1 Craft, Three Ways: Wreaths

This is the perfect time of year for wreaths. Deck the halls and all that, right? I found this little grapevine turkey in my storage closet. My mom gave him to me a while back. We were never sure what to do with it. November we're doing wreaths and here's one that needs to be finished. Necessity is the mother of invention. I did have two issues. First, I kinda liked him the way he was. Second, I have a wreath hanger on my door that presented a bit of a challenge. In the end, I decided to go with simplicity and wrapped wired harvest-themed ribbon around each tail feather except the middle one. There I tied a fancy bow. I twisted the streamers from the bow and glued them on each "feather." When I put him on my door, it was hard to see his little poultry head. By Cami's suggestion, I stuffed him with tulle. It was a light tan and still hard to see the turkey's head. I guess I'll be heading back to the craft store to find a darker brown. For now, I'm kinda liking this little guy, though. -Angie

Wreaths was a hard one for me... not that I don't love wreaths... I totally do. But I already have cute wood craft wreaths for every month and I just recently did a square wreath for my class. So, what else could I possibly do? Then I saw these wreaths in Pottery Barn. As always, I love to get my decorating inspiration from Pottery Barn magazines.

So, this is how I made them. I bought embroidery hoops. I took the outside hoop that screws apart and used that for one wreath. And I cut the inside one open and used it for the other wreath... then just taped it back together when I was done. I bought two books at a thrift store... It was kind of hard to rip up a perfectly good book, but, hey, you do what you've got to do for the sake of decorating. I got two books so that I could have two different sizes of pages. I cut slits in the top and bottom of each page and slipped it onto the embroidery hoop. When I was finished, I closed up the embroidery hoop and tied the ribbon to the hoop. I put these in my office.... I'm going for kind of a French county look in there and I thought the books were kind of officey... (my spell check doesn't think that's a word). I plan on leaving them up as an all the year decoration. (truth be told, I like the PB ones a little better, but I think it's the red ribbon that I like. I have purple as an accent color in my office, so I may go on a hunt for some purple ribbon to brighten the look up a little. On a side note... I just found the most awesome website ever. I love wood crafts and I love wood, but I'd love to take it a little further. This woman has step by step instructions with diagrams and pictures and everything of how to build knock off furniture from stores like Pottery Barn and such. I can't wait to get started in a fun project... I've been wanting to make shelves for my boys' rooms.)

-Anisa

My wreath started out with a simple bleached willow wreath purchased at...the dollar store. Seriously! It was just under the size of a dinner plate. I bought a bag of green feathers, sorted them by size and began inserting them, following their natural curve, in between the twigs, using hot glue to secure them. I did the outer circle first, the inside portion. For the final covering of the wreath, I overlaid the feathers til the willow was covered, still using the hot glue to attach them. I tied a few small bows with some pretty American Craft ribbon, also attaching them with hot glue. Inexpensive and unique!

-C

A little bit of decor in my master bath

So I have this fun little alcove in my master bath where the bathtub is. Kinda boring, right? I started with this window that I had purchased for $1 at a yard sale. It was white and I spray painted it black. Kind of a little boring by itself.

I was over visiting Trey and Lucy awhile back and saw this cute idea. And what do you know.... a few weeks later, I found this wreath at a yard sale for $2! I totally knew what to do with that!

On the wall above the towel rack, I was thinking of doing some vinyl of some sort. But you know how much I love wood and all of my wood crafts.... So what I did instead, was I used my Cricut and the Storybook cartridge (which I borrowed from a friend in July and really need to return). I cut the little bird swirly thing out as big as I could do it.... 12x24. Used that as a pattern and cut it out of wood. It's fun to have a nice black silhouette but actually have some dimension to it. By the way, I will be selling these at the Seedlings boutique coming up in a couple of weeks!!! Or, you could buy one from me directly if you're interested, just send me an email at anisascholes@gmail.com

And here's the semi-final product. I'm thinking it needs a little color, so I'll probably get some ribbon to add to the wreath and what-not. Leave a comment and let me know what you think! -Anisa

I'm a little obsessed with Owls!!!

Okay, so after last month's wood craft workshops at my home, I got such a huge response to owls, that I went a little crazy.... I made a cute yard stake for my little boy's silent auction at his school (sorry, I donated it before I thought to take a picture....I guess I'll have to make another one). And my sister-in-law and I made this adorable wreath! I just love it. It's already on my front door weather it's fall or not!!!

I have been having fun designing a lot of my own wood crafts. You can find some of them finished or unfinished in my Etsy shop The Craft Menagerie (link is in our side bar). I will gradually be adding finished and unfinished products to my shop. If you are local, stay tuned for my October-themed crafts which I will be doing at the end of September.

-Anisa

Nativity Wreath

I have a friend that teaches craft classes in her basement. She sends out an email with a choice of 3 crafts. We sign up for the craft and the date (she offers about 5 different dates). You go to her house and she has a craft room set up in her basement. She basically has all of the supplies and the sample and you get to chat with friends and craft. I have been going to these classes with my sister in law and we make a wreath every month. This is our cute wreath for December!!! - Anisa