Yarn-Wrapped Wreath

This week's project was super easy & super cute.

Gather your supplies:

• wreath form: styrofoam or straw wreath (keep the plastic wrap kept on if you use straw) or scroll down for a really cheap trick.
• yarn: one large skein will be just fine.
• ribbon or extra thick yarn from which to hang the wreath. You could even knit or crochet a long i-cord or braid several strands of yarn to keep the yarn look consistent.
• hot glue gun & glue sticks or craft glue 
• felt sheets from the craft store (or if you have a lot of patience, you can knit 100% wool pieces and make your own felt....um....have fun with that.)
• sharp scissors

Wreath

1. Choose the backside of the wreath. Dab a piece of glue on the back, and stick your yarn to it. Let it dry a little bit. I had to wrap a small section of my straw wreath in duct tape so the hot glue didn't melt the plastic wrap. But I don't think it's that big of a deal.

2. Start wrapping! ...and wrapping...and wrapping.... This doesn't have to be perfect. In fact, overlapping the yarn at different points gives it a nice texture. But, it's totally up to you.

3. When the entire wreath form is covered in yarn, secure the end with glue.

QUICK TIP!

For a couple of the wreaths, we used polyethylene foam pipe insulation tubes. At our local Home Depot, you can buy 4-pack for about $2.75. You circle it up and duct tape the ends together. Each 3-foot tube makes one 13" wreath. This is obviously an amazingly cheap alternative to the $5.99 styrofoam forms you can find at your craft store.

There are two downsides to the polyethylene:

1) The circumference of the tubing is not very wide, so it makes for less decorating space. BUT WAIT! For the gray wreath pictured below, Ali doubled up the foam...she made a big circle, then cut a shorter piece to fit inside the first circle. She duct taped them together, and got a great width for the wreath.
2) The hot glue melts huge holes into the foam. Here's a solution that I've found to work: glue the beginning of your yarn onto the duct tape seam. And if you choose to cut yard-long pieces of yarn and wrap that way, you'll have to glue each yarn seam to the already wrapped yarn on the back. Another solution would be to use basic craft glue that won't leave holes in your wreath.

Now the fun stuff begins.

Felt Roses

1. With sharp scissors, cut a square. The larger the square, the bigger the rose; the smaller the square, the smaller the rose.

 2. Round the corners of the square, cut a circle, then cut a wavy spiral

Leave a little circle at the end of the spiral.

3. Starting at the beginning of the spiral, start rolling it up. Fiddle around with rolling it tightly and rolling it loosely to see the different results you get. Put a dot of glue on that circle that you left at the end when you cut spiral, and attach the rolled-up rose to that circle. Trim that bottom circle if it sticks out too much.

Lovely, aren't they?

The next obvious step is to merge these two creations:

• Choose the top of the wreath.
• Decide where you want the flowers on the wreath, then glue them on.
• Attach your ribbon or yarn or i-cord or your hanging device of choice.

Here's our finished products:

I used one polyethylene tube and Lion Brand Thick & Quick yarn. 

It was very easy to wrap since the yarn is so chunky:

  Ali used Hobby Lobby's I Love this Yarn and two polyethylene tubes duct taped together. I love the width of the wreath, and it's a great size:

 This was a straw wreath form wrapped in Paton's Classic Wool:

Have fun!

Fabric-Covered Metal Tray

Todays project inspiration also came from something that showed up on Pinterest. It is a Martha Stewart project from the craft section of her website.

Finding the right sized metal tray was proving to be a bit of a challenge on other shopping days, and there was NO way I was going to purchase a brand new cookie sheet for this purpose. 

Enter: the Lafayette Indoor Flea Market. 

Ali & I met at the flea market, and she showed me around the place. Glorious. It was full of treasures like this:

"Clouds of Cabbage" (Hopefully for a...leaky.... Cabbage Patch doll? Gack.)

Who doesn't need about 5 alien plush faces?

Size 50 knitting needles

Amazing art work.

But lucky for us, we also found these treasures for $1 a piece:

14x9" metal trays

And after a trip to Hobby Lobby to pick out some fabric (we purchased about 1/2 a yard for each tray), we got right to work.

Here's what we used:

• Metal tray of your choice
• Fabric (about 1/2 yard, depending on the size of the tray)
• Spray adhesive
• Enough felt to fit the back of the tray

Here's what we did:

Our first step was to iron creases out of the fabric. I know... I hate ironing, too, but it was worth it.

Cut the fabric leaving enough to wrap around the edges of the tray.

Following the instructions on the can, cover the top of the tray with spray adhesive.

 Working from the middle out, press the fabric down and into the corners and smooth any wrinkles/bubbles.

 Flip tray over, spray the back with the adhesive, and pull the fabric tightly over to the backside.

You'll get a kind of bunchy situation like this:

We were temporarily stumped, wondering how we were supposed to make this bunch of fabric both adhere AND lay flat. So, after some brainstorming we figured to run the edge of the scissors along the lip of the tray, which resulted in a very clean line along the edge. (A box cutter would work well here, too).

Since we had already sprayed and wrapped, the fabric still stuck to the lip after we ran the blade along the edge. The excess fabric just pulls right off. The tray was sticky where that fabric was, but it was nothing a little Goo Gone or fingernail polish remover didn't tackle.

 I had to double-wrap mine, since my fabric was light enough to let the printed picture on the tray show through. This was very much a pain-in-the-rear. I would recommend painting over any pattern on the tray or covering the main image with a thick, neutral paper so that you can do a single wrap with the fabric.

Finally, cut-to-fit the felt and adhere it to the back of the tray.

And Presto Change-o!
Lovely new custom tray to hold remotes, coasters, vases, knick-knacks, whatever.

I would give this project 4.5 out of 5 stars. After we gathered all of our supplies, it took about 45-60 minutes to complete. It was easy, and the finished project was very well worth it. A lot of bang for your buck, if you will. The downsides were using the spray adhesive, which got EVERYTHING very sticky, almost to the point where I couldn't use my fingers any longer. But, like I mentioned, it cleaned up pretty easily. Overall it was really fun!

Side Table

Found this lovely piece for $10 at the thrift store and it needed a little love. 

The table tops were laminate-ish, and so I sanded them down with a fine sanding block. I also lightly sanded the sides and legs. I removed the hardware and filled in the holes with wood filler & a putty knife. 

I bought some Behr Ultra Paint + Primer in Smokey Blue and started brushin'. That paint was AMAZING.

I love how it turned out!