Ornament wreath

Posted on by aurorameyer

 

 

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This project looked so easy. And with the ornaments I got on sale at Target after Christmas, I thought it was the perfect late winter project: create a Mizzou ornament wreath for the front door, because in our house, we bleed black and gold. But let me tell you the truth: making an ornament wreath is HARD. It takes lots more glue than you think it would. Plus, hot glue burns hurt. Take my advice, leave the ornament wreath making to the pros or at least those on Etsy.

But if you don’t want to heed my warning, here are the steps to making this yourself.

Step 1: untwist a wire hanger (the kind from the dry cleaner) and bend it into an oval or a circle if you’d prefer.

Step 2: carefully thread your ornaments onto the wire hanger:

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Try not to break any. But don’t be too sad if you do. I broke at least five.

Step 3: Continue alternating colors and try to get some of each color on the inside and the outside. This is also where the hot glue comes in. Make sure as you’re adding the ornaments that you are hot glueing them together. This step wasn’t in the initial instructions and would have saved me breaking a few ornaments as I tried to move them around each other.

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Step 4: retwist the hanger together again without breaking any of the ornaments. If you’re an overachiever like me, add an old garden flag to the back with more hot glue.

Step 5: Use a ribbon to hide the bare spots.

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Step 5: hang from a door hanger. From a distance it doesn’t looked like a failed project. Except that it’s lopsided.

 

Easy headband and headband holder

Posted on by aurorameyer

It’s no secret I love headbands. Before Blair Waldorf made them popular again, I wore a headband all the time. But before the other day, I never made one. I was shocked at how simple it was.

I started by getting a plain plastic headband (metal would work too). Then I put the fabric. I wanted to cover it around it (inside out) and used straight pins to pin it down. Then I got out the needle and thread and sewed it together. Then I turned the whole thing inside out and voila! Plain headband!

Since I wanted this to be a gift, I wanted to punch it up a bit more. Using scraps from another project, I added a fabric rose by just wrapping the two scraps around each other.

I then sewed this to the back of the headband using another extra bit of fabric. In retrospect, it would have been easier to hot glue or use fabric glue (I now know the difference!). But the sewing worked just fine.

End result:

The next part of this project was even simpler. Though took it a little more patience because I had to wait for the canister of oatmeal to be empty first. Inspired by this pin, I removed the wrapper, painted the canister with shimmery gold paint and waited for it to dry.

It’s the perfect size for all my headbands and bonus, it keeps the other stuff inside! Hidden storage is pretty awesome.

p.s. I also made the white headband. Equally as simple, the hardest part was tying the bow!

The easiest wreath ever

Posted on by aurorameyer

updated easiest wreath ever
Update: With a little hot glue, some wooden numbers from Michael’s, the easiest wreath ever is now even better. Adding the numbers wasn’t quite as east as I thought it would be, turns out the wreath isn’t exactly flat and adding hot glue sometimes means the glue leaks between the openings in the wreath. I found the best way to attach the numbers was to figure out the placement, flip the wreath over and see where the numbers touched the wreath and then add hot glue on the back of the number near those spots. And to use more hot glue than you think you need.

I’m not the most crafty person. In fact, Pinterest is nearly a banned word in our house. Mostly because as soon as I say, “I saw it on Pinterest,” or “Pinterest made it look easy!” J rolls his eyes and shakes his head. Even C doubts my craftiness. And both are for good reason. All but a couple of projects have turned into a giant mess. But this one, was so simple! It only took about 10 minutes and turned out really well.

Here’s what you need
Wreath: your choice on the size. I think mine was about 18 inches.
wreathWire: to attach the flowers to the wreath. I went with the Naturally Wired so that if the wire showed, it looked like part of the wreath. But others (the helpful people at Joann Fabrics for example) swear by the green wire.

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Flowers: I like hydrangeas (they were in my wedding bouquet!) so I just bought a bunch silk ones from Joann’s when they were on sale.

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Directions:
This part is pretty easy. Before you get out your wire cutters, place the flowers on the wreath where you think you want them. Look at it from a few different angles. Do you need more leaves? Less leaves? More flowers? The nice part about using wire rather than hot glue to attach the flowers is that you can change it pretty easily.
Once you have the placement decided, cut the flower off the stem using the wire cutters. If you want to add the leaves, cut the leaves off the stem too, of if they’re the pop off kind, pop them off. Then cut about 18 inches of the wire for wrapping. Note: if your wreath is bigger, you might want a longer piece. As the helpful Joann’s lady said, you can always make it shorter, it’s a lot harder to make it longer.
Start by wrapping the end of the wire around the back of the wreath. Then either weave the wire around the back of the flower (for example if you’re using a daisy, go around the plastic on the back) or if you’re using a hydrangea like I did, separate the blooms and wrap the wire around the wreath and the blooms in a criss cross pattern. Then tighten the wire. If you are using roses, use the same method for the daisies, just know you’ll have less flower to work with. I then tucked the leaves in under the wire where I thought they would look best.
Repeat the same wrapping method until all the flowers are attached.
Then you’re done! If you want to add another element on the other side try an initial or your house number. I like the simplicity of just the flowers.

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