Christmas Wreath

I loved the way my fall wreath turned out. So once November/December came, I knew I had to make another one. This one turned out great, and again it was under $20 to make!


Here it the wreath on the yellow door:

I was nervous what color would work well against the yellow the door, but the blue and silver worked perfectly.

I purchased the bare wreath at Hobby Lobby.
The other things that are in the wreath I purchased at a variety of stores (Hobby Lobby, Jo-Anns, Michaels, Target, and Dollar Tree)
-Small bulbs
-Silver Ribbon
-Blue Snowflake Ribbon
-Silver Bells
-Various silver and blue picks
-Hot Glue
-Floral Wire 

Here is an upclose look:

Ruffled Burlap Tree Skirt

I'm in the process of finishing up all of my Christmas decorations, and the tree skirt that I made might be my favorite thing that I have made. I had seen different versions of a ruffle tree skirt on Pinterest. The direction that mirrored were from The Johnston's blog. Her versions looked like this:

http://anwjohnston.blogspot.com/2011/10/diy-no-sew-ruffle-christmas-tree-skirt.html

 

These are the materials that I started with:

-2 yds of Red Metallic Burlap ($12.99/yd at Jo-Anns)

-2 yds of Brown Burlap ($3.99/yd at Jo-Anns)

-Cheap Tree Skirt (Purchased for $1)

-Glue Gun & Lot of hot glue sticks

 

I started in the middle of the circle to make sure I had enough burlap to do the whole tree skirt. Probably not the best method, as it led to a couple more burnt fingers than if I started at the edges.

Here is how it looked when I first started:

While I burnt a couple fingers and this project took a few hours to make, it looks gorgeous under my Christmas tree.

Here is the final product:

 

Crocheted Bow Headband

Recently I have been messing around with crochet headbands. Learning to crochet was apart of my overarching New Year's resolution to become a domesticated woman. Knowing that I would be attending a big Thanksgiving day parade, I decided to make a big, fun crocheted headband that I found on Pinterest.

Here is the inspiration from the people webs blog:

http://peoplewebs.blogspot.com/2010/11/bow-headband-tutorial.html

 

This is my version:

 I varied with her pattern in order to make it fit properly around my head, and for the bow to fit as well. It was super easy to make, and was fun to wear during the parade.

Chalkboard Wine Bottle

I had an empty wine bottle on hand from after a lovely visit from one of my friends and had it stored in a cupboard until I had the idea to spray paint it with Chalkboard paint. I had seen different variations on Pinterest, and decided to give it a try. It worked out great, just haven't decided what I want to write on it yet.

Here is the paint that I used. I purchased it at my local Meijer.

Since I haven't decided what to write on it yet, I have been just decorating it with bows. For Halloween it had an Orange silk ribbon. Now, it is a adorned with red burlap that I bought at Jo-Anns to match my recently made tree skirt.

Here is the finished product:

Whale You Be My Valentine?

I was combing through my completed Pinterest projects, and ran across this picture which was the inspiration for a Valentine's card that I made this year.

http://www.oceansinitiative.org/ecosystems/

Here was my version:

I think the recipient of the card liked it...or at least he said he did. Only 3 more months til Valentine's Day and more Valentine's Day cards!

Fall Wreath

As I prepare for my new Christmas decorations, it is time to take down my fall wreath. 

This wreath looked so good against the yellow door, and was really inexpensive to make!

The base wreath was from JoAnn's, along with the 2 leaves and wood/twig picks. I picked up 5 sets of orange flowers at my Dollar Tree. A little bit a hot glue, and out turned an awesome wreath!

Below is an upclose view:

DIY Bat Garland

In my last post, I said how excited I was for Halloween. I was so excited that I decked out my whole living room in decorations. I have this gorgeous fireplace, so when I was strolling Pinterest and saw a link for paper bat garland, I knew I had to make it.

I got my inspiration from a post on Henry Happened.
http://www.henryhappened.com/diy-bat-garland-free-download.html

Here is my take:

 

What you need:
-A bat template (I Google bat clip art and picked one I liked)
-Black poster board (This is the same poster board I used for my Minnie Ears)
-Black yarn
-Scissors
-Hole Punch

1. I traced out 12 bats, but it really depends on the length of your fireplace. I had four swoops with 3 bats each.
2. Once you have cut out all of you bats, hole punch each wing so you have a place to thread your string.
3. Thread your bats on you black yarn and secure to your fireplace with pieces of tape. For me, I started on one end of the fireplace, and taped the yarn, then slide each bat on individually. Taping each swoop to the fireplace as I went.

This had a such a polished look and was so simple to make. The nice thing too, it keeps for next year too!

Minnie Mouse Ears

I was super excited for my 1st Halloween on Espie Drive. I had spent weeks combing Pinterest looking for Halloween costume ideas. There are some pretty creative ones out there. After seeing someone pull a simple Mickey Mouse look with a black long sleeve shirt and red shorts, I knew I could pull off that look too. I had a black sweatshirt and red jeans on hand. What I needed was the iconic ears and Minnie Bow.

Here is my finished product:

This project cost less than $5, plus I got to keep the left over poster board and ribbon. Plus I got a new headband too!

To make you own Minnie ears you need:
-Black Poster Board/ Construction Paper
-Thick Red Ribbon (I painted my polka dots on, but you could skip that by purchasing already polka dotted ribbon)
-Thin black headband
-Tape
-Scissors
-Pencil/Pen
-Object to trace to make circles. I used the top of a glass for these 3" diameter circles

1. First trace one circle onto you poster board.
2. Next you are going to draw a tab coming off of the circle you just made that is twice the width of your headband.
3. On the other side of the tab you just drew, draw another circle that is in line the previous drawn one.
4. Cut out the shape that you just drew, making sure the 1st circle, the middle connected tab, and 2nd circle stay together in one piece.
5. Once you cut that out, take trace and cut out the same shape so you now have two pieces. Minnie has two ears, you know :)
6. Take the first shape you made, and fold it in half so the the circles line up and tape them together make sure to leave an open part by the connecting tab to slide the headband through. This is why we made that connecting portion twice the width of the headband.
7. Do the same thing to the 2nd cut out that you made, and slide it onto the headband. You should have two ears on the headband. You can stop here if you are going for the Mickey look.
8. I fashioned a red bow that I had painted with white polka dots and taped it to one ear to finish off the look.

Super simple and survived the whole night!

Purple Polka Dot Nails

Lately, I have been obsessed with painting my nails and looking through countless nails tutorials on Pinterest. My latest creation was Purple Polka Dot nails. I figured this would put me in the spirit to go hunting for purple bridesmaid dresses with my soon-to-be married best friend the next day.

Here is the finished look:

These were super simple to make and could include any color nail polish that you have on hand.

The colors I used were:

Purple: Sinful Colors' Amethyst
White: Sinful Colors' Snow Me White
Glitter: Sinful Colors' Queen of Beauty
Top Coat: Sally Hansen's No Chip Acrylic Top Coat


So here is how you achieve this look:
1. Coat your nails with your base color. In my case it was purple. You can do two coats depending on the coverage of the color.
2. Once your base color is dry use a dotting tool of sorts. I used the bottom of an inexpensive plastic paintbrush that I picked up at the dollar store. Other possible options if you don't have a professional dotting tool include bobby pins or toothpicks to name a couple. Dip your dotting tool into the nail polish that you want to use for the dots. Remember to only get a small amount of polish on the dotting tool. We don't want to have runny, messy polka dots.
3. On each nail, place a handful of dots of that one particular color. I did all ten nails with that one color before moving onto the glitter color.
4. Once the first dot color dries, repeat step 3 and 4 with a 2nd color, with each dot slightly overlapping the first color. You could continue with more and more colors, but I settled on two dot colors.
5. Once all of your nails are dry, seal off you work with a top coat. This will also help smooth out your dots for a more finished look.

When I did my nails, I focused on placing the dots to one side of the nail. However, you could place the dots on the top, bottom, or diagonal. The sky is pretty much the limit with this style.