Ribbon Wreath

Ribbon wreaths have been popping up all over Pinterest lately.  I made this ribbon wreath about a month ago for the start of football season.  I never got around to post it, which is why it's just coming to you now. There are tons of tutorials out there for ribbon wreaths.  I didn't use just one, I searched for a while and used bits and pieces from many tutorials.  The difference between mine and many others is that I didn't use as much ribbon.  My pieces are wide and thick.  Doing it this way saved me money on ribbon and time.  For this wreath I used 2 spools of the yellow and green satin ribbon and 1 spool of the football ribbon.  I cut everything in 3-4inch pieces.  Then, I hot glued the ends together to form a circle.   After the glue was dried, I pinned them onto my styrofoam wreath.  I used a lot of little pins for this project.  I also tried my best to line up the ribbon in rows, it made it easier to pin. 

 About 2 weeks after I hung this on my front door, I decided it needed more.  So I painted wooden letters green, hot glued them to a wooden football (already painted) and glued the football to leftover ribbon.  GO BULLS!  

Happy Football Season! 

Wine Cork Menu Board

I saw a cute menu board posted on Pinterest a while back.  I knew I wanted to make one, but wanted one to fit into the wine & red theme of our kitchen. After lots of contemplation, I decided to use some of my wine works to make my menu.  I originally wanted them cut long, but I didn't communicate that to my MR when I asked him to cut them.  Opps!  So instead of doing one row with flat corks, I did two rows of corks cut in half.  I actually think it looks better this way.  

Here is the frame I started with.  I put the glass in the frame and hot glued two rows of corks onto the glass.  Then, I used scrapbook paper as the background.  After that, I used a Sharpie to write the days of the week on the glass.  I'll use an Expo marker to fill in my dinner choices. That way it will be easy to wipe off.   I decided to buy a frame holder to place on the counter instead of hanging it on the wall. This will definitely be a statement piece in our kitchen.

Felt Wreath

I've seen felt wreaths popping up everywhere these days.  Especially on Pinterest, which of course, is where I found the tutorial I used for this project.  A friend of mine came over for a crafternoon and this was the first project we took on.  Now, I will say that this project was time consuming.  I cut 200 felt circles to make the wreath.  One thing I will say... good scissors are key to cutting felt!  It will make time pass much much quicker.  I cut 4 layers of felt at a time and was done within an hour.  I honestly thought it would take much longer.  Below you will find the instructions for the wreath that I used.  After cutting the circles, I kind of just winged it with the pinning on the wreath.  I found a way that worked for me and went with it. As the wreath became filled with the felt flowers, it became easier.  Once the entire wreath was filled, I was in love! 

 I changed up how I hung the wreath after realizing it needed more than a simple hook.  I made a bow and attached a ribbon loop to the back of the bow.  I'm glad I decided to go with the bow, it added the perfect touch.  This wreath will definitely make an appearance during Christmas and Valentine's Day.  

What you’ll need for the wreath:

- a 12 inch styrofoam wreath form
- approximately 2 1/2 yards of felt
- straight pins (enough to match the number of felt circles needed, plus two for attaching the hanger)
- scissors
- a 3 inch circle template
- a pencil
- ribbon for hanging

Making the Felt Rosettes

Using a pencil and your circle template, trace circles onto the felt. Cut the felt circles, and fold them in half twice to form rosettes. Insert a pin near the bottom corner of the rosette, about 1/8 inch from the corner.

Attaching the Felt Rosettes

Attach the felt rosettes to the wreath form, making sure to group the rosettes tightly enough that no styrofoam is showing through the rosettes. After you’ve added a few, fluff and adjust the rosettes to your liking. Continue making, pinning, and attaching the rosettes until you’ve worked your way around the wreath form. If you have circles that are slightly misshapen or that have a little pencil or ink on them, place them toward the outside or inside edges, where they can’t be seen when the wreath is hanging.

Wreath Back

This is what my wreath looked like on the back when I was finished. As you can see, I started off with ball point straight pins, but I switched to flat head pins when the rosette count started to get up there and I had to run out and buy more pins. If you use flat head pins, then I suggest using a thimble to push them into the wreath form, or your thumb will take a beating. Ask me how I know.

Wreath Hanger

After you’ve finished adding the felt rosettes, cut a 5 inch length of ribbon, fold it in half, and attach it to the wreath form with two pins to form a hanger.

Wreath Finished

I love how organic the wreath looks when it’s finished. The ruffly felt rosettes, when grouped together like this, remind me a bit of a coral reef. While this is a rather ambitious project, I think it was completely worth the time spent. I’ll be using my wreath year ’round as part of my home décor!

This is the wreath that my friend made, I love it! 

DIY Valance

I wanted to put valances up in our house, but didn't want to go out and buy them. A friend of mine made them for her house, so I decided to do some research to see how hard it would be. To my surprise, it seemed pretty easy. I used this site as a DIY guide. My dad and mister made the valance, with my supervision of course. It took longer to hang them up then to actually make them. My only advice would be to triple check the measurements and make sure you have a level for hanging it.

Fixed Roman Shades

We've lived in our new house for about 3 months now and I am happy to say that the master bedroom is FINALLY finished. I had such a hard time finding what I wanted for the bedroom due to a framed picture we purchased for above the bed. It seemed difficult impossible to find the exact blue green that covered the majority of the picture. I was frequenting T.J Maxx, Marshall's, Home Goods, and every other home store with no luck each week. Finally (on week 4 of searching), I found my decorations for the room at Z Gallery, Crate and Barrel and Bed, Bath and Beyond. Since the decorations were taken care of, it was onto the windows. After searching for almost two weeks for window treatments without any luck, I called on my mom for help. She has a knack for sewing and I knew she would be happy to help me figure out what to do with the windows. I decided on the fixed roman shades as the style I wanted and we were off to Jo Ann's to find the fabric. I brought a candlestick with me as a guide and we found a fabric I am in love with. We were especially lucky the day we purchased the fabric because everything we bought was half off!!!
Here is what we used as a guide to make the shades. I am proud to say that I made almost the entire shade for each window, with a good deal of guidance from my mom of course. I would recommend ironing the fabric at each fold to make the sewing easier. We made mine to fit inside the window, instead of hanging over (not intentionally, learning experience =-)) The shades took about 3 hours to make and need lots of measuring and double checking. It was totally worth the time and the total cost of each shade was about $20.00, including the curtain rod. Here are a few photos of the making of the shades and the finished room. Enjoy!