Posts Tagged ‘Craft’

19
Feb
2014

Berry Letter T Wreath

Written by: Lisa

When I first laid eyes on this pin from Our Unexpected Journey, I knew I had to have it. I loved it for a few reasons. First, it was wintery without being overtly Christmasy. Second, nothing says wintertime like a bushel of cranberries. Third, I love me some door décor and was happy to get away from the traditional wreath.

You certainly could go the easy route and use a wooden or black MDF letter from any craft store for this project. The thing is, the letter T can be a bit of a crapshoot when using premade letters—often it is very tall and narrow or the fonts available are on the trendy side. I wanted something a bit more classic looking, so I opted to make my own.

What you need:

Letter on paper (in a font of your choice)

¼” plywood (Any type will do, I went for the cheapest one. You want a lightweight piece.)

Jigsaw

Sandpaper

Spray Paint (optional)

Glue gun

Berries

Picture Hanger

Ribbon/Burlap

Step 1:

Choose a font for your letter. Select the size that looks best on your door. The dimensions for my T are 12” x 14”.

You can print it out and tape your paper together, as it will likely be bigger than 8.5 x11. Since we have access to LCD projectors at school, I used one to trace my T onto a single sheet of large paper. Convenient crafting tools–one of the many perks of being a teacher.

Step 2:

Cut your piece of wood into a square or rectangle that is close to the dimensions of your letter. This way you have less excess wood to work with as you cut your letter.

Tape your cut out letter to the piece of wood and use it as a stencil to trace your letter onto the wood.

Step 3:

Use your trusty jigsaw to cut out your letter. After it was cut, I used sandpaper to smooth out the edges. My husband made a second letter for Gracie, who used hers in a different craft.

Step 4:

Before I glued the berries, I decided to spray paint my T red. I figured that if any wood showed through the gaps of berries, it would be less contrast if it were the same color.

Step 5:

Prepare for a berry gluing marathon. I chose to cut the berries off of my stems the day prior to making the T. Berry branches were on sale at Michaels after Christmas 2012, so I grabbed a whole bunch. Any extra sprigs went towards other Christmas décor- you can never have too many Christmas greens/foliage.

Use your glue gun to glue each berry onto the letter. I wanted a crisp outline, so I chose to glue berries around the perimeter of my T before filling in the center. As the first layer firmed up, I went back and put a second layer of berries in order to cover up the gaps from the first layer. This is mindless work; I just put on some TV and got to it!

Step 6:

Hang her up! For the letter T, I decided to use 2 small picture hangers for my ribbon because I didn’t like the look of just one hanger in the center of the letter. I secured 2 picture hangers on the back with some hot glue. I then used some leftover Christmas ribbon and voila, my door décor was complete.

I think it’s classy and fabulous. Almost everyone who comes over when this is on the door asks where I got it, which is always a huge compliment. We love it, and I hope you love yours too!

08
Feb
2014

Jute Embroidered Love Canvas

Written by: Lisa

As Valentine’s Day rapidly approaches, I find myself in a bit of a pickle. I want to decorate our home for the holiday, but alas I have no suitable decor. Yes, you read that right– there’s nary a heart shaped, love-related decoration around.

I struggle with Valentine’s decor because often the things I see, although cute, just do not go with the style of our house. I’m not a huge fan of the bold red/hot pink color scheme nor the glitter that frequently accompanies many of the tutorials I’ve seen (perhaps this will change when we’ve got some rugrats running around). I’m quite persnickety, and thus the one to blame for my void of Valentine’s decorations.

With that said, I was over the moon when I saw this craft at findingHome. I love the simplicity of it and its overall natural look. I viewed the tutorial but tweaked my product (I used a thicker jute because I wanted it chunkier) & process (I couldn’t find a paper punch or stamping plate).

Here’s my finished product:

Here’s what you need:

One canvas (I got my 9 x12 canvas at Hobby Lobby)
Jute (or twine as the original tutorial suggests)
Print out of the word of your choice
A few pieces of tape
Sharp tool to poke through the canvas
Yarn needle

Step 1:

Decide where you want your word to go on the canvas. I placed mine just above the exact middle of the canvas. Tape your print out to the canvas– make sure the paper is taut.

Step 2:

Using your sharp tool, begin to poke holes along the shape of your word. I placed my left hand under the canvas and pushed slightly upwards as I used my right hand to poke the tool through. Having my left hand under the canvas ensured that the canvas did not stretch or tear as I poked through.

You can see that I didn’t make my holes perfectly even. I left bigger gaps between the holes in which I knew the jute was going to be on top of the canvas, and made smaller gaps for holes in which the jute would be on the back side of the canvas. Doing this ensured less ‘white space’ between my jute.

Step 3:

Take the print out off of the canvas. Depending on the size of your jute (twine, yarn, whatever you choose), you may need to go back with your sharp tool and stretch the holes a teeny bit bigger. Make sure your holes are big enough for your needle to fit through! I went for a snug fit.

Step 4:

Thread your jute through the needle. Start behind the canvas and come up through the first hole. I decided to start at the top of the L. Thread your jute above/below the canvas. Be sure to always have your fingers/hand pushing in the opposite direction of the needle. (When you are pushing the needle down through the canvas, have your left hand behind the canvas pushing up ever so slightly) Again, this was my precaution to keep the canvas from tearing.

Step 5:

Continue your embroidery for each letter. When finished, you can knot it on the back. My string was tight in the holes, so I didn’t even need to make knots to hold it in place. I’m very pleased with how this turned out, now I just need to find a home for it!

06
Feb
2014

Valentine’s Day Wreath Tutorial

Written by: Rona

Seeing a pretty wreath hanging on my front door always put a smile on my face. Who doesn’t? Ok, maybe it’s just me (Confession: I am pretty obsessed about wreaths. I like to take pictures of pretty ones whenever/wherever I see one. Not creepy at all, I know). Personally I think accessorizing your front door is important. It makes the house looks more homie, welcoming and polished. It’s also a great conversation starter. “Oh! I love your wreath! Where did you get it?” In my head everyone does this.

After I took down the Christmas wreath, my front door was looking kind of sad and cold. A Valentine’s Day wreath was in order. I was inspired by some beautiful wreaths (here, here, here, and here).

My original thought was to create a heart shaped wreath using non-traditional Valentine’s Day colors like gray, wintry white and neutral. My front door is a not so appealing maroon-ish brick red with a dark brown under tone (ew, I know). It came with the house. I wasn’t sure how red would look against this background. But when I organized my Christmas décor, I found a lot of left over pink and red felt from various projects. I really wanted to use what I had on hand. So I decided to use traditional Valentine’s Day colors and a square shape. And the result looked like this…

VDayWreath_7

I actually don’t mind the red against the maroon door. When I started the project, the plan was to make enough flowers to cover the entire the wreath. Half way through, I carefully thought about my design AKA I got tired of making felt flowers so I decided to only cover the bottom half. I made a tiny banner to balance out the top. The most time consuming part was making the flowers, but you can save time by using pre-made fabric flowers (cute ones at bridal section of any craft store) or silk flowers. It’s simple to make and versatile enough that you can change the colors for spring or Easter.

Here is what you will need:

square wire wreath (got mine from Joann’s floral department)
2” ribbon (I cut strips from my left over polka dot fabric)
felt:1/4 yard of each color would be plenty (I used red, light pink and magenta)
hot glue (your BFF for this craft)
scissors (I also used pinking sheers)
yarn , string or baker’s twine
pins
brown paper bag

Here is what you will do:

1. You can skip this step if you are using ribbon. Cut your fabric into 2” strips. This doesn’t have to be exact since you’ll be overlapping as you wrap around anyway. I used pinking sheers to create a more finished edge and prevent fraying.

2. Wrap your ribbon or fabric around the wire wreath. I used hot glue to secure the fabric to the wreath and each other. The corners can be a bit tricky. I went over each one a couple of times making sure no wire was showing.

3. Make some felt flowers. I found some helpful tutorials here, here and here. Some of these suggested to sew but after I formed the flowers I secured them with pins, then used hot glue to adhere instead. I also got “creative” with my pinking sheers and cut out some small strips and hearts then tszuj-ed (zhuzh-ed?) them into flowers.

4. Hot glue the flowers onto the ribbon wrapped wreath. I didn’t arrange the flowers in any particular pattern. I just went with what looked good to me and filled in the holes with smaller ones.

5. To make the tiny banner, cut 4 small rectangles from the brown paper bag (the size should be proportional to your wreath, my rectangles were 2″x3″). Gently fold in half, try not to make a harsh crease. Trim the bottom like you would with the ends of a ribbon. Fold a tiny bit of the top edge then glue or tape it to a piece of baker’s twine. Lastly tie your mini banner to the sides of the wreath. Et voila!

I hope you love wreaths as much as we do because there will be many more tutorials about them. Have you created anything to dress up your front door lately?

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