Crafting for a Cause

I love it when I get an excuse to make a good craft project.  Working in a school there are always lots of kids doing fundraisers.  Our Junior class does a class auction to raise money for prom, they ask people in the community to donate items to be auctioned off.  It's a silent auction during a home basketball game, no auctioneer, don't get too excited.  I do love real auctions though.

Anyway.  I can never say no to the kids.  So I ended up donating things for three different kids.  I did two crafts and then just threw together a bucket for the other item.  I love my bucket though.  I wish I had taken a picture of it.  I did a Family Movie Night theme.  I grabbed a couple of popcorn buckets from the Target Dollar Spot.  I added a box of microwave popcorn and a couple boxes of movie theater popcorn.  And then the movie Annie because it was one of my favorites when I was a kid and it was one of the best choices in the $5 movie section.  I put everything in a big popcorn bucket, one of those that has the microwave popcorn in the bottom.  I was really pleased with how it turned out.  It looks super cute.

And my crafts.  I knew I wanted to make a couple of wreaths.  I wanted to make another one of my favorite wreath just because I think it's gorgeous.

 

It's just a foam wreath wrapped with twine from the DG, a big flower wrapped around, and some yellow ribbon I had on hand to tie a bow.  So I knew I wanted something similar.  This time I went with a straw wreath because it was cheaper.  Yup, that was the only reason.  I bought 1/2 a yard of burlap and cut it into strips to wrap and hot glue to the wreath.  Helpful tip, if you try to push the burlap into the hot glue with your fingers you will end up covered in glue and with burned fingers.  I used the tip of my hot glue gun to press the burlap down.  I ended up doing two layers of burlap.  Then I just hot glued my flower on (it had a long stem that I was able to just pull out)

 I also wanted to make a school spirit wreath.  Our school colors are blue and red so I didn't want it to look too much like a 4th of July wreath.  I didn't really have a plan other than that so I headed to JoAnn's to look for inspiration.  I came home with red baseball fabric, red and blue felt, some wooden baseball cutouts, and some quilt binding.  And this is what I ended up with.

The whole time I was terrified that it would look like crap.  In the end I thought it turned out pretty well.  It's not necessarily my style but hopefully it will sell well, especially since it's almost baseball season.  I had originally thought I'd have to pull out my sewing machine to do the mini-buntings but I was able to just hot glue the felt in between the folds of the binding.  Perfect!

What craft projects are you working on?  Anybody else crafting for a cause?  It worked out perfect, I got to have fun working on a sweet craft project and help out kids at my school all at the same time.  I also worked on my dresser project last night.  Hopefully I'll be back Monday with pictures to share.

Pinterest Fall Challenge

So, those wild and crazy kids over at YHL are challenging us all to actually make something we've pinned.  I like to think I'm already good at this.  I tend to look for things to pin that I have plans of making in the future. Not that I'm the perfect Pinterest user, cause I'm not.  Anyway, I love pinning and making things.  So I'm participating....

So, technically I think this was supposed to be a new project.  But I had two sweet projects sitting around that I had totally forgotten to post.  Like I had to flip back through all my pictures and blog posts to make sure these were not repeats because I was totally sure I had already shared these projects because I was so in love with them.

In case you were wondering, this post could've been alternately titled "If you liked it you should've put a wreath on it."  Okay, maybe not as funny to other people as me, but I thought it was clever.  Anyway.  Here's inspiration for Wreath #1.

(source)

Super cute, right?  I feel like I looked at tons of argyle wreaths when I was actually making mine.  For some lame reason though, I only pinned one though.  I had aspirations for mine being more elaborate.  I wanted to add a bunting and maybe a tiger head.  But, still it hangs on my door in it's plain black and gold wonder (we're Mizzou Tigers fans if you're curious)

This wreath did not start life this cute though.  My husband picked me up a wreath at Hobby Lobby because I wanted a cute fall wreath.  I wrapped it with orange yarn and made some felt flowers.  Well, it sucked.  But, in an attempt for full honesty, this is the wreath on my front door last year.  Here ya go.

So ugly, right.  I came to my senses.  We also painted that ugly dull blue door red.  Anyway.  Back to the pretty pretty argyle.

Most argyle wreaths you look at, the yarn that crosses over the diamonds is all the same color.  This has to be easier than alternating colors.  I ended up doing a separate piece of yarn for each X and then using straight pins to attach it.  That's also how I attached the diamonds.  I had bought fabric glue which really turned out to be Elmer's glue in a bottle that said fabric glue.  It didn't stick my felt down at all.  So, I got creative.  The pins are tiny are barely noticeable.

A shot a little further away of the wreath hanging on our front door.  I'm strongly considering painting my outside doors turquoise.  My husband said he was okay with it.  I'm still consider it.

And now, wreath #2.  I pinned the first one because I thought it was fun and quirky.  Then my sister said she'd like one for her birthday so I had to do a little more Pinterest research.  So, I guess grown ups call these Pom Poms.  When I was a kid we called them Warm Fuzzies.  So, I prefer to call them Warm Fuzzy wreaths.  Here's my inspiration....

(source)

(source)

And here's where I went with it.  Initially I hadn't posted it because it was my sister's birthday present and I couldn't risk her seeing it until after her birthday.  Then I guess I forgot about it.  But, here it is.  It kind of reminds me of a muppet.  And I spent hours, mostly while watching footballs, tying pom poms (or warm fuzzies if you prefer) to tie onto my wreath.  I used a straw wreath.  I left the plastic on and then wrapped it with white linen-y fabric that had been cut off window curtains that I shortened.  Then I just cut the string that tied the warm fuzzy together long enough to tie around the wreath.

I snapped a picture of the wreath before I gifted it.  The colors weren't really that bright.  It was something about it being dark outside and taking a picture on our dark colored chair.

And this is the wreath hanging on my sister's front door.  I was pretty happy with how it turned out.  

Secret Santa

Okay, we all know I loooooove Christmas.  I started working on designing my Christmas cards yesterday.  I’m already thinking about where to put our tree. And if a furry white tree skirt is too over the top.  And I’ve already decided I’m changing up our color scheme this year. 

In the past I have always (I mean ever since I’ve had my own Christmas tree, so a good ten years) had a gold and burgundy tree.  In college our school colors were maroon and white so it was kind of like I had school spirit and pacified my sister who constantly freaks out because I’m a Mizzou fan and not a Missouri State fan even though it’s where I went to school.  I also always had burgundy in my living room because of my pink couch.  Since we bought new furniture last year (the pink furniture was banished to the basement, very manly of course) and I painted the back of our built ins turquoise, I think it’s time for the burgundy to go.  My cheapo Walmart ornaments have led a good life, now it’s time to retire them.  Maybe make a wreath out of them and give it to someone else. 

So I’m thinking of a more winter wonderland theme this year.  I’m going to keep using my gold ornaments – I have the regular “glass” balls, stars, some snowflakes, icicles, and some random gold ornaments my husband and I have bought since we’ve been together.  The plan is to mix in some silver and have a pretty metallic tree.  I think a furry white or some kind of sparkly white tree skirt would be amazing.  I can’t wait! 

Where did all this Christmas excitement come from all of a sudden?  Other than my obvious love of Christmas decorations.  We do Secret Santa at my work and today we drew.  I am so excited about the person I’m buying for.  I just drew her name (and “wish list”) about 30 minutes ago and I’m already planning what to get her.  We do one little gift every day for a week that costs under $3 and then on Friday we do a breakfast and do the big reveal with a gift that costs about $10.  So it’s possible I already have planned what I’m going to do.  Here we go, possibly more for my benefit than anyone else’s.

Monday:  Diet Vanilla Coke from Sonic
Tuesday:  Oatmeal Raisin cookies (I may try that cute idea where you put them in a Pringles can or some other cute packaging)
Wednesday:  Fancy post its http://pinterest.com/pin/25825397834010331/
Thursday:  Peppermint patties
Friday:  BIG GIFT DAY!  I’m thinking a navy and mustard yellow wreath

I’m so excited!  I feel like I have somebody this year that I can totally be a great Santa for.  I can’t wait to get started!  I have

Shut the Front Door

Apparently all of the people in TV world have gone on vacation for 4th of July or think we all have.  So that means none of our shows are on this week.  Last night my husband was catching up on sports news online, meaning I had full control of the remote.  We had been watching the Royals beat the Blue Jays but I can only watch so much baseball.  And since it's on practically every night I hit my limit quickly.  Anyway, 10 Things I Hate About You was on.  I love that movie!

I love 90s movies so much.  So as we were watching the movie last night, we were at the point when Cameron and Bianca are in Kat's room, talking about black underwear.  I told my husband that line in the movie was totally why I started buying black underwear.  Pretty sure I'm not the only one either.

Yesterday instead of working on actual house projects like I should have, I was getting my craft on.  So I got the first wreath finished I was working on.  That was over 400 little strips of fabric, over 400 knots tied.  It looks so good though. 

A picture doesn't really do it justice.  It's all black, yellow, and white.  So cute!  And I made one for our other front door.  Yes, we have two front doors, it's weird.  For the second wreath, I just bought one of those beveled styrofoam wreaths.  I wrapped it in twine and added a peony.  I couldn't find twine at JoAnn.  I figured Target would have some.  I figured wrong.  So as a last resort I looked at the dollar store when I went to get drain cleaner.  Amazingly, the dollar store had twine.  So other than my shopping ditziness (I could have bought hemp in the jewelry section) this wreath was so fast to make compared to the other.  And still gorgeous.  Even though my husband likes the other one better.

It's harder to take a picture of that door.  The lighting is never very good.  It's on the east side, that's why there are the weird shadows.  Also, that curtain is white.  The lighting makes it look blue at the bottom.  It's not.

Today I am going to have to be much more productive.  I have laundry to put away and more laundry to actually wash.  And the office is getting organized today.  I set myself a limit -- as soon as Boy Meets World is over, I'm getting to work.  Yes, in the summer I like to schedule my day around what I want to watch on TV.

Craftapalooza 2012

So my husband hurt his back yesterday.  That meant there were less house projects yesterday and more craftiness going on.  While he was watching baseball on the couch, I was sitting in the middle of the floor doing craft projects.  He had to go into work for a few hours in the morning and I got craft inspired.  I was planning to wait til today to work on my projects but, since he wasn't up for much else, I hung out with him and got started on my projects.

So my first project was doing some trays.  One for the coffee table to store magazines and one for the front entry way table that I've been working on.  That pretty much just involved some craft paint, scrap book paper and Mod Podge.  The one for the living room got some turquoise and brown paint and then some matching paper.

The color didn't photograph the best, but it looks great.  And now it's holding some fishing magazines and remotes.  Love it!  And it carries over the turquoise that I painted in the back of the built ins.  The other tray I did goes on the entry way table I've been working on.  That tray is turquoise and gold.  The main part of the tray is turquoise and the edging is all gold.  I found a gorgeous paper that was a nice texture and a turquoise and gold print.  And it looks pretty much perfect on the table.

Oh, and did I mention I got new knobs for the table?  My trip to JoAnn's was super productive.  I spent a while yesterday desperately wishing there was a Hobby Lobby closer to our house (the nearest one is a 45 minute drive) and then realizing there was a brand new JoAnn Fabrics 10 minutes away.  Not quite the same, but I found everything I wanted.  Anyway, let's check out a before and after of that table...

That second picture definitely shows off more of my ugly entry way floor but that floor is on the to do list.  I also plan on putting a nice vase of flowers on that table too.  That tray is going to hold mail.  I'm so in love with it.

I've also been working on one of those scrap wreaths.  Except I don't sew so I bought a pack of quilt block fabric.  As a happy accident, my husband liked the colors because they were Mizzou colors.  Granted, a tone downed Mizzou color scheme, but it still works.  I was just going for summery colors that would match the outside of our house and not be too girly.  So I think I succeeded.  I'm still working on tying on the about 400 strips of fabric.

So it's in process.  I am going to have to buy some more fabric to get it completely finished.  I also have plans for a twine wrapped wreath for our other front door.  Can't wait to get them done!