Football Wreath

So, the Redskins are in the playoffs! Hail to the redskins, hail victory... etc. Anyway, I undecorated for Christmas and was left with a void on my front door. Thus, the idea of the Redskins wreath was born.

The Finished Product:

  

What You Will Need:

•  Spray paint, spray primer, spray sealer
• Wood paint for the letters
• Wooden letters
• Wooden shapes
• Felt
• Not pictured: glue gun, scissors, and bowls of various sizes to trace

 Let's Get Started:

1. Spray prime, spray paint, and seal your wreath in whatever base color you chose. I hope by now you know how to spray paint, so no picture.
2. Spray prime your wooden letters and let dry for about ten minutes.
3. I used a sponge brush to paint the letters burgundy, but if you want a more even coverage, go with spray paint.
4. Making the felt flowers was all my mama's handiwork. First she traced a large circle onto the felt.

5. Then she drew a spiral onto the circle.

6. She cut out the circle in the spiral

7. Then she rolled the spiral starting from the OUTSIDE to the INSIDE.

It winds up like this:

8. Then we arranged our letters, flowers, and shapes and hot glued them to the wreath.

9. Then we added a ribbon from our stash to hang it with.

10. And voila! We are DONE. The whole project cost approximately $14 and took an hour and a half.

As always, thanks to my mama for her loving patience and execution. I'm really a planner, she's a doer.

Easy Gift Plaque

So, I wanted to be crafty for Christmas. I have made all of the gifts for our family. However, you don't get to see any of them until after Christmas because they all read my blog! All, of course, except my dad. He does not read blogs, so you get to see his gift. Hurray!

The Finished Product:

What You Will Need:

• Wooden plaque - I got mine from Michael's and used my 50% off coupon. SCORE.
• Spray primer
• Any color of spray paint in matte
• Wooden decorations
• Picture stand ($3 from Michael's - I just love that place)
• Not pictured - spray finishing gloss
• Not pictured - wood glue
• 8.5" x 11" Card stock
• Pazzle, Cricut, Sillouette, or Xacto Knife and stencil
• Sponge brush
• Acrylic paint

Let's Get Started:

1. Spray your plaque with primer.
2. Let dry for about 10 minutes, spray with your color. I only did one coat because I did a really good coat of primer and didn't need to. Thank goodness for primer.

3. Leave plaque to dry.
4. Pick your quote and fire up your Pazzle, Cricut, Sillouette, or grab your Xacto knife and stencil. I decided on a font and then cut it out of card stock.

5. I love my mom's Pazzle, but I always have to do some trimming.

 6. Lay your newly created stencil on top of your (now dry) plaque. Mine didn't move, so no worries about tacking it down. Start sponging your paint lightly into the stencil. Be sure to use only a small amount of paint or it will bleed through the stencil (Oops, I did that - oh well, it makes it more homemade-y ...right?)

7. Carefully pick up your stencil.

8. Adhere your wooden decoration using wood glue.

9. Allow to dry for a few hours and VOILA!

As always, thanks to my beautiful mama, who is my loving and faithful assistant/master crafter!

Christmas Flowers

So, we really were NOT going to do a craft today. We just got back from a long vacation (I know, poor us) and we just needed to take a weekend to recover. However, we were walking from Target to the Dollar Tree and we passed Michael's. I saw these shiny flowers and we got sucked in. You can thank the outdoor Michael's display for this one...

The Final Product:

 What you will need:

(the picture won't upload, so use your imagination)

• Colored marbles or stones
• Christmas-y silk flowers
• Ribbon
• A cheap vase (ours is from the Dollar Store!)
• Floral Wire

 

Let's Get Started:

1. First fill your vase all the way up with your marbles.

2. Cut all your silk flowers from their stems.

3. Now, my mom is the pro flower arranger (I take pictures) and she says that you should put the tallest flowers and plants in the center of the arrangement.

4. Go pet your puppy (oh wait... that's just for me)

5. Finish arranging your flowers.

6. Make your bow. (Next week there will be a tutorial on how to make the beautiful holiday bows that my genius mother can create).

7. Add bow to arrangement.

8. VOILA!

Enjoy the Christmas-ness.


All the credit for this project goes to my mama... she's fabulous.

Fleur de Lis Picture Frames

So, I was looking for something to hang on two small walls that frame an opening into my kitchen. We bought a table and decorated it, but the walls made the project look unfinished. I tried SEVERAL things (that all failed) with four dollar store mirrors. Finally, with help from my mom, I settled on something that worked - and looks ADORABLE on my wall!

The Finished Product:

What You Will Need:

• As many dollar store frames as you want (they're only a dollar)
• Mod Podge
• Either a Xacto Knife, Cricut Machine, or something like it (We used the PAZZLE. It's fabulous)
• Scrapbook paper
• Spray Paint 
• Hot glue gun

Let's Get Started:

1. Separate frames from the cardboard backs.
2.  Lay frames face up on a piece of cardboard or whatever you don't mind paint getting on.
3. Spray frames with spray paint. Note: I didn't particularly care if the coverage was perfect, so I didn't prime it. But, if you care, prime first, then paint.

4. While the frames are drying, mod podge scrapbook paper to the cardboard insert of the frame.








5. Use the Pazzle or whatever tool you are using to cut out a pretty shape.

6. Mod Podge the shape to the center of the cardboard insert.

7. Hot glue the insert back into the frame.
8. Hang on wall.

VOILA! Super easy. Props to my mom for not letting my throw the mirrors away when my etching project went bad! These are even cuter than my original idea.

Hanging Bow Organizer

Remember the bows on alligator clips we made last week? Well, the ones my mom and I made are going to make their way into a 14 year old's posession. She obviously needs something to organize them on. So, we decided to give her that, too!

The Finished Product:

Here's What You Will Need:

• 1 Canvas of any size (we bought 5 for $20 at Michael's and we used a 25% off coupon. Cha Ching!)
• Approximately 1 yard of fabric in any color
• Approximately 1 yard of batting 
• A couple of yards of ribbon in any color or width that you are interested in
• Staple gun

Let's Get Going:

Disclaimer: we just kind of winged it on this one. There are no real measurements.

1. Lay fabric face down on a large flat surface.
2. Lay batting down on top of the fabric.
3. Lay canvas face down in the center of both the batting and the fabric.
4. Cut the batting and the fabric at the same time around the outside of the canvas, we left about 3.5 inches on all sides.

5. Pull the fabric and batting together tightly around the back of the canvas.
6. Use staple gun to secure fabric to the back of the frame. Note: on the corners we folded the fabric and batting together like a present to keep it from bulging on the front.

7. Optional: Trim fabric on the back if you are a perfectionist like my mom (no one sees the back, fyi.)
8. Where you put the ribbons is up to you, we chose to put them long ways and make the canvas portrait style. You can do it however you want. Either way, secure ribbon to the back of frame with staple gun.

9. Add your hair clips! VOILA!


This project took us about ten minutes from start to finish. We had fabric, batting, the ribbon, and the staple gun at home. If you don't have a staple gun at home, you could use small finishing nails and a hammer. Since we purchased 5 canvases for about $15 (after the discount), each canvas cost approximately $3.

PS. Thanks to my mom for modeling for all of my pictures!