Flutterby Wreath

When I saw this wreath from A Pumpkin and A Princess, I pinned it right away because I knew I wanted to make one like it!

Source: apumpkinandaprincess.com via Jill on Pinterest

I went to round up some materials. First stop, was the Dollar Store. They had NADA. I don’t know if some are better than others, but ours doesn’t have anything for wreaths or floral or craft stuff. Ticks me off. Luckily, right next door is Hobby Lobby and I had a coupon. (I love that I can just show them the email on my phone for the coupon! Love it!)

(If I’d been thinking while I was at the Dollar Store, I would’ve picked up a pool noodle to use as a wreath form ala Thrifty Décor Chick.)

Anywho, I ended up getting what I needed and was ready to get started.



I started by cutting the moss into strips, then began the oh-so-fun process of hot gluing it around the wreath.  Moss is messy. It gets EVERYWHERE.  And, you will burn your fingers. Unless, you are a smarty like me and use a tool other than your fingers to press the moss on the wreath. My tool of choice? A pencil.  It was there AND it worked like a charm.





Once I got all of the moss glued on, I stuck in the butterflies. I didn’t glue them, I just poked them into the wreath form.

(I almost got fuschia butterflies instead of the pale yellow. They would've looked great. Maybe I still will since they are just poked into the form.)




I'd never worked with sheet moss before (the paper backing surprised me) and was glad that I got the big roll and not the small package. I ended up using almost the whole thing. I know I already said it's messy and you'll burn your fingers, BUT it looks so cool once it's done! It took me about an hour and the mess and burns were all worth it.

I hung it using a little white ribbon over the buffet in our front room to add a nice little spring touch.



Also, on the buffet is a poem about the seasons I wrote back in junior high. I found it while cleaning out and organizing the basement. I typed it up and stuck it in a frame. I’m thinking I can change out the background paper for the season and keep it around all year long.



Along with the poem is a vase filled with lentils and moss with some fake flowers shoved in it, an old Norwegian bible that came from Sparky’s grandparents house, my fat little bird and cake stand with a little greenery under a cloche. 

(I am purposefully not mentioning the silver touch desk lamp. It’s temporary until I get a bigger one. I have one ready to be spray painted that I got at a thrift store, but I can’t decide on a color. Or if I want to use that one there. Decisions, decisions.)

I don't anticipate changing this up much over the summer. Maybe a couple of tweaks here and there.   We did pick up a mirror from a friend of my SIL's that will look great over the buffet. I just need to give a coat of spray paint. At some point, I also need to do something about the hardware on the buffet. One is broken and one doesn't match the rest. It just hasn't bothered me enough to do anything about it. Yet. Oh, and the lamp. Hopefully a different lamp. Hmmm, so maybe it will change a bit over the summer. We'll see how ambitious I get.

Thank you Martha!

The majority of the cards we get are photo cards and we love to look at them. And, every year I try to think of a new and better way to display the Christmas cards we get.  Most of the time though, I just end up using double-sided tape to stick them to some ribbon that's taped to the wall.


Until this year. I think I found the one that I will actually use again next year. And it's all thanks to Martha.



Source: marthastewart.com via Jill on Pinterest

I picked up 10 embroidery hoops this summer at a rummage sale. Yes, I said 10. I paid a whopping $1 for all 10. I bought all they had. I knew that sooner or later I'd find something to do with them.

I didn't follow all of her steps exactly. I used regular sized clothes pins instead of the mini ones and I didn't measure the spacing between them. I just slapped them on with some hot glue.

I did try to make a bow out of ribbon,  but I was tired and my brain wasn't working and it just didn't turn out right.

So, I gave up and decided to use a fake poinsettia instead. I popped it off the stem and hot glued it the top of the ribbon. Then, I used a command strip (love them!) for hanging.

This one was so easy, that I decided to make three. (We get a lot of cards!)

 

(At one point, I actually had all 10 laid out on the floor in the shape of the Christmas tree and thought about painting the whole thing green, but simplicity won out in the end.)

And here they are with a few cards. Very quick, very easy and very cheap. Just my kind of project! (And I've still got clothes pins and hoops left if I need to throw another one together or add more pins to these ones.)

Linking up with:

Centsational Girl Holiday Craft Link Party

Porch Update

I finally have a couple of updates to the porch project I started a couple of weeks ago.  And my craft room floor looked like this:

Fantastic.

I knew I wanted a wreath for the front door, so I’ve been pinning a lot of wreaths lately for inspiration.

Like, this one:

 Source: Madigan Made via Jill on Pinterest

 And this one:

Source: Little Things Bring Smiles via Jill on Pinterest

 But, I finally decided to tackle this one:

Source: Lisa Leonard Designs via Jill on Pinterest

And it’s probably one of the easiest things I’ve done.

I got the grapevine wreath on sale at Hobby Lobby for $3.50. Then I picked up some nice soft yarn while I was there and used my 40% off coupon.  I also picked up some burlap at JoAnn using a 40% off coupon as well. That’s right, I was a bargain shopper! (So, I’d never bought burlap before. Why? I don’t know. Anywho, the girl that cut it for me was not impressed to be cutting burlap. I guess there is a right way and a wrong way to cut burlap, and the last person to cut it, did it the wrong way. Who knew?)

First, I wrapped the yarn around one side.  Then I cut my burlap (not the right way), and used hot glue to attached it on the back.

My next big decision was what kind of flowers to put on it. I didn’t have any felt, but I did have some plaid fabric from some pillows I’d made a few years ago.  I did a search for fabric flower tutorials, but didn’t see any that jumped out at me. . (There are a bajillion.) I didn’t really want to sew and I didn’t have any buttons. Then, I remembered this fabric flower tutorial from Emily at Jones Design Company. Perfecto!  These were super easy and didn’t take much time at all.  The only issue that I really had was I cut some of the strips too wide and they weren’t very long, but in the end, they worked out pretty well.

I spent maybe an hour total. (And some of that was wasting time cutting circles out of fabric trying to make flowers before I finally broke down and looked online.)

The other thing I knew I wanted to do was use a pumpkin as a planter. I fell in love with them after seeing this:

Source: Martha Stewart via Jill on Pinterest

So, I broke down and bought a couple of pumpkins. (There’s a patch by my parent’s house that’s free pumpkin patch and I was trying to hold out until I made it up there, but I just couldn’t do it.)

I knew that I didn’t want to see the actual pot the mums were in, so I cut the whole in the top of the pumpkin a little bit wider than the circumference of the container.  To keep the container from falling to the bottom of the pumpkin, I stuff the pumpkin with plastic shopping bags.  This was very easy as well and makes me love pumpkins even more.

I’ve got a few things left before the porch is really ready for fall. More pumpkins, maybe a hay bale, some cornstalks…we’ll see.



Linking up with these fab folks!