"Plump" Fall Wreath

Yes, I did make another wreath.  I cleaned out my scary closet under the stairs and found oodles of leaves, pine cones, and berries.  The leaves were 88 cent bunches that I bought at Wal-mart when I made my first fall wreath ever six years ago. I had never glued them into the wreath and found them tucked away in a bag.  

Yep, don't be afraid of an ugly old wreath from the thrift store. You can find so many tossed aside wreaths and crafts gone wrong. (I just donated a few I found under the stairs! :)  Just give it a good vacuuming!

Last Christmas I saw many bloggers double up their fake pine wreaths and it made it look so much thicker and fuller.  I found a smaller grapevine to wire into the middle.

I used brown wire to put them together, pulling tightly.

There were a few gaps, so I added some leftover branches that come on the grapevine garlands.

I wired those to the doubled grapevines. The pine cones helped fill in the rest.

The person that owned the large grapevine had wired on a coat hanger.  It actually works really well and blends too. 

I took the brown wire and cut into little pieces to tie the berries onto the wreaths.  I glued the pine cones on after that and tucked the leaves in.  If you want it more permanent, I'm sure you could use wire or picks to add the pine cones and berries. 

I love it on my door...so big...warm and welcoming!

Me too....Me too!

I had to...of course... make a wreath for my door too!

I am the little sister after all...copying the elder.

  The Easter eggs on my spring wreath weren't looking so hot anymore,

 hopefully this new wreath will get me to Fall.

 Yvonne from Stone Gable

 made the most gorgeous

 cherry blossom wreath

 using a large grapevine nest wreath.

 (The stuff she makes is darling...I about died when I saw her fondant daisy cupcakes.  Great blog!) 

 I have never been sure how to decorate the large nest wreaths.  In fact I bought one a couple of months ago and was unsure of what to do with it so I returned it.  After seeing Yvonne's wreath, I ran back to the craft store and bought it again - it's really quite simple to make! 

I found at Hobby Lobby  a wreath , one greenery garland and a couple of fern like shrubs half off.  I didn't  keep it as cheap as Nicole.  I tried! :) 

The greenery gets expensive.

I then used my brand spankin' new glue gun that Nicole gave me for my birthday.

  It's CORDLESS!!

What a great sister, it's almost as good as the set of orange toolboxes she gave me a couple of years ago.

My present to Nicole is usually a gift certificate to Home Depot for her birthday! 

We think alike! ;)

Nicole couldn't believe I was still using my

 mini glue gun

 that she also gave me 12 years ago.  

It was my first Christmas married and I was starting to get "crafty!"

Look closely....I think you can see pieces of every craft I have made over the 12 years!

Feathers, felt, moss, and fabric....

 

To make the wreath,

I clipped apart the garland and the fern so I could hot glue in each wired piece.

This glue gun is seriously much hotter than my mini! Ow! 

 

 After I had the greenery on, I added some extra flowers and pieces of lavender that I had from prior projects.

I love making wreaths..I can't get enough!

Thanks to Yvonne at Stone Gable for the inspiration!

 

A New Spring Wreath

I can honestly say that Spring time is my favorite time of year!

I was sad to take down my Cadbury Egg Wreath,

I needed something to replace it with.

I wanted something grassy,

something purple,

and something that would be able

to stay on my door till summer was through.....

or until Candace and I come up with another idea for a wreath!

I'm also pretty cheap so I wanted to make it for cheap

but I didn't want it to look cheap.

Does that make sense?

Ya see we have a ton of storage space (the land fill) stuffed with our

previous "cheap" projects that do look "cheap".

We've both gotten to a point in our lives that we don't want to "look cheap"

even though we may be.....:)

~~~So here's the breakdown~~~

Grapevine wreath (40% off coupon) $2.43

Clearance spring grass $2.49

Clearance Easter grass .15 cents!!!

Excelsior (40% off coupon from Hobby Lobby honored at Michael's) $2.43

Clearance spring bouquet $2.49

**Last minute butterflies from the dollar store added on $1.00

Grand Total.........$10.99 + Tax

So I started by mixing together my paper Easter grass and Excelsior,

fluffing it till I got what I wanted.

Then I formed it around the wreath and started hot gluing it in place.

For some extra stability I wrapped it a few times with some green thread

(a brilliant idea I got from Design Dump)

Already it was looking pretty good to me!

Then I started to completely dismantle all my spring grasses and bouquet.

Randomly I started gluing them around the wreath.

Then for some extra whimsy I curled the grasses!

Yes, I said curl!

Another fun tip I learned when I was working for Provo Craft!

By using a knife or a pair of scissors

(and being pretty careful so they don't break)

You can actually curl those plastic grasses as little or as much as you want!

After gluing all the little flowers on with my glue gun

I realized it was missing a little something.

I had picked up these butterflies at the Dollar Store but they weren't the right colors!

So using Candace's brilliant idea, I spay painted them white first.

Then just using some craft paint I got them the right color!

I "freckled" them with some green paint,

gave them some little eyes too....

ya know my little girl would notice that right off the bat

if they didn't have eyes!

And then I ran.....

Outside as fast as I could

before the light faded.....

So I could show you what I'm so happy about!

I did the butterflies each a shade lighter than the last.

You could say I'm "tickled pink"....

Well, purple that is.:)

Day #5~The Grand Finale of Eggs~Cabbage Dyed Eggs!

I hope this is worthy of the Grand Finale of Eggs ~

inspired by Martha Stewart. 

We tried her natural dye technique using boiled red cabbage. 

And man, did my house STINK last night!

  Just imagine the smells of boiled cabbage, boiled eggs, and vinegar~all in one!  My kids about died! :)

Just so you know, I did try some of the boiled red cabbage, and with salt- it really isn't that bad!

 

It's worth the stink...because the color of the eggs is fantastic! Way more beautiful than any artificial dye!

We placed our blown out cabbage dyed eggs into a glass dome with a little scenery we made ~ that was inspired by Williams and Sonoma.  We saw their glass jars on their website and we knew we wanted to try making them! 

 

 To dye the eggs, first cut and boil the cabbage in two quarts of water for about 30 minutes.

After draining and removing the boiled cabbage, you are left with the most beautiful bluish/purple color!

Martha said to add 4 TB. salt and 4 TB. vinegar.  Add your eggs.  I dyed both boiled and blown eggs.  To get the rich dark blue color, you have to soak overnight!

We used an 8" grapevine wreath for the nest.  

We went into my backyard to gather most of the twigs.  All of my shrubs are budding and are so pretty! I know that after a week the buds will wither away, but hey- we can enjoy it now!

 

We added a few fake flowers

 and

one blue butterfly.

We twisted and wrapped, and wove.  I think I know how a bird feels after making this! :)

I also splurged on this glass dome!

  Hobby Lobby had all glassware 50% off, I couldn't resist!

And there you go....5 Days of Inspired by Martha... Eggs!

Phew,

we are tired!

I think  it's time for a very long vacation from EGGS!!! 

DIY day at A Soft Place To Land

Met Monday at Between Naps On The Porch

Make Your Monday at Twice Remembered

Transformation Thursday at The Shabby Chic Cottage