Patriotic Wreath!

July 4th is coming up and I'm excited!  There are lots of reasons to be excited, family gatherings is definitely one of them!  We have a lot of family coming into town because my husband's brother is coming home from his church mission a few days later!  (More on that to come)  So this last year we moved into a house from an apartment, so I finally have room to decorate for the seasons!  So here is my patriotic-4th of July wreath!

First, oh how I would love to paint my door a fun color!  Like Teal or Purple or Red or Yellow!  But Alas, HOA rules say probably not happening...

Anyway, first I needed a wreath form of the foam variety.  However, getting to the craft store to get one is sometimes a struggle with Mr. A and Mr. C so I improvised and it actually worked quite well!

Enter lime-green pool noodle!  This is just a plain ol' dollar store pool noodle and a little bit of duct tape!

UPDATE: The pool noodle is actually not a great option... turns out it sags from the weight of the felt, and alas, by the end of July I had an oval wreath instead of a circle wreath...  Take the time and $5 bucks and go buy one!  (so I don't really know exactly how much it will cost, but I do know they have them at Hobby Lobby and I do know that you can get a %40 coupon online or on their app always so that is a great place to start!)

Next, a quarter yard of Red and White felt and about 3/4 a yard of Blue.  

Cut the felt into 2-ish inch squares.  Really it doesn't need to be exact, but I do suggest making all of them pretty close to the same size, otherwise you will have high and low points on your wreath.

You will also need a box of the cheap, flat head, pins.  They run about $3 a box and I used most of a box.

I divided my wreath form into 12 even sections, 7 for red and white stripes and the other 5 for blue.  

Choose a color to start from and fold a square of felt in half diagonally,

Then in half diagonally again.  It doesn't have to be perfect by any means, in fact most of mine weren't because I liked the variety it added to the wreath!

Then put a pin through the point of the triangle and stick it on your wreath form!

Now do it again, and again, and again....  I worked on it for several evenings while my husband was doing homework after the boys had gone to bed.  This is one of those couple-of-movies kind of project.

 

As you go along fluff and separate the felt, if you don't you will end up needing a lot more felt to cover your wreath!

Once you are all done with the felt use some silver wire and wrap it around a marker to make the spring for the stars.  My stars are felt with glitter glue and hot glue to make them a little more stiff.  You could also use glitter felt or cardstock to make the stars.  Glue or otherwise attach the stars to the wire springs and stick them into the blue portion of the wreath.  I used five stars, but you can use however many you want.  I do suggest an odd number of stars.

In all this wreath cost me about $7-$8!  Not bad if you ask me!

In the end you get this!

Happy Independence Day!!!

Patriotic Bunting!

You probably remember the Summer Bunting I made recently

and you probably remember the red and blue stars and wondered, where is that bunting?  Well here it is! 

I also added the blue-striped ribbon between the flags and took off one of the flags (seven instead of eight), but really it depends on how far you are hoping to go with your bunting!

 

 Go HERE to see how to make this awesome bunting!!

 Happy Holidays!!!

Summer Decorations: Bunting!

So our current home has a fireplace... but it's Arizona, so I don't really think we'll use it much... somehow...  but with it comes a mantle, which has been lots of fun to decorate!  I decided I wanted to make a summer bunting with burlap to hang across this summer.

First, I bought a half-yard of burlap at Walmart:

Second, I drew up my pattern.  I made a triangle then cut the ends off the top so I could fold it over the string with out fabric poking out the side:

I then cut sixteen flags, eight for each of two buntings:

Then I drew my stencil.  First I found a star and flower I liked online, then I traced them onto poster board and cur out the insides to make my stencil.  I cut the whole flower, then the inside circle separate.

I set up a station to stencil my flags.  I did four blue stars, then four red stars, then all the yellow flowers, finally all of the brown flower centers.

I used basic, 50cent, acrylic paints and a paint bush made from a sponge clipped with a clothes pin, a surprisingly useful brush!

I tied some string between my kitchen chairs and clipped each flag up to dry.

Then, in a moment of weakness I went to bed and left my paints on the counter....

The next morning Mr. A helped me put them away.... but not after first trying to open the bottle of blue by himself.

I didn't take a picture of this step, but I used clear school glue and went around the edges of each flag to give it some stability and to minimize fraying.  It is burlap after all!

Next I folded down the top of each flag and sewed it down.  You could also use hot glue... I just wanted to make sure it wasn't going anywhere!

Yikes!  We're almost there!

Finally, I tied some jute/twine onto my trusty crochet hook and threaded the string through each flag.

Then I hung the bunting up to enjoy!

I love it!  So cheery!  Stay tuned for the patriotic version!

Valentines Day!

I didn't go all out, but I did have some fun with Valentines day!  It all started with Breakfast

French toast+Heart cookie cutter = Valentines-French toast!  

(we also ate the outside edges, because you loose nearly half the toast... however, if you're careful, you have a heart, and a heart outline... all cute!)

For dinner we had V-day mini-pizzas!  I stacked several pepperoni on top of each other and cut them with a tiny heart cookie cutter.  Then I sliced an entire baguette and put sauce, cheese, and a pepperoni heart on each piece and baked them about 350 until the bread got crusty and the cheese was melted :)  Made two meals for us! (me, my husband, and our 2 yr old)  (the idea came from here)

I also had some fun decorating for V-day this year.... something I hadn't done much of in the past.

I got inspiration from here

 

and here 

Only I did it with construction paper and a stapler... then just threaded the hearts (no balls) on jute/twine.  The string was rough enough that the hearts didn't slide around too much.  

Unfortunately I didn't get photos of either of theses items, but they were super easy and looked great!  I'm saving both for next year!

Another fun thing my son loves is 'glittering'!  Essentially, I cut out construction paper shapes and he squishes dollar store glitter-glue all over them.  When they dry I hang them in our bay window to spiffy up the kitchen.  He LOVES this activity, and it is fairly clean... especially when I lock him in his brother's high chair while he does it to confine the mess to a small area (score one for mommy!)

Enjoy!