Holiday Cork Wreaths

It was Christmastime last year that my mother first spotted this wreath design in the Houston Chronicle. Leave it up to my mom to scope out crafts in the newspaper. She spotted them and, knowing my love for crafting, asked if I'd make some for her book club friends for their annual Christmas extravaganza. I'm always looking for an excuse to craft- and a place to offload my crafts when I've finished, so of course I said yes.

This is the newspaper clipping that I worked off of to make these wreaths. I say "wreaths" and not just "wreath" because before this is all said and done, I'll have made about 20 of these bad boys! TWENTY! 

My mother gave her friends a heads up that she needed corks for a crafting project and the corks started pouring in. She became quite the cork collector. She even managed to purchase a big batch of them from a store going out of business. If anyone opened up the closet at my childhood home they'd think an alcoholic had taken up home in the closet. Every time I visited home my mom would let me know that her cork collection was growing and that she was ready to pass them off whenever I wanted to start crafting. Be the time she passed her cork collection off to me mid-summer, there were hundreds! 

Corks on corks on corks.

I took my first whack at making a wreath sometime this summer. I had to master the use of the Dremel that I borrowed from my dad. I started as a novice, but after drilling two holes in every single one of those damn corks I have become the drill master! The one thing I discovered when making the test wreath was that there's no way floral wire was going to hold these suckers together. I bought the thickest floral wire I could find at Hobby Lobby and the wreath wouldn't hold up or keep a circular shape. So, before I started to make the wreaths en masse, I went out and bought 18 gauge wire from Home Depot- and that definitely did the trick! 

Supplies 

tape measure or ruler

marker

22 corks/wreath

22 3/4" bells/wreath

18 gauge steel wire (I bought mine for ~$5 from Home Depot) 

pliers with wire cutters 

drill 

Directions

Use tape measure or ruler to measure 1/4 inch from the end of each cork and make a mark. Do this on both ends of the cork. While marking the corks, make sure that all are about the same size. While I was doing this project I discovered that some of the corks I had were about half an inch shorter than the rest. The wreaths will string together best when the corks are all about the same size. 

Break out the drill and drill a hole through the cork where you made each mark. Make sure you're working on a surface you don't mind getting messed up. I had a piece of pine board left over from another project that I worked on top of so I didn't have to worry about drilling through the cork and into the coffee table. 

Once you've drilled holes in all of the corks (whether it's 22 or hundreds), string them on the wire alternating with bells. Mom bought me 3/4 in bells from Hobby Lobby that came in red, white, and silver. I alternated the colors so they had some semblance of a pattern. 

When you have all 22 corks and 22 bells strung together, clip the wire with wire cutters (I used my pliers) and twist/curl the ends so the corks and bells can't fall off. It should look like this:

Then, take the wire and string it through the other hole leaving space between the corks. If you pull it tight at this point it gets difficult to string together. The straighter you can manage to keep the wire the easier it will be to pull/push through the corks. 

When the second wire is strung through the corks, clip the wire and twist/curl the end so it doesn't come out of the corks. It should look like this: 

With your pliers, hold one end of the wire that runs through the side of corks without the bells. Hold the wire firmly in one hand and hold the end cork in the other. Then, slowly pull the wire while holding the cork still. The strand of corks will begin to curl up and you'll end up with about 6-8 inches of wire pulled out. 

Prepped and ready to pull the wire out of the corks.  

About half way done pulling the wire out. It will resemble a circle more and more as you pull the wire out. 

It should look like this when you're done pulling the wire out. If you pull too much, the corks will begin to overlap. Don't fret, you can just let some of the wire loose and stretch the corks out a bit.

Wire all the way pulled out. Wreath should be circular.

Next, it's time to pull the wreath together and attach the ends. I used my pliers to connect the two ends to each other and clipped off the excess. 

My mom is a much better bow-tier than I am, so when they were all finished, she slapped a bow on each of them to give them a finishing touch! Ta-da! :) 

  Needless to say, after making so many of these I was more than happy to hand them off to my mom and leave them behind. There's no love lost between these bad boys and my fingers that drilled and strung so many corks. 

This is kind of how I felt after I was done- except replace glue and paint with corks and wire. 

Now, I just have to decide what I'm going to do with the remaining cork collection that I've got. So many more things to be made with corks!   

Patriotic Summer Wreath

Yes... I made more wreaths... Do I have a problem? Maybe. They're just so easy and fun and there are endless possibilities and seasons to celebrate. From Memorial Day to the 4th of July, a patriotic wreath is perfect for summer. And it is definitely summer here in Texas already. Only just into June and we've already hit the mid-90s.

I found the inspiration for this wreath on Pinterest, as always. I got the general idea: wreath form, clothespins, paint, stars. Got it. I kind of used my imagination from there about how to execute it. I got wreath forms at Hobby Lobby for $2/each and got clothespins and spray paint from Home Depot. Do not buy clothespins from Hobby Lobby- they're like $4 for 30 as opposed to $2.35 for 50 at Home Depot. Don't waste your money on the expensive ones when the cheap ones work perfectly! I had white acrylic paint and paint brushes left over from another project, so I didn't worry about buying white spray paint.

This is how I made my patriotic clothespin wreaths...

Supplies/Tools Needed

wreath form

clothespins (# depends on wreath form size)

red, white, and blue paint

paint brush

star-shaped paper punch

white card stock or thicker paper

adhesive

These are the clothespins that you can buy at Home Depot. 50 pack for $2.35.
They were in the aisle with the spools of clothesline by the yard. 

First, you have to put all of the clothespins you can fit on the wreath form. The number of clothespins depends on the size of the wreath. I made two of these using one 12" form and one 16" form (measuring outermost part of wreath form). The 12" form fit 67 clothespins and the 16" form fit 96.

From there, I decided how many clothespins thick I wanted to make the white and red stripes. While deciding, I kept in mind that  the star and stripe sections should be somewhat proportional to a flag and that there are 13 stripes (7 red, 6 white). I did some quick math and decided that I'd use 3 clothespins for the stripes on the smaller wreath and 4 for each stripe on the larger wreath. That allowed me to have a fairly representative amount of blue clothespins on each wreath for the stars.

12" wreath: 67 clothespins = 28 blue + 21 red + 18 white.

16" wreath: 96 clothespins = 31 blue + 35 red + 30 white.

First, I took the clothespins that I was going to paint white off of the wreath form and left the others. on. I painted the white clothespins. Don't forget to paint the clippy end (very technical term).

The "clippy end."

With the other clothespins on the wreath form, I divided them into a red and blue group and then used aluminum foil to cover one group while I painted the other. This is a very make-shift way to paint the clothespins w/o having to flip them all over and paint twice. You definitely don't have to use my painting technique if you know a better one! :) I covered the blue ones and painted the red group first.

Then, I uncovered the blue group and covered the red clothespins and repeated. Make sure that all of the spray paint is fully dry before you cover it in foil.

Once all the paint had dried, I assembled the clothespins into 13 stripes and the large, blue section.

12" wreath.

16" wreath.

Then, I took used the star-shaped paper punch to cut out stars for the blue section. My mom came to the rescue again with her endless craft supplies! I borrowed her 3/4 of an inch star-shaped punch and cut out 100 stars. My hand was not loving it by the end, but I made it through. Crafting struggles... 

Then I used my mom's sticker maker (a Xyron?) to put adhesive on the back of the stars, then placed them in a scattered non-pattern around the blue clothespins.  

Ta-da!

These were really easy to make and they turned out so cute!!
I can't wait for them to be hanging in my parent's house and my sister's salon! 

Happy Birthday, Megan!

Remember the growth ruler that I made for Nicole's little girl, Allison? Well, Alli's aunt is also one of my best friends, Megan, thought it was pretty cute and decided that she wanted a wall decoration of her own. It's about time that I made her something and what a better time then when she's moving into a new apartment that needs decorating! 

She posted this picture on my Facebook a few weeks ago, making her official crafting request. I was way excited to have something to make for someone. And also excited that I could make something that I didn't have to worry about finding wall space for! Hah!

After making Alli's growth ruler, I knew this would be a fun and easy craft to make. I used the same kind of pine board for this project that I used for Alli's. While the board in the picture is black, Megan wanted me to create a dark navy/very dark teal color to match her living room's accent color. I found the perfect color Behr paint, "Velvet Evening" that is navy blue with just a touch of green to it. I love it and it's going to look really good with the off-white/bone color or the adhesive lettering.

I purchased all of my supplies for the project at Home Depot. The project was pretty cheap and I'm also going to have a large piece of pine board and navy blue paint leftover for future crafts. 

My shopping list consisted of...

pine board, 4 feet long x 11 inches wide [$8.38]

Behr paint sample in "Velvet Evening" [$2.94]

trim painting kit [$1.97]

sand paper block [$3.97]

adhesive lettering [whole roll costs $6.99]

Tools needed... 

Cricut machine. Thankfully, my mother has one and she kindly helps me use it every time... it has way too many buttons for me to get a hang of!

Also, when you buy your wood, ask an employee at Home Depot to cut it for you if you don't have a way to do so at home. I definitely don't have any heavy duty wood cutting tools, so I always ask for help when I buy wood/pegboard. For this project, I asked them to cut a 16" piece. The final piece that I painted was 16"x11". 

Easy steps...

Start by sanding down the edges of the board. There shouldn't be any sharp edges when you're finished. Use your judgement on how much to sand, the more you sand the rounder the edges will be.

After sanding the edges, make sure to thoroughly sand the side of the board that you'll be painting. When you're done it should be really smooth. The smoother your board is, the better it will look after the paint job.

Then, break out your paint and roller brush and paint on two layers. Make sure to allow the board plenty of time to dry completely between each coat. Unless you're painting outside, make sure that you put something beneath the board you're painting- I used a trash bag. 

I love how the color turned out on mine after painting!

Cut out adhesive letters. I did the exact lettering that was on the board that Megan found on Pinterest. I cut out the words "Please excuse the mess....... we live here" (with 7 dots).

My mom always helps with the cutting of the adhesive letters. The Crucit machine has too many buttons and I don't use it often enough to have learned what they all do. You can buy a roll of adhesive vinyl to create stickers at Michaels or Hobby Lobby for about $7. My mom has a bunch of different Cricut cartridges so I had a log of fonts to choose from. I chose a relatively simple font, like the one in the picture. 

(P.S.- My mom is awesome because she took some time out of Mother's Day to help me with my craft. I love that woman!)

First she programs what she wants the Cricut machine to cut, then the machine cuts it all out perfectly. I love how the font we chose turned out on the dark, painted wood. 

These are the final cut out letters. My mom programmed it to cut all of the tall letters first, followed by the shorter letters, like the e's and s's. 

Apply lettering to painted board. Make sure to press them down really well, especially around the edges. If you don't make sure they're stuck down really well they may peel up. 

Ta-da! Finished product ended up looking great! 

I gave it to Megan for her 23rd birthday and now I can't wait to see it hung up in her new apartment!
Happy Birthday, Megan! :) 

Watch-Her-Grow Ruler

Another National Crafting Month Creation! 

I am lucky to have a lot of friends that I consider family. My friend, who I grew up with and consider a sister, just had a beautiful baby girl in September of last year.  It has been so exciting to watch her little girl grow and learn over the last six months. She is beautiful and full of giggles and drool and I absolutely adore her. It's fascinating to watch her learn and grow... and of course, I love to spoil her!  So, when I ran across this simple and fun DIY, I thought it would make a fun gift!

I took a trip to Home Depot and got all of my supplies. I searched through a bunch of the pine boards to find one that looked the cleanest and had the fewest knots, grooves, and imperfections. The board was about $8.50, not too shabby! I snagged some sandpaper blocks for less than a dollar and a sample size of paint, about $3.50. It took me a few minutes to find the perfect coral color to match Allison's nursery decorated in coral and creme (it's stinkin' precious!). I also grabbed a wall hanging kit. My mom had black vinyl adhesive paper leftover from another project, so she help me cut the numbers, letters, and dashes with her Cricut machine. She also happened to have a bunch of felt adhesive wall bumpers, always prepared! 

Supplies

pine board, 6 ft tall x 12 inches wide 

sandpaper

paint

paint brush

number and letter stickers 

wall hanging kit

wall bumpers

I was pretty proud of the pine board I found. I managed to find one with just a few imperfections/grooves. I still needed to make sure that the surfaces were smooth and looked nice when painted, so I took the sandpaper to it and smoothed it all down. 

Once the surfaces and edges were nice and sanded down, I began painting. I first started with some leftover foam brushes that I had around the house, but then went back to Home Depot and got a trim painting kit for $1. It came with the perfect size small roller brush and a small tray that I could pour the paint into. 

I got a Behr Premium Plus paint sample. I love how this color turned out. I did about 3 coats by the time I was done painting. 

After I let it dry completely, I got out a tape measure and marked off the inches with a pencil on the edge of the board. Then I marked each six inch interval, where a longer marking would go.  My mom helped me apply the vinyl cut lettering for "Allison" at the top of the board. We were careful to do our best to make it centered on the board. 

Then I added the small lines for each inch mark and longer ones for the 6 inch and foot markers. I started with the bottom of my board being the 6" mark, so the board could measure up to 6'6". Then I added the numbers at the foot markers. 

I thought it turned out pretty cute for my first large-scale craft. Allison sure looked adorable next to it! Pretty soon she'll be standing up on her own. Time sure does fly!

St. Patrick's Day Wreath

Happy St. Patrick's Day! 

I found a crafty way to celebrate! My sister is always in need of seasonal decor for her salon, so I made this fun, super easy wreath. I took a trip to my local Hobby Lobby and gathered my supplies. I got my four rolls of tulle for 50% off, thank you clearance aisle! I had the straight pins leftover from the Valentine's Day Wreath that I made for Catherine and my mom. I chose a straw wreath form over a styrofoam one because it was about half of the price ($4.50 vs. $8.99). 

Supplies

Straw or styrofoam wreath form (I got straw b/c it was cheaper)

4 rolls green tulle (3 dark green, 1 light green)

scissors

straight pins or glue

St. Patty's decorations

How to...

First, I prepared my wreath decorations. I had decided on the letters for "Lucky" on sparkly foam shamrocks. I painted the small wooden letters white, waited for them to dry, and then glued them onto the foam letters.

Then, I took my tulle and cut it into ~17 inch strips. Then I tied the strips around the wreath form. I alternated 3 green and then one light green strip. I tied them all the way around, scrunching them together as I went to make them tightly spaced together. I ended up using one full spool of light green tulle and about 2 and a half spools of the darker green. 

When I was done tying the tulle onto the wreath form, it looked like this:

Then, I attached the foam shamrocks to the wreath. I used both straight pins and glue. 

Finished product! Ta-da! 

So excited for this to be hanging in my sister's salon! 

Happy St. Patrick's Day and National Crafting Month to all!