local big box stores. However, I found that prices varied enough to warrant shopping around, and color choices were minimal at some places. I also found out that whenever possible, it's a good idea to buy a "shatterproof ornament set." This typically consists of 50 or 100 assorted ornaments in a large plastic cylinder. 

The best stores to buy assorted ornament sets are: KMart, Wal-Mart, Home Depot. Most of these sets include ornaments in 2 or 3 different colors, or 2 or 3 shades of the SAME color- and almost always include mostly round ornaments with occasional different shapes thrown in. There are typically assorted sizes  Because it was holiday time, these sets were in the $20 range.

If you are looking for ornaments in large numbers - 25-100 per pack - but you want a single color per pack, the best stores to find these are: Target and Big Lots.  These packages are usually more expensive - for example, a pack of 25 silver at Target was $15. I was lucky enough to find a 50 pack of blue ornaments at Big Lots for just $12, but that was AFTER Christmas. 

A really good website for buying color specific ornaments in all sizes, shapes and finishes is Christmas Central . I found hot pink ornaments there, which are VERY difficult to find in other stores.

Remember, when buying your ornaments:

• They should be shatterproof
• You should get 3-5 different sizes of ornaments
• Don't forget to make sure you have one or two small/"mini" sizes to fill in empty spaces
• For a 14 inch wreath that is very full, you will need a total of approximately 125 ornaments. Adjust this total for a smaller wreath or if you don't want to make it as full.
• I always made sure that I had 50 ornaments that are "medium" sized, or approximately 2.5'' (60mm) around.

Making the Wreath: {Re}vised Version

After that first ornament wreath I made for my mother, I made three more: one for my best friend, one for my sister and one for our family. Once again, here are the supplies and instructions for making an ornament wreath. I did make some revisions from the instructions in my first post, to account for some of the new things I learned as I made more wreaths. 

• A straw wreath (14 inches)
• Shatterproof ornaments. Recommend approx. 125 ornaments, 50 which are "medium" sized, about 25 that are larger, and the rest will be small and mini for fill-ins.
• Glue sticks 
• Glue gun (I "borrowed" my mom's glue gun - my sister pretended she needed it and passed it on to me to use. :))
• Ribbon (the wider the better!) It doesn't matter what kind of ribbon it is, but keep in mind that you use it for the wreath hanger, too, so you will want to color coordinate the ribbon. I can't remember how much of it I needed, I'm sorry! To be safe, you could get a 10 yd. spool and I'm fairly certain that will be long enough.
• Some sort of garland/decoration (glitter spirals, glitter branches/leaves, bead garland)

Here is a very brief run-down of how I made the wreath, followed by progress pictures as I went along.
 

1. Take the plastic off of your straw wreath.

2. Hot glue the start of your ribbon to your wreath, then wrap the wreath (without cutting the ribbon until you're done!) - when done, cut the ribbon and hot glue the end of the ribbon down.

3. Take ribbon and make a "hanger" for the wreath. Hot glue the ribbon in place.

4. Take the little "metal tops" off of your ornaments. 

5. Make sure the holes at the top of the ornaments are facing down when you adhere them to the wreath (not visible). 

6. Hot glue your ornaments to the ribbon-wrapped wreath. Start by gluing your biggest ornaments around the outside of the entire wreath. You will want to glue them directly to the wreath and also put a dab of glue between two ornaments to hold them together.

7. Add garland/decorations as you go. Before you get too many ornaments on, you should glue these on. They can stick out from the sides and you glue the ornaments around them. It's much easier to add these as you go instead of waiting until the end.

8. You will do the outside ring of the wreath, then a layer on top of that...then you will do a third layer toward the inner circle and the inner circle itself. 


Here are photos of the three wreaths I made. If you have any questions about the process, please comment! Otherwise, go ahead and give it a try! I seriously had zero experience, art/crafting skills and just a brief online description of how to do this. You can do it, too! :)

Pink/Silver BFF Wreath:

Purples/Silver Sister Wreath:

Blues/Silver Family Wreath: 

interest in my pinterest

I've been spending a lot of time on my Pinterest lately, which is a good and bad thing. Bad because Pinterest is extremely addictive and time-consuming. Good because I have found some really cool craft projects and printables that I've pinned for endless hours of future crafting!

Feel free to "follow" my Pinterest account so that you may access these ideas, too! Link below:

Pinterest by Emily / {un}closeted crafter

mini glue gun!

Never in a million years did I think I'd get so excited about a glue gun! Lol! Here's the reason I'm getting all worked up about this.

This is a low temp mini glue gun. First, when I was making my Christmas ornament wreaths, there were a lot of tight spaces that I needed to glue- my regular sized gun wasn't always the best for that and I dripped more glue than I would have liked. Also, I burned myself 3 or 4 times making those wreaths- badly!!

The glue gun I just invested in should help with those issues. It was $9.99 at AC Moore, included 10 mini glue sticks, a glue drip pad and I had a 40% off coupon. Since it's low temp, the gun doesn't get as dangerously hot, but it's still hot enough to melt the glue to do its job. I also have some upcoming projects that just need small dabs of glue on sometimes delicate materials. Some projects are secret related to my sister's bridal shower and wedding. I can post those once those events are over in April and May :)

Anyway, I'm pretty happy with this new tool and, once again, find myself in awe of how excited I could get over a glue gun! I mean, it's super cute too!! See the floral pattern?? I'm not sure who I am anymore, lol....

Will let everyone know how it works and if it was worth buying.

First Craft: Christmas Ornament Wreath (Part 1, Beginner)

November 2012 was my first foray into the "world of crafting." I was inspired by Pinterest and a specific type of wreath I had seen in some of the "big box" stores.

These wreaths featured multi-colored Christmas ornaments. Some were fuller than others: most definitely the handmade ones! The manufactured versions I saw were sparsely decorated with ornaments, and used filler like tinsel and garland. I was shocked that these were selling for retail between $39.99 and $59.99 for what I'd consider a "medium" size. 

Somewhat spontaneously, I decided I was going to try making my own Christmas ornament wreath based on a "DIY" tutorial I had seen via a post on Pinterest.  I had very little concept of how many ornaments I'd need, or how expensive that could be. Thankfully, since it was November, finding the ornaments was easy. Doing the shopping around for the best price was what was most time-consuming, though! Eventually, I found that the following stores had really good deals on packs of shatterproof ornaments: Big Lots, Wal-Mart and Home Depot. You could get 50 to 100 ornaments for around $30. This may sound like a lot of ornaments, but the tutorial told me I would need about 100, so I made sure to buy plenty.

I decided that I was going to make this wreath for my mom. I thought: if it turns out nicely, she will have something pretty to hang at Christmas (I planned to give it to her as an early present). She's impossible to shop for, so I thought she might appreciate something handmade that was NOT a deformed statue of Kristi Yamaguchi! ;) I also figured that if it turned out to be a disaster, she would A) Pretend to like it or B) I could throw it away and never speak of it to anyone. :)

I decided on using red, gold and green ornaments because red is her favorite color, and this seemed like a traditional and "safe" choice for this wreath.

In addition to the ornaments, I needed:

• A straw wreath (14 inches)
• Glue sticks 
• Glue gun (I "borrowed" my mom's glue gun - my sister pretended she needed it and passed it on to me to use. :))
• Ribbon (the wider the better!)
• Some sort of garland/decoration to use in any empty spaces

I found the wreath, glue sticks and garland at A.C. Moore. I did shop around to see what craft store would have the best deal: we have JoAnn's, A.C. Moore, Michael's and Hobby Lobby locally. Honestly, the prices were very similar at each; I was sure to use a coupon at A.C. Moore that took 40% off the price of my wreath! (They're normally $3.99). Note: these stores will all accept competitor coupons. So, look online, in your newspaper or on an app for your smartphone to get coupons for every time you go to a craft store. Seriously, they ALWAYS have coupons floating around, so there should never be a time you go into a craft store and pay full price! (end of money-saving rant:)).

I did find that the ribbon at the craft stores was more expensive than what I could find elsewhere. Wal-Mart can have slightly lower prices on ribbon. Various dollar stores also carry seasonally decorated/colored ribbon - they had autumn themed rolls when I was there that were, unfortunately, the wrong color for what I needed.

I ended up finding a fabulous deal on red sheer wire ribbon at The Christmas Tree Shop. The tutorial said it could be sheer or solid, and the $1.99 price for a huge roll sounded great to me! Unfortunately, I didn't know at the time that I would be doing a crafting blog, or I would have kept better track of exact prices and how much ribbon, etc. I think it was a 10 yard roll and I used about half to wrap the wreath.

Thankfully, I did take photos during my wreath-making process, even though I didn't document every single step. I'll try to be more thorough now what I know people will be reading my instructions (if I ever get anyone to read this blog, that is! :)). Here is a very brief run-down of how I made the wreath, followed by progress pictures as I went along.

1. Take the plastic off of your straw wreath.

2. Hot glue the start of your ribbon to your wreath, then wrap the wreath (without cutting the ribbon until the end!) - when done, cut the ribbon and hot glue the end of the ribbon down.

3. Take ribbon and make a "hanger" for the wreath. Hot glue the ribbon in place.

4. Take the little "metal tops" off of your ornaments. 

5. Make sure the holes at the top of the ornaments are facing down (not visible). Hot glue your ornaments to the ribbon-wrapped wreath.

6. Add garland/decorations - ta da!!!

Now, this is an EXTREMELY simplified version of the process! When I made this wreath, I burned myself twice (I have a scar from one burn, still!). I hot glued the wreath to the table on more than one occasion. 

The entire thing took more than 8 hours to complete.

So I'm definitely acknowledging that it wasn't as straightforward as the process above, but that's the general idea, and I learned some tricks as I went along. I also learned more each time I made another ornament wreath. Yes, I made more - because this one turned out quite nicely, to my surprise. Also, the response when my mom and other people saw it-- wow! I had to make some more for loved ones or they would have disowned me! 

In my next blog, part 2, I will share more of the Christmas ornament wreaths I made (with pics). I'll also share some of the lessons learned as I made more wreaths; lessons that made the process a bit easier but also improved the quality of the finished products. 

Here are the photos from this project: enjoy!

P.S. - I did end up trimming the gold garland down considerably before I gave this to my mom. They looked like cat whiskers. :)))

an {un}likely beginning

Anyone who knows me -- who TRULY knows me -- thinks it's hilarious when they find out I've started crafting. Or unbelievable. Or both.

A bit of background: when I was school-aged, I didn't exactly excel in art. Even the most basic skills eluded me. Well, I could color inside the lines - aside from that, I was a disaster in art class.

Don't believe me? Here is one of my worst (best?) creations. I'll let it sink in.

This is a fine clay creation right here. Any guesses?

This aerial view will certainly inspire you to "figure" it out...

Her enchanting eyes and luxurious lips aren't helping?

Something tells me that despite its beauty and perfection, you still have no idea what you're looking at. For some reason, I get this reaction a lot when people are exposed to this piece.

This is famous figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi, posing gracefully for you.  Oh, I assure you that I'm not joking.

With one massive leg outstretched behind her. With disproportionate arms balancing her precariously. Wearing a gorgeous pink skating dress, buttocks accidentally showing as she glides on the "ice."

I was in 5th grade when I created this monster-piece - so, in all fairness, I guess it's not awful for a 10 year old? No... it's really, really awful.

This is only one of many pathetic art class creations. I think you get the picture. Back to the story...

It wasn't until high school that I realized I actually had SOME creative ability in the art realm. This is when I learned I could take a decent photograph. I took some classes, both in high school and college. I developed my own film and printed my photos in the darkroom. Some of them were halfway decent. To this day, I enjoy taking pictures, and every now and again I take one that I think could be considered "artsy." Maybe I'll post some in a future blog post (again, as proof :)) - but I need to move on with this story.

(Again, those who TRULY know me -- and those who end up reading this blog -- will attest to the fact that I am VERY wordy and love to tell stories within stories. I'll try my best to keep it in check. ;)).

Fast forward to 2012. There was a lot of time between college ending and 2012 - see, I'm doing much better at cutting to the chase! 

Last year is the year I started "dabbling" with crafting. I blame or credit Pinterest, depending on how you look at it. Pinterest is ADDICTIVE. I started browsing the DIY section and I was amazed at what people were capable of creating. This is where I found my first craft idea (more on that in my next post). 

It was really a stretch of my imagination to decide I was going to attempt that first craft. I knew my track record with making beautiful art wasn't great. Plus, I had an idea in my head about what constitutes a "crafter" - a stereotype that I think many others have, too. C'mon, you can admit it....you picture Suzy Homemaker "types" of women, or "old ladies," or introverted homebodies. OK, maybe that was just my horrible stereotyping? At any rate, trust me when I say that I am an unlikely candidate to become a crafter. Plus, I was sure that people would make fun of me when they found me out!

Hence my decision to keep it secret at first. (Seriously - my Pinterest board with craft ideas is still set to private, and is called "closeted crafter)!

After the success of my first project (more on that in the next post too, I promise!), I gained the slightest bit of confidence in my ability. Very slight. But, I had learned something from the process of making that first craft that really fueled my interest in continuing.

I learned that I could escape when I crafted. I could focus on and ENJOY what I was doing, without a lot of outside "noise" going on in my mind.

This was incredible, because for that past year (or so), I had been extremely stressed, busy and preoccupied most days. The two biggest reasons? Having and raising our first child (b. May 2011), and opening my own business. Yeah, kind of hectic.

So, I learned that for me, crafting is a good distraction... it can be a lot more fun than I thought... and I actually don't suck at it! Seriously, against all odds - wait until you see a couple of the things I've made, and I'm hoping you'll agree.   

I started this blog because I wanted to share my projects with simple instructions so that you may try to create them, too! I also wanted to dispel the idea that crafting is for a certain "type" of person by telling you my story. Additionally, I want to instill confidence in people that don't have much natural artistic ability - you CAN become a crafter! Follow my blog to find out how!