Irish Inspiration: Kid-Friendly DIY Wreath

Hey all!
Today I'm back with a kid-friendly craft: an Irish wreath! The whole family can have fun putting this one together :) Please excuse our wall color... we haven't gotten a chance to paint our rental home yet and remove all that terracotta from the wall! Hehe... ok, on to the craft... right after we check out the other fun Irish Inspired posts from the week!

Mon: GF Irish Soda Bread & Potato Leep Soup 

Tues: Kid-Friendly DIY Wreath (that's today!)

Wed: Toddler St. Patty's Day Gifts

Thurs: St. Patty's Day Crafts with (or for) Wee Ones

Fri: St. Patty's Day Mantel DIY Tips

I started out with the same wreath base that I've been using for the past two years, you can check out how to make it {here}. In the last move, my envelope filled with all the accessories went MIA, so I had to improvise in a hurry this year. The resulting wreath is simple enough for the whole family to participate in making! I'll walk you through how to make each element of the wreath below...

To finish off your wreath, place shamrock stickers around your wreath wherever you'd like! My stickers are actually foam stickers- the little one got a few sheets of these in her St. Paddy's Day gift basket!!

Be sure to supervise the little ones since this craft does include straight pins and scissors! Hope your family enjoys making their own wreath next year for St. Patrick's Day!
God bless,
Shauna

USA Patriotic Wreath Tutorial

Hey ya'll! Sorry I've been a bit absent- I'm taking the summer to {finally} finish up my Master's Thesis.

I wanted to share our Memorial Day/July 4th wreath that I made last year, but never posted over on this blog!! I've included a free tutorial as well!! Hope you enjoy :)

{Download Tutorial here}

Sharing Here::
Favorite Projects of 2013 @ The CSI Project

Interchangeable St Patty's Day Wreath

So today's post is a bit of a re-post from {last year}, but updated to include this year's wreath! When I created this wreath last year, I wanted it to be reusable, so all of the decorations are pinned on! Super simple solution to avoid wrapping twine around umpteen different wreath bases (I also use this wreath base for my Mother's Day wreath and my spring wreath)! So check out the original wreath and this year's wreath, and read on for a tutorial on how I made it!

• styrofoam wreath base
• festive fabric
• yarn (for background and balls)
• felt (for shamrocks and banner)
• straight pins & 2 decorative pins
• twine (I used The Twinery's cantaloupe)
• eyelets
• eyelet setter (I use a Crop-A-Dile)
• ink (I used Stazon's timber brown)
• stamps (I used Unity's February Kit of the Month 2012)
• scissors (regular and pinking shears)

.: WREATH BASE :.

• wrap the wreath in yarn- wrap a few times and then tighten, wrap a few more times, then tighten again, etc. This will ensure that none of your foam base shows through the yarn!

.: FABRIC FLOWERS :.

• cut out circles from your festive fabric in varying sizes. these will be used to make the "flowers" (6-10 circles per flower)
• put a straight pin through the center of each circle, and pin into the wreath. pin the centers of the circles close to each other to create a nice full flower. Continue pinning circles until you get a flower "fullness" that suits you :) most of mine are ~8 circles per flower, with some being fewer and some being more.

.: SHAMROCKS :.

• create your felt shamrocks (I used this tutorial here)
• pin shamrocks to wreath using straight pins. I tried to hide the pins in some of the folds of felt near the center of the shamrock.

.: TWINE BALLS :.

• create yarn balls (good tutorial here) - I use two fingers to start my yarn balls, especially since the ones on this wreath are smaller, and I change directions every ~8 loops. Once you reach your desired ball size, carefully tie off the yarn.
• pin balls to wreath with straight pins. I put the pin through a few yarn strands and then the knot where I tied off the yarn.

.: BANNER :.

• stamp images onto felt and cut out with pinking shears (or regular scissors)
• attach eyelets to each corner of felt and connect with twine
• attach banner to wreath with decorative pins
• hang wreath and enjoy! :)

.: Above :.
The final product from 2012 and the above tutorial!

.: Below :.
The final product for 2013! I used last year's shamrocks and yarn balls and added a few diecut shamrocks on crisscrossing twine. I also pinned on a small sign that has our apartment address (removed in the picture for privacy) as the numbering system is often confused by our mail carriers - easy and pretty solution to make sure they deliver packages to the right door!

.: linking up here :.
Favorite Projects of 2013 @ The CSI Project

Nedesembeğenirsin Link Party Etkinliği

  

Frugal DIY Christmas Wreath

So here's our Christmas wreath from 2 years ago! It's probably the decor item that I'm still most pleased about :) It was not only super simple, but pretty cheap too- at most $10! I originally posted it {here}, but wanted to share again with this Blessed holiday Christmas season upon us :)

Here's a lil DIY breakdown for ya...

.: materials :.

ribbon

ornaments

wire

branches

.: instructions :.

(1) start off by trimming and arranging the branches how you'd like them.

(2) take some wire and wrap it in and around the top of the branches. You don't have to worry too much about whether the wire shows since the ribbon and ornaments will cover it!

(3) string your choice of ornaments on individual wires and wrap around branches. Some wires I wrapped around the top and some wires I actually weaved into the middle area of the branches in order to get the ornaments to lay how I wanted them.

(4) Top off your branches with a big bow!

(5) String some extra wire to the back of your arrangement and use this to attach to a hook for hanging.

(6) Step back and enjoy your beautiful wreath!

See! Super simple! And cheap too... the ornaments were left over from other arrangements I had done, but I got the big ones in a larger set for $5 and the smaller ones in a big set also for $5. The ribbon was left over from other bows I bought, but that roll was $5 at most. The branches were free {yay}... call them a "gift" with purchase of our Christmas tree ;) So for the amount of each product I used, the whole wreath couldn't have cost more than $10... and you'd pay at least twice that in most stores!

.: Frugal Tip of the Day :.

Most Christmas tree shops or nurseries have tons of extra branches lying around. If you ask nicely, they will likely be more than happy to let you take a few off their hands ;)

.: linking up here :.


.: originally linked up at :.

Weekend Wrap-up Party @ tatertots and jello

Show and Tell Saturdays @ be different act normal

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Today is my first mother's day- yay! Little E is almost 4 weeks old. DH has been very sweet today- picked me up some Starbucks (decaf!), some roses, and I have a new waffle iron coming in the mail! Oh yes, and he's currently taking care of E while I relax a bit :) Love our little family!

So here's the spring/summer wreath that I made last week. I added on the little "mom" banner that I whipped up just using some paper scraps, circle punch, alpha stickers, and Twinery twine. Since I like to be able to reuse my wreath bases, the banner (as well as the pinwheels) are attached with pins!

I also spruced up our mantle a bit for the occasion (kinda looks similar to our Easter mantle, I know!)- super simple stuff since I don't have as much time to craft right now with baby and since some of my crafting stuff is already packed since we're moving to our next Army post in the coming week!

I made a super simple banner for the plant using scrap paper, an SU! punch, some Twinery twine, Memento inks, and a stamp from Unity's April KOM.

I also made some little pennants for the decorative branches using again some scrap papers, Twinery twine, circle punch, and stickers.

Well,  that's about it for now... have a fabulous Sunday and Mother's Day everyone :)

Pinwheel Wreath

{ please excuse the less-than-stellar iPhone photos! my camera is still buried somewhere in our hospital bag... }

So the hubby is reading to Little E, which means I had a little time to photograph the simple spring/summer pinwheel wreath I put together! I was inspired by {this post} over at Until Wednesday Calls where she gives a great tutorial on how to make the pinwheels.

I needed something simple for a bright festive wreath, something that I could make whilst little one napped on my lap. These pinwheels were it! I actually sewed them together instead of using hot glue {hot glue + baby = no no} and then I simply used a straight pin or two to attach each pinwheel to the wreath base. Since it already feels like summer down here in the south, I decided to make one wreath for both spring & summer- so I did a mix of springy & summery colors :)

You may recognize the wreath base from my Saint Patty's Day Wreath. That's the beauty of attaching the decorations with straight pins- you can reuse the base! Saves a LOT of time, especially since I like the yarn-wrapped look for my wreaths :) Anyhoo, I should go relieve DH from baby duty- he's making dinner tonite, such a sweetie! Hopefully I'll get another chance to post later this week- I have so many projects I've been meaning to share!!

st patty's day wreath

Hey all!! Happy Friday! So this wreath combines three of my favorite things- Unity stamps, The Twinery twine, and St. Patrick's Day!! Being half Irish, it's a big holiday in our family :) After I finished the shamrocks, yarn balls, and fabric "flowers" for this wreath, I decided to make a banner and stamp on some felt! I was super excited that it worked so well!
.: materials :.

• styrofoam wreath base
• festive fabric
• yarn (for background and balls)
• felt (for shamrocks and banner)
• straight pins & 2 decorative pins
• twine (I used The Twinery's cantaloupe)
• eyelets
• eyelet setter (I use a Crop-A-Dile)
• ink (I used Stazon's timber brown)
• stamps (I used Unity's February Kit of the Month 2012)
• scissors (regular and pinking shears)

.: directions :.

WREATH BASE::

• wrap the wreath in twine

FABRIC FLOWERS::

• cut out circles from your festive fabric in varying sizes. these will be used to make the "flowers" (6-10 circles per flower)
• put a straight pin through the center of each circle, and pin into the wreath. pin the centers of the circles close to each other to create a nice full flower. continue pinning circles until you get a flower "fullness" that suits you :) most of mine are ~8 circles per flower, with some being fewer and some being more.

SHAMROCKS::

• create your felt shamrocks (I used this tutorial here)
• pin shamrocks to wreath using straight pins. I tried to hide the pins in some of the folds of felt near the center of the shamrock.

TWINE BALLS::

• create yarn balls (good tutorial here) - I use two fingers to start my yarn balls, especially since the ones on this wreath are smaller, and I change directions every ~8 loops. Once you reach your desired ball size, carefully tie off the yarn.
• pin balls to wreath with straight pins. I put the pin through a few yarn strands and then the knot where I tied off the yarn.

BANNER::

• stamp images onto felt and cut out with pinking shears (or regular scissors)
• attach eyelets to each corner of felt and connect with twine
• attach banner to wreath with decorative pins
• hang wreath and enjoy! :)

See how I used the same base and accessories to update this wreath in 2013- {see it here}! And check back here soon to see 2014's version! I love how easy it is to change up everything a bit each year :)

.: linkin up here :.

Frugalicious Friday @ Finding Fabulous

Making the World Cuter