Valentine’s Day Wreath

I was browsing through one of my favorite blogs and saw this little beauty. 

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And I decided it might be a fun little project.
Plus my door has been looking a little naked since I took down my autumn wreath.
I know, I need a Christmas wreath.
All in good time.
ANYWAY, so I went to the dollar store and found a floral form.
 
And went to Wal-mart and bought some $1 Valentine’s Day ribbon.  And I wrapped it around the form and hot glued the ends down.
 
Then I took some cupcake liners and went crazy!
FYI: IMPOSSIBLE to find cute cupcake liners in a small town.  I made due with what I could get my hands on.

I followed her directions pretty closely and worked in sections.  Instead of bunching them up, though, I sort of wrapped the liners around a chopstick (See that green stick in the background?) and then pressed it into a dab of hot glue.  I found it a lot less brutal on my poor burnt fingers.  Plus I could press the liner slightly into the form, which kind of gave it a more secure feel.
And I just worked my way around.  I also put them on the outside of the form, which makes it nice and puffy.
Then I sprayed some adhesive on the liners and poured a whole bunch of red glitter all over the thing.  It was magical.
I then made a sort of flower out of a couple liners and glued it on.  Then I tied a bow out of some thin ribbon and glued it in the center of the flower.
I glued some ribbon across the back and tied it in a bow and hung it on the door.
 
I think it turned out super cute, even though I wasn’t a huge fan of the liners I got.  Fun colors and a fast little project.

A huge thanks to Jen over at Tatertots and Jello for this super fun project!  She’s pretty awesome, just so ya know.

Only In America

That’s right, I made something else for the 4th. I can’t control myself, it’s becoming a sickness…

I was wandering through Melanie’s blog, The Crafty Cupboard, the other day and came upon this.

 

(photo from Melanie’s blog The Crafty Cupboard) 

Could you just die?! I know!! It’s so dang cute!!

And I knew I must have one for my very own.

So it was off the the fabric store, unfortunately known as Wal-mart.

Let’s just say her fabrics are WAAAY cuter than mine.

But I think it turned out alright, considering what I had to work with. (boo)

She has a template posted on her blog here.

It’s a lot like the birthday banner I made a few months ago.

Only smaller. And it came together a lot faster.

I used 1/2 yard of white, and 1/4 yard each of four printed fabrics of red and blue.

I also used a sheet of blue felt and a sheet of red felt and cut out little stars.

And two packages of double fold bias tape.

I made one small one with 12 pennants on it and a large one with eighteen.

It’s cute and adds a lot to the room!

So a big thanks to Melanie and her super cute blog for inspiring me and making it more festive around here.

Her blog, by the way, you should definitely go check out. She’s got some awesome stuff on there!!

**I went to the other craft store yesterday, which is usually waay too expensive to buy anything and they had all their 4th of July stuff 25% off…and they had some darling fabrics…but I was already halfway done with this project…dang it.

Party In The USA

I saw this last spring and really loved it.

(photo from Linda’s blog, Craftaholics Anonymous)

Um, hi, can you say so so stinkin adorable?!?!  I loved it.

I, however, had just finished making my spring wreath.

Boo.  So I decided to put it on the back burner...until I had the idea to make a festive 4th of July wreath instead.

I basically love it.  I followed Linda’s tutorial for the most part, which is fantastic by the way.

I did make a few changes.

Here’s what I did.

Linda used felt. Walmart basically sucks noodles and didn’t have ANY blue felt.

So I decided to improvise and use ribbon.

I gathered all the red, white, and blue ribbon and buttons I could find. And I bought a wreath.

Then I followed Linda’s instructions for making the flowers.

Just make loops and then fold the ribbon at an angle and put a little hot glue to hold it. The angle you fold makes all the difference, as you might see with some of my flowers. It took me a minute to figure out how to make them all the same.

I ran out of ribbon while making this flower

So I just glued the start of new ribbon where it left off and kept going.

I had fun figuring out how to make different shapes and loops and little ones and big ones.

I love this little guy.

And this one’s a star. Cute cute cute!!

Then I just glued them onto the wreath and fastened a ribbon on with more hot glue.

I think it turned out perfectly!

Festive and oh so cute!

And fairly simple. It took me an hour, start to finish.

It was a naptime masterpiece!!

There I am in the reflection. Nice.

Thank you, Linda! You rock!!!

Loverly Spring Wreath

I am so stinking sick of this weather! Sheesh already isn’t it supposed to be spring?!

Well, to maybe push Mother Nature in the right direction, I made a happy spring wreath for our front door.

Is cute, no?

It was a snap to make. I just bought a wreath form from the dollar store and wrapped it with ribbon.

Then I glued a whole lotta daisies all around and tada! Cute spring inspiring happiness!

If that doesn’t get Mother Nature’s attention, nothing will. Those are some bright and happy flowers!

Well, here’s hoping spring will be here soon…

Christmas 2008

Here are some fun things I made for Christmas of 2008.

I searched high and low and could not for the life of me find a pink tree skirt. So I made one. I used light and dark pink felt and, using another tree skirt as a pattern, and cut pie shapes of both. I sewed them together and then sewed lengths of black ribbon over the seams. I then cut black felt to match the perimeter and sewed it on, again, covering the seam with black ribbon. I then tied pink ribbon into bows and hot glued them over the ribbon/seams. Then I hot glued black ribbon to form closures. It turned out fabulous.

I also made my son a Christmas outfit for church. Please oh please disregard the messy face and sweat pants.


Here are some gifts I made using pre-cut wood crafts.The nativity came as a set, and I painted it and put it together using hot glue and wood glue. I sued burlap and satin for the head covers.

The stockings and heart wall hanging I used wire and plaid fabric, which was ripped into 1"x6" strips. I painted the wood pieces and attached them to each other with hot glue, then hung them with wire. The heart says, "The stockings were hung by the chimney with care" and I just used a paint pen to apply the words, although I think it would have been amazing with vinyl lettering.

Family blocks were painted, sanded and have vinyl applied.

The other decoration was painted and the smaller pieces attached with curled wire. I tied a ribbon to act as a hanger on the top.

Let's not forget about the candy I made for my neighbors. Yum, yum!

Mexican Wedding Cookies
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, divided
2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
1/2 teaspoon Nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 cups flour
2 cups finely chopped pecans (optional)
(I made mine without pecans. They were heavenly)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Beat butter in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add 1/2 cup of the sugar, vanilla, nutmeg and salt; beat until well blended. Stir in flour and pecans. Shape into 1-inch balls. Place 1 inch apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake 15 minutes. Remove from baking sheets. Immediately roll hot cookies in remaining 2 cups sugar. Place sugared cookies on wire racks to cool. When cool, roll again in sugar.
Divinity
(or "fairy poop" as my brother calls it)

3 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
2/3 cup warm water
2 egg whites
1 tsp vanilla extract (or other flavor of your choice)

Prepare a cookie sheet by lining it with aluminum foil and spraying the foil with nonstick cooking spray, or lining it with wax paper. Combine the sugar, corn syrup and water in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until the sugar dissolves. Continue cooking without stirring until the mixture reaches 250 degrees, firm-ball stage. In the meantime, beat the egg whites in the bowl of a large standing mixture until stiff peaks form. Slowly pour about half of the sugar syrup into the egg whites, beating constantly. Continue to cook the remaining syrup until it reaches 270 degrees, soft-crack stage. Stream the remaining syrup mixture into the egg whites while the mixer is running. Continue to beat until the candy is thick, shiny and holds its shape. Mix in extract until fully incorporated. Drop by the teaspoonful onto cookie sheet, and let cool until full set.

Variation: Divinity can be poured into a 9-inch square pan, cooled, and cut into small squares instead of being dropped from a spoon.

Fudge
1 1/2 c Milk
4 oz Unsweetened chocolate (sqs)
4 c Sugar
3 tb Light corn syrup
1/4 ts Salt
3 tb Butter or margarine
1 1/2 ts Vanilla

Combine milk and chocolate in medium-size heavy saucepan; cook over low heat until chocolate is melted. Add sugar, corn syrup and salt and cook, stirring constantly, to boiling.
Cook, without stirring to 234F on a candy thermometer. (A teaspoonful of syrup will form a soft ball when dropped into cold water.) Remove from heat at once. Add vanilla and butter or margarine, but do not stir in. Cool mixture in pan to 110F, or until lukewarm; beat with wooden spoon until mixture thickens and begins to lose its gloss. (This will take about 15 minutes.)
Spread in a buttered 8x8x2" pan. Let stand until set and cool; cut into squares.

Grandma Cannon's Carmels
2 cups sugar
2 cups Karo syrup

Stir together and continue stirring and boiling until it begins to thicken. Add 1 cup butter a little at a time while stirring and boiling. Add a few grains of salt. Very slowly pour in 2 cups whipping cream, slow enough that it never stops boiling. Keep stirring until it reaches a soft firm stage, 230-234 degrees. Add vanilla and pour into buttered 8"x11" pan. Let cool, cut and wrap in waxed paper. Enjoy.