Valentines Day Hutch & Wreath Tutorial

Hello friends!

True confession time.

This Valentine's Day inspired decor that I'm

sharing with you today is from last year!

I had all the photos loaded & ready to go.

I just never posted it!

I was so surprised when I saw the draft listed.

I don't have a lot of Valentine's Day decor.

Just a few things.

This year, (well last year) I decided to make a wreath.

I really love how it turned out.

And it was so easy to make too.

Here's my tutorial on the wreath.

It's almost silly how easy it is to make.

I traced some heart shapes onto a piece of lightweight cardboard.

I cut them out.

I then took yarn, taped the end in place and began wrapping 

it around the shape.

I wrapped all willy nilly,

nothing uniform about it.

My intention was to wrap the yarn completely around

the cardboard so there would be no cardboard showing.

However, once I got going, I decided I loved

the cardboard peeking out behind the yarn,

so I left it like that.

I glued the shapes onto a grapevine wreath

and there you have it!

Don't you love an easy craft that

turns out better than you expected?

The Year in Review 2012- Part 1

Hi my dear, sweet friends!

 

I took a much longer break from blogging
than I anticipated and in the process,

I missed all of you so much!

I thought it would be fun to have a Year in Review
here on the old blog.  It's snowing like crazy
right now, so I may as well hunker down
and blog some. 

I think I'll split this post into parts so it doesn't get too long.
I'll also add links in case you want to check something out further.

In January 2012,

 

I was so excited to learn how to make paper snowflakes

 that weren't a square shape (lol),  

that I just had to share a tutorial with all of you. 

I also shared my Winter Mantel in January.

 

The exciting part of this mantel is that it is currently

being featured at HGTV.com! 

You can read about that here.

In February 2012,

I spent some time hand stitching

these hearts for Valentine's Day. 

Of course, I've had many tablescapes
scattered throughout the months,

 

  but I loved this one that I named Cupid's Arrow.

In March 2012,

 

I joined up with some of my sweet bloggy friends

and hosted my very first Linky party...

The Great Spring'tacular Link Party Parade!

 

I made the burlap Easter wreath for the party.

 

In April 2012,

 

 

I made this cute button egg topiary.

 

We started the first of many home projects.

We were thrilled to finally get new windows

for the dining room...ones that actally opened without
the strength of Hercules!

April also brought a fun opportunity.

 

I joined up with my Spring'tacular Link Party Parade girls,

for the Newbie Spot of the Week.

The Spotlight is no longer, but

it was fun finding newbie bloggers to spotlight

each week.

 

I think I'll stop the Year in Review right here.

More to come so please stay tuned!

 

 
 

Button Egg Topiary

I'd like to share an Easter craft with you today.

You'll need a styrofoam egg, pins, a wooden dowel, floral foam,

a flower pot or container and

buttons...

 or should I say, BUTTONS!

Just start pinning the buttons to the styrofoam egg.  Go ahead and overlap them and fill in the spaces as best you can.  Leave a small area uncovered so you can insert the wooden dowel.

When you are done, it should look something like this:

I then got a small flower pot and filled it with some floral foam.

Stick wooden dowel into the styrofoam egg.  I covered my dowel with ribbon

but you could leave it as is or even paint it a pretty color. 
Stick other end of wooden dowel into the floral foam.

I added some crinkled paper to cover the floral foam and now I have
a button egg topiary!

This is a very easy craft, however, I must warn you, you will use alot of buttons!

I'm so glad you visited Random Thoughts today.  I really do appreciate each & every visit.

I'll be linking this to:  Bunny Blog Hop, at DIY by Design,
Live Laugh Linky Thursday at live love rowe,
Thursdays Are Your Days at 52 Mantels
Weekend Wrap Up at Tatertots & Jello

Go on over and check it out!

Don't forget about my Spring Giveaway!  If you haven't entered, see here. 

The Big Pom Pom Flower Tutorial

So many of you have asked & here I am, ready to answer...with a tutorial!

As many of you know,  I made this ruffled lamp shade last year.

This is the tutorial for how to make the Pom Pom flowers that I used on that lamp shade.  Yes, I can hear them too...the angels are singing.  

Now bear in mind, I am not a master tutorial giver, ok?

Also, I do not want to hear a single snicker at the condition of my dry-and-badly-in-need-of-a-manicure hands, ok?  It is winter in New York, afterall. 

I'm feeling a little sassy today, can you tell?

Now that we've got that squared away, here we go!

1.  Gather some supplies:  fabric, scissors, hot glue gun, a round shape to use as a template.

In case you might like to know, I used Osnaburg for my lamp shade flowers.  The Osnaburg fabric was great because it has a tendency to fray which was the look I wanted with the lamp shade.  Today I'm using this purple cotton because hey, I just feel like it.

2.  Trace & cut several circles (about 10) from your fabric.  The size of your circles depend on how big you want your flowers to be.  The circles shown here are roughly 2 inches in diameter.  Your circles do not need to be perfectly cut.   Sometimes it's fun not being perfect. 

3.  Take one circle and place it in front of you to use as the base of your flower. You will glue all the other  circles to this piece.

4.  Take another circle and squish it up at the center, so it looks like this.

5.   Add a bead of hot glue to the tip of the squished up circle.   

   

6.  Stick glued piece to center of circle base. 

7.  Repeat with the rest of the circles, gluing them to cover the circle base.  Eventually you will have something that looks like this.



I don't really have a set number of circles you need to glue down.  I just keep gluing and filling in until I think the flower looks full enough, covers the circle base & is shaped to my liking.  In other words, I just wing it.

  

 

I think these Pom Pom flowers are great because you can use them in home decor, for pretty headbands, purses, or even for jewelry.   

If you should have a question, need me to explain, clarify, or talk you through it, do not hesitate to ask me.  I do realize that tutorials often get confusing.  I shall do my best to help you.  I aim to please.  Yessiree, I aim to please.

I thank you all for visiting today.  Now run off and adorn your home and/or self with some Pom Pom flowers, k?

Linking to:
Potpourri Party at 2805
Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage
Inspiration Friday at At the Picket Fence

Paper Snowflake Tutorial

When I posted my Winter mantel a few days ago, several of you requested a tutorial of how to make the paper snowflakes that I used in my banner.   I'm no tutorial expert, but I'll give it a try.

Do you remember making paper snowflakes that looked like this when you were a kid?  (From notebook paper no less!)

I remember seeing pretty snowflakes, ones that were round or star-shaped, but could never figure out how to make them.  Remember we didn't have the internet back then!

Just before Christmas, one of my students gave me a snowflake that looked like the one above.  Grateful though I was, it stirred up my old childhood wish to make pretty snowflakes.   

Needless to say, I finally learned how to make them (some 30 years later) and once I got started, I couldn't stop!

Ok, tutorial time, get ready for lots of pictures.  It's very dark here, so I apologize for the quality.

Step 1.  You need to start out with a square piece of paper.  I made all sizes, but this one is 8" x 8".

Step 2.  Fold this square into a triangle.

Step 3.  Fold the triangle over again into another smaller triangle.

Step 4.  Make sure the point of the triangle faces down, like so.

Things might get a little tricky for the next few steps, but hopefully the pictures will help you.

Step 5.  Take one side of the triangle and fold it over one-third of the way.

Step 6.  Take the other side of the triangle and fold it over again.

Step 7.  Turn the piece over to the back side and cut off the pointed ends.

Step 8.  Now take your shape and just start cutting rounded shapes, triangles, deep V's, whatever you like.  Just be careful not to cut away all the edges. 

This is what mine looked like when I was done cutting.



Step 9.  Gently open your shape and see your pretty snowflake creation!  This is the fun part because you never know what you're going to get.

You can make all different sizes and styles just by altering all the little cuts you make.  Like they say, no two snowflakes are alike. 

Have fun and see you soon!