Simple Rosettes

I am one of those people who go on Pinterest, pin something and then either one of two things comes out of my mouth:

Option one "wow, this is amazing I'm going to do this, save this for later and it will look/taste exactly like what I pinned" (which is said about 95% of the time but I end up forgetting I pinned it! never get around to it or the pinned item doesn't end up like how it's suppose to when I try)

Option two " lets pin this and try to find an easier way and just use this as a guideline" This is what happens 100% of the time. If I can find an easier way to do something, a cheaper way or a way to use it as inspiration and create my own thing in the end, I'm all in. 

So option two it is. I have seen these fabric or felt roses around Pinterest all the time. I have read tutorials, I have watched YouTube videos. My roses never looked like anything anyone should be proud of or put their name on. I'm a very creative person, so it annoyed me to no end that I couldn't get the cutest detail in all of crafting to work. That is until the night I just did my own thing...

Isn't it just the cutest thing you have ever seen????! You better be shaking your head, smiling or clapping while saying "Yes". If not, don't worry I'll say it for you. I am still so proud I figured this out. It's not the best rose but you know what, it's cute, it looks like an actual flower and I did it using two tools anyone who doesn't craft has in their house. Now tell me you're not excited to find out how I did this!

I'm a very visual person but I also welcome the fact of directions as a crutch. Just in case something doesn't go right, or my phone dies (because let's be honest that thing is always on my person and where I google) I can rely on written directions.

1) To create the roses, you will need a piece of felt, a pair of scissors (tool #1) and masking or painters tape (not pictured, tool#2)

2) with your scissors, cut the desired amount of fabric you want, however big you want your flower just make sure you cut a square or rectangle. But don't cut the square or rectangle as big as you want the flower, if that makes sense. You will have to cut it and twirl it so you'll want to accommodate for that.

3) This is your fabric you will be working with before you "mold" it

4) Start at one end and in a circular motion cut in a swirl-ish direction. That's totally a word, ok probably not but let's pretend! Think Apple peels, or porkie pigs Q tail, or a spiral.

5) Your felt should now look like this or something similar once you are done cutting

6) With your scissors you want to create the "pedals", to do this you just cut scalloped edges into the swirled cut felt. The bigger and wider the scallops the bigger and wider your pedals. 

6a) Not pictured because I needed both hands, sorry. Take the smallest end of your swirled felt and fold it into itself, this creates the bud of the rose, then just wrap the rest of the fabric around the bud, it should start to look like a flower, make sure the bottom of the rose is flat. When all the fabric is wrapped, just take a small piece of tape and tape the end to the side to keep it together. You can also hot glue it closed as well. UPDATE: I have had my roses taped now and hung somewhere for over a week and they are holding up just fine and haven't unraveled. 

7) you just made your first rose! Keep going at it!! 

These roses are a sneak peek for a post coming later this week! Stay tuned!

Wreath in the New Year

Christmas time has come and gone. How can that be?

I feel like the tryptophan got the best of me, I took my annual after-thanksgiving-meal-snooze-sesh and woke up to gifts under the tree all wrapped and ready to be opened.

Not complaining there, Santa was very good to me this year. Being able to spend the holidays with my loved ones is what I treasure most and I got to do plenty of that this holiday season. However, it flew by. Faster than Comet, the reindeer. And that's fast, I would know. I love Christmas.

During the holiday season I did get a chance to do some crafting. Not as much as I hoped (possible new years ressie anyone?!) but I had enough time to sit down and make another wreath.

Since my first wreath experience turned out well, I gave it another go. I'm smitten.

The colors are a bit more christmas with the cream and red, but it can live throughout the holiday season and into the new year. Wrapping the wreath this time with the yarn was a bit harder than my first wreath that I've made. To figure out my "peppermint" theme I wrote on the wreath to make a grid. This grid I could follow as I wrapped. I just wen every other, red then cream then red and so on. 

After two hours I finally had a peppermint looking wreath, it helps if you put on a Christmas show while you wrap so you've got some entertainment. Just make sure you don't wrap into a different color section!

After that, I took out the hot glue gun and added some embellishments I had leftover from the holidays. I think my favorite part of this wreath are the little jingle bells. Sorry to the snowflakes, they didn't make the final cut. They kind of disappeared and seemed out of place, maybe next year snowflake, maybe next year. 

Hearing those bells every time someone comes into my home make me smile. It's the little things...

This wreath took me the same amount of time as the other did. I did have to stop for a few days because I left it at my sisters home, but we're going to pretend we didn't pause on this project due to forgetfulness. 

I'm really proud of this Christmas spirit wreath....

A Fall Fail

With DIY there is always the good, the bad and the inbetween. Some projects turn out better than you think, some don't work at all. It happens. It's DIY.

I guess it's not a total fail, since it is a bowl and that's what I intended on making. This bowl however, didn't work the way I wanted and I'm not sure where I can use it now in my home or what I can put in it. I'm not really proud of it, but I wanted to share. Maybe one of you will be able to guide me in a direction where I can't see yet, I still have some supplies left so I can re make it.

Enough negativity for one post! Let's get to the making of it...

 The supplies I used: mod Podge, a craft brush, one balloon, left over garland leaves from past projects

I had all these supplies on hand, but if you needed to go to the craft store to pick up the supplies it would run you around $15.

With scissors I just took my leaf garland strand and cut it apart. I apologize for not having taken a picture during that step. But then with each piece of leaf that came off the garland strand I just pulled apart the steam from the fabric.

Some were harder than others so the scissors would make an appearance here and there. After that, I just collected all the loose leaves in one area before I started my next step.

Introducing the mod Podge and craft brush! This is where the project got frustrating. The mod Podge wasn't working how I wanted. But, I'm getting ahead of myself.

I blew up a balloon and put one layer of mod Podge on the top of the balloon and then placed the leaves on top of the balloon that was now glued.

There was no exact placement or science for this part. Just cover the balloon with glue, place and then paint mod Podge over the leaves. That part was the hardest part. Some of the leaves just weren't sticking or as much as I put mod Podge on top of the leaves, they would move. 

After about thirty minutes of podging and placing I called it done. I wasn't really loving it but I thought maybe it will be better then I think. I should have listened to my gut instinct. I just took a kitchen cup and placed my balloon in it as a stand. Left it to dry for about four hours and then popped the balloon.

I wish I got my sister and I popping the balloon on video. Seriously. I'm still cry laughing. My sister popped hers first, and right away we just burst out laughing. The balloon slowly caved into itself and took all the leaves with it. We were so worried it wouldn't be like a bowl. But then we just had to recover the balloon and form it ourselves.

Then we got this....

Maybe mod Podge wasn't the right medium? I really want to try it again. I liked the idea of it. What do you think? A little weird right? Oh the joys of DIY crafts some days...

Canvas Memories

Keeping with creating crafts for free, I was able to preserve a memory from my recent Disney vacation using only supplies I had on hand.

The subjects? Mod Podge. A 3"x5" canvas. Grey paint. A paint brush. Photo printed out on computer paper. 

With that is as able to make this...

I have used Mod Podge in numerous projects in the past. But something about this one made my anxiety level go up just little. You see, I'm very attached to this photo. In October my sister, Jackie, and I went to Walt Disney World for my belated birthday gift. We saw Wishes, the nighttime firework show at Magic Kindgom twice out of the five days we were there. 

Wishes is at the top of my must see at Disney list. If you have been, you will understand. There is just something so magical about it. If you haven't had the chance, please promise me you will one day. 

Standing there in front of the castle and watching this show, your whole world stops. You just watch this magical firework show, you sing along with the songs that are playing, and the best part? Everyone's doing it around you. You're all watching in awe. You're all part of something for that 20 minutes each night it plays. 

So I wanted to preserve that.

I cut out my photo to size of my canvas. My picture was smaller than my canvas but I wanted to have a so called frame around it so I didn't mind. I just took grey acrylic folk art paint and painted about 3 cm on the front left and right, all the sides and top and bottom of the canvas. 

Then I took the Mod Podge and applied it to the front of the canvas. Then, I just placed the photo onto the painted glued area and pressed down. Making sure there were no bumps, creases and the photo was laying flush with the canvas and there was enough glue to hold it down. 

Once I put it down on the canvas, came the "please please do not ruin this photo" moment. Aka, the moment of truth. I took the mod Podge and lightly applied it to the top of the photo. Making sure to paint over the whole surface of the photo and the painted area of the canvas. While doing this, the Mod Podge wasn't transparent yet. So I was nervous it was going to look like I just put glue all over it. Because that's exactly what I did. After I applied all the glue, all the air pockets, bumps, lumps what have you all evened out. And a few hours later it dried.

It was ready to be hung on the wall and admired for many years. Just like I intended. So moral of the story, preserve that memory, were all nervous with sentimental things...but if you say nice things and believe in what you're doing you will love it, and that's all that matters. 

It's the Free Things in Life

That make us happy. And Ryan Renolds of course.

Crushes aside I think I got bit by the craft bug. Don't be alarmed, it's not like the Spider-Man bug where I turn into this really cool superhero. Although, being a crafter I would like to think I have a super power with anything I can find in Michaels, Joann's and Hobby Lobby. 

Over the weekend I did some crafting. Nothing heavy nothing too creative. More like a "I should really get to that" kind of craft. All of these crafts were FREE! That's right. I hoard craft supplies. You never know when you may need them. Or get the energy to want to craft. 

What I love most about free crafts is I have nothing invested in them so if they don't turn out, I didn't waste a dime or a recent coupon. Mainly the coupon. 

I do not have a green thumb. I invested an aloe plant over the summer from work. When the new floor set called for discarding the aloe plants I said I would take them home with me. Forgetting that every plant I ever have, dies. After many months of talking sweet nothings and watering the aloe plant every week it sadly died. I will never be a good gardener and I'm okay with it. Because I got a free clay pot put of it.

I just went into my craft room and pulled out some supplies to take this clay pot from ordinary to Extrordinary. Okay I may be starting to talk sweet nothings to this clay pot now. I wanted to stay in the neutral color family with hints of blue. I used puff paint to add texture onto the clay pot first before painting over it.

I really wanted the polka dots on the rim of the clay pot. And then I just started drawing this swooshy pattern. I had no result in mind. Which is very unlike me when I craft. I blame the free-ness. Like I said, I was going all in. 

I chose to paint my clay pot Snow White. If I didn't like the white, I thought this is such a small aspect of this planter that if it doesn't work out it wasn't a lot of time wasted. But I loved how crisp the white paint made it look. So I pushed on. 

Let me tell you one thing, painting clay is no joke. This babe took about two hours just to paint white. It took about 4+ coats of acrylic craft paint. I'm sure there is something else in the market to paint clay planters more efficiently with but I had this paint on hand already. I just put on a movie and painted away. The paint absorbed into the clay quickly and dried quickly. I wasn't going for non visible brushstrokes. I wanted it to look rustic loved and homemade. 

Once it was covered in white paint I chose to use my light blue as an accent color. I wasn't perfect with my brushstrokes here either. I was going for playful and handmade. The only real color I wanted on this planter was the light blue. I want this planter to be able to live anywhere and not have to worry about it standing out. 

I decided flipping over the planter would be the best action to complete the next step. I took pearl by Martha Stewart and painted thicker vertical stripes from the bottom of the blue stripe to the bottom of the planter. Then I started to add accent stripes of silver and black, making sure they were more delicate then the pearl and blue stripes. 

Originally when I flipped the planter back over to stand correctly, the stripes and the blue stripe made me think of a cucpcake. So I decided to paint more delicate horizontal stripes in the silver and black so it looked less like a bake good and more like something you would put a plant in. 

Overall, I'm proud of the the little planter that could. I still need a plant for it. And a permanent home in my home. But, I have grown to love this "if it doesn't work, it doesn't work" project planter. 

While this project was free for myself, getting the supplies to complete this project would not be over $15. 

How about you guys? Are you crafting lately? Isn't it the best feeling to do something completely free and not have any ties? 

Wreath tutorial

This year, we are holding Thanksgiving at my home. As a college kid who commutes to school daily, I still live at home, so when my Mom found out, I was the chosen child to help plan for everyone coming over. I was probably more excited than any kid my age would be.

I quickly jumped on Pinterest and started researching side dishes, desserts, crafts, anything thanksgiving themed.

Once we got the menu down and how we wanted the layout for the dinner (we have a small ranch home, 2 bedrooms 1 bath) I opened my mouth with excitement once again and said I would do the decorating too.

I decided to make this wreath. I had no directions at all, I just winged it, and I'm so proud of it. Here is the full tutorial (with pictures for us visual folks!) so you can make this for your home:

This is what you will need to complete the first portion of this wreath...I went to Michaels and filled my cart, I didn't even know Michaels had carts but I'm so grateful they did.

I just chose a fall color scheme with hints of red. I really wanted to create something that could live on the front door for all of fall. Next year I will be able to bring it out sooner. This next part took me about an hour and half to complete. I just put on a movie and started...

I chose to wrap the Styrofoam wreath with the brown yarn and introduce the red yarn later on. With my thumb I held down the previous wrapped area and with my right hand I took the yarn and just wrapped it around, I tried to make sure the tension was the same all the way through. 

I found it easier to cut a small portion of the yarn ball it up in my right hand and wrap that way. At first trying to get all the yarn through the wreath was tough. Once I figured that out I was flying along. That is until my yarn ball ran out...

Then I just cut more yarn ( I just pulled from the original yarn ball, usually counted to a double digit number as I pulled to guarantee I had enough slack) and took the old end and tied it to the new end. I then camoflauged the knots when I wrapped around that area. The styrofoam helped a bit and grabbed the fibers from the yarn so I didn't have to worry about it sticking out. 

An hour and a half later I flipped it over and had a perfectly yarn wrapped wreath. At this point it was midnight so I decided as much as I loved my new wreath sleep was much more important. Quick tip: When deciding between sleep and a wreath, always choose sleep. Sleep is always good. The wreath will be there in the morning.

So the next morning I took out my round two of supplies

You probably wouldn't need the cutting board but I was sitting on my living room floor, so the cutting board was needed. I decided to just use some left over card stock to use as a template and see if the size I cut out would fit my wreath. I was going for an argyle pattern, so squares was the name of the game. 

2" x 2.5" worked out well for the vision I had... with that I introduce the felt

I then layered all the felt together, took my template and figured I would need about 12 squares, so 4 per piece of felt. I drew on the top piece of felt and just cut the squares out.

I had 12 total squares now...then I took out my wreath and placed the squares around the wreath making sure no like colors were next to one another, that is until I got to the end and realized I needed an open space for my leaves and decorations

I then took my hot glue gun and started to glue down my felt pieces making sure to get enough glue to keep it secure over the long haul

Then just pat down your squares to make sure they stick as you go

The next thing I did was bring out my red yarn and started to pull it out and cut a small amount of yarn since I only needed it to go around twice

On the back side I just tied it and glued the red yarn to the brown yarn so it would stay, and made sure as I went the tension was the same.

Once I finished going around the one way, I started the other way and made sure the red yarn crossed over each other to make an "X" over the pieces of felt...

This is what it looked like when I was all done with my yarn wrapping

It's really pretty as is and if you wanted you could just stop there, but I knew what I wanted to complete it would make this already pretty looking wreath look gorgeous. 

I just ripped apart some fall garland I purchased, taking one berry cluster and some leaves from one and some flowers from a fall bouquet. With that I just stuck them into the wreath 

I made sure to hot glue the leaves and flowers to the wreath to secure them down 

then I added the finishing touch, the berry cluster and then hung it on my front door. Doesn't it just say "Happy Thanksgiving!" to you? No, just me then? Oh well I love it...