JulepStyle » Walls

Semi-Homemade Halloween Wreath

Suzanne — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 12:52:05 +0000

This past weekend, we had a lot of fun getting in the spirit of the season and decorating for Halloween. In an effort to better document my Halloween exploits, I’m going to try to post a project each day.

One of the oldest projects on my Halloween to-do list was to make a wreath. Last year, I bought a spooky-ish (but plain) black wreath from CVS on 60% clearance the week after Halloween was over. The wreath sat in our Halloween bins in the attic all year. I got it out this past weekend and decided to spice it up with some dollar store items: Centipedes, roaches, a fly, spiders, a ghoul, and the dollar store spooky gray cloth. Total budget for this wreath ended up being about $5, and we’re pretty pleased with the effect.

Spring Wreath (plus how-to)

Suzanne — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 13:36:48 +0000

Spring has definitely sprung. This weekend, Rob and I began our spring update to our home and yard. The first item of business was replacing the Winter Yarn Wreath I made in January with an updated spring wreath! I made our new wreath with a straw wreath, yarn, bias tape, paper flowers, and colorful buttons.

1. The first step is to start with the straw wreath. Place the wreath in a bag and remove the plastic wrap. You have to do this in a bag because the wreath will make a huge mess as you remove the plastic. Straw will go everywhere!

Straw Wreath Wrapped in Plastic

Unwrapping the Wreath in a Bag

2. After you’ve unwrapped the wreath, leave it in the bag. Cut 1.5-2″ wide strips of scrap cloth (mine is from an old pillowcase that I use to practice sewing on). Wrap the cloth around the straw wreath, securing each end with stick pins. At this point, I usually choose a front & back for the wreath and try to keep all the ends of fabric on the back side.

Pillowcase Strips

Wrapping the Wreath

3. To smooth the profile of the wreath, I wrapped the whole thing in yarn next. I used an off-white yarn that I had salvaged from a thrift-store sweater. Make a small knot in the end of the yarn and use a stick pin to secure it to the back of the wreath. Wrap the wreath and then secure the end knot to the back of the wreath.

Knot and Stick Pin

Yarn Wrapped Wreath

4. Since it’s not winter anymore, I didn’t want the main texture of this wreath to be yarn; I associate yarn with wool & sweaters & cold! I used a deep green single-fold bias tape to wrap the yarn wreath.

Start the Bias Tape on the Back

Fully Wrapped Wreath

5. Now the hard work is done, and it’s time to have fun. Lay out your paper flowers and buttons to figure out which combinations you’re going to use. Then pin these flowers to the wreath. By pinning them first (instead of stitching), you can tweak your composition as needed.

Flowers and Buttons

Pinning to the Wreath

Finished Wreath Composition

6. The last step is to stitch the flowers-with-buttons on to the wreath. I used a golden crewel wool and a really big needle. The more layers you go through (bias tape, yarn, straw), the more securely attached the flower button will be. After you get the needle through, stitch on the flower, and finish with a knot. (Then trim the ends; I used a pretty long strand of yarn, so I could just trim and move on to the next flower without re-threading my needle.)

The Stitch

Tie on the Flower/Button

And then you have your finished wreath!

Finished Wreath

I added a little bee that I made out of some pompoms and pipe cleaners before I hung the wreath on our door.

Bee Detail

Winter Yarn Wreath (with little owl friend)

Suzanne — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 13:39:34 +0000

I love outside Christmas decorations. We actually start our outdoor decorating in October for Halloween, use our non-carved pumpkins & add some scarecrows for Thanksgiving, then take down all the autumn and put up pretty lights and a wreath. (If it was up to me, I’d leave our Christmas lights up year-round, but Rob thinks it might make the neighbors think that we’re just too lazy to take them down…) After taking down the wreath this year, I wanted to make something to put in its place. I decided it was time to make a yarn wreath for myself. (You can also check out my earlier foray into yarn wreaths.)

This time I started out with a much larger straw wreath. I’ve read some tutorials that recommend leaving the plastic on (the straw makes a mess when you take off the plastic), but I just don’t like the idea of having plastic under everything. Instead, I take the plastic off the straw wreath while it’s in a large plastic bag. I also wrap the straw wreath with 2″ strips of old sheets (it took about 4 strips for this one) while it is still in the plastic bag. That way you have a contained mess and no plastic on your wreath.

After wrapping the fabric strips all the way round your wreath, start with the yarn. For the winter wreath, I chose 3 different textures of leftover white yarn from my stash. I also picked 3 accent yarns in colors I love – turquoise, magenta, and a mohair yarn that had lots of colors and metallics in it. I like to tie a knot it one end, put a stick pin securely through the knot, and then wrap. When I get to the end, I tie another knot and use another stick pin. The key is to make sure all the stick pins are on the back side. Also, if you plan ahead, you can use the same stick pin to secure the end of the previous yarn and the beginning of the next yarn. I don’t think there’s any wrong way to use the yarns. Just wrap them until you like what you see!

For this wreath, I added a few yarn-wrapped branches from a dogwood tree that we lost in a tropical storm this fall. The branches remind me of the leafless branches of winter. My method for wrapping them was very similar. I tied a knot at one end around the branch and then wrapped; when I got to the end I tied another knot. I then used hot glue to secure a tiny tail on the back side of the branch to give the end knots some stability. I also used hot glue to attached the branches to the front of the wreath.

The next to last step was to add a little owl I picked up at the craft store in the fall. The branches made the perfect perch for the cute little guy. I used the ribbon remnant that I picked up on a November thrift store run to hang the wreath. Now, our house has some winter adornment AND a little friend to welcome our visitors!

Yarn Wreaths (+ Birds)

Suzanne — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 14:45:49 +0000

Last May, my best friend sent me an image of a handmade wreath that she made for her mom.

I thought that hers was so lovely, I would take a stab at making one as a gift for my mother on her birthday. Erin told me that to create a smooth appearance, she wrapped the wreath with fabric first. Then she wrapped it with yarn and used carefully applied hot glue to keep everything together. I followed her same basic steps, but I used stick pins to secure the ends of the fabric and yarn (only on the back, non-visible side). I hate working with hot glue!

I had a lot of fun making this gift for Mama, and the embellishment possibilities are endless! What an excellent way to de-stash!

Bird Mobile Redux

Suzanne — Wed, 05 May 2010 15:02:21 +0000

For my 30th Birthday, my best friend made me a very cool bird mobile from Spool. However, we took it apart for the ride home from Savannah, and when I tried to re-assemble, I couldn’t get the mobile to balance.

After browsing yellow rooms on Apartment Therapy, I found a post where someone had used the same bird pattern from Spool (download it here) as a wall hanging. Mama had just trimmed her Crepe Myrtles, so she brought me lots of branches to use. It didn’t take very long to get the birds on the wall, and all of the balancing problems with the mobile were made irrelevant.

I can finally enjoy the gorgeous gift Erin made me. It looks super in our guest room!

Rob’s Puppies

Suzanne — Tue, 22 May 2007 13:23:15 +0000

For one of Rob’s birthday presents, I gave him a set of portraits of his puppies. They are all a mix of digital art & pastels.

Pepper’s main mission in life is just to cuddle and be loved.
Nugget loves toys; they are on his brain all the time.
Toby (Tobasco is his full name) spends his day being a hyper LOUD puppy; he’s just kinetic!

Painting for Mom

Suzanne — Tue, 22 May 2007 16:22:10 +0000

My Mom needed a quick large painting (36″ x 48″) the other day to finish getting her condo ready for some company to visit. She was going to send me out to buy her one; instead I suggested that I just paint one for her. The results:

Birds & Flowers

Suzanne — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 20:11:59 +0000

I painted/Collaged some bird & flowers squares as a gift for my sister. Each has a turqoise star or heart, but the colors don’t look so hot in the photos.

Olmsted Stamp

Suzanne — Wed, 31 Aug 2005 15:48:59 +0000

This shouldn’t really count as a craft, but I have a lot of things to post over the next days. I got these Frederick Law Olmsted (the founder of American landscape architecture) stamps and framed them to send to a few friends from grad school.

I will be mailing them tomorrow.

Flower Triptych

Suzanne — Mon, 18 Jul 2005 17:17:31 +0000

This weekend, I made some flower pictures for a swap I’m sending out today. I’m not telling who it’s for; I hope she enjoys it!

These collages were made from retro flower fabric and paper. There’s a tiny butterfly in each frame. I kept working and reworking these little pictures and FINALLY have something my swappee might want to display.

I was a little disappointed in the frames; they came with green-tinted glass. I took out the glass and hopefully they will be fine.