Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Mesh What?


I have to admit I was never into those wreaths made of mesh - you know the stuff that is all shimmery and big and fluffy? I have seen things like cupcakes and carrots and well it was too much = until I played with it myself. I must admit before you see the final pieces - they are a bit LARGE - like really quite BIG and poofy for my liking but they came out wonderfully. And, quite easy to put together. I made a video for it but wanted to show you the still photos here and some basic steps to making one yourself.

Here are the items you need to get started:

2 metal wreath forms ( or any wreath form you prefer to work with)  scissors, pipe cleaners or wire and mesh. I found these 5 yard spools of mesh at Dollar Tree (bought weeks ago with the idea of making a 4th of July wreath) Best part is the spools are $1.00 each and for the two 24 inch wreaths I used 6 spools per wreath!


Take the pipe cleaners and use them as fasteners - I added them in variations one on the first 2 rows of wires then alternate to the bottom two rows of wires.


Then you make 2 loops and create a bow as shown below







 then you grab that bow and twist it onto your wreath form thats where the wire forms work best. My opinion only....
 I then added little loops or curls to the ends of the pipe cleaners - kind of going for the butterfly antenna look. 


and you keep adding lots of bows all over the wreath - since I used three colors I alternated them throughout and at the top center I added a double bow (4 loops) to finish it off and added some small Americana bows in the center to make it dazzle, again from the dollar store. 


Here's a look at both wreaths on my front door. In my video I made a comment about keeping track of how large you make the bows so that things stay semi cohesive and look good - well as you can see in the wreath on the right I made my red bows way bigger then the others and well the wreaths appear a little different - just because the red dominates the 2nd wreath. So maybe measuring the lengths of mesh before hand would be a real good idea.

This whole project cost me under 20.00 - perhaps maybe 16 dollars total. 12.00 worth of mesh and 4.00 for the two 24 inch wreaths. The wreaths are from Michael's and with a 40% off coupon - really makes the whole deal easy to do on the cheap! 

I do have a suggestion. If you are buying the mesh from the dollar tree you really need to grab them as soon as you see them. So like as soon as they set out the Easter stuff or Christmas stuff and you see piles of mesh buy them up - its so much easier to take them back if you don't use them all. I learned this the hard way - I only but 8 rolls of mesh initially and then had to scramble and call around looking for more rolls and well it was a headache and we had to drive to Egypt to pick the other rolls up...I think its because mesh wreaths are such a hot trend right now....

I will be linking this up to the following parties:





Happy Crafting ya'll.

xo
tina








Wednesday, May 20, 2015

CARDS CARDS CARDS!!!

I promised new cards and here they are - again these ones used some new stamps I got at Michael's last week - that are to me the Perfect sentiment and could work on the front (like I used them) or on the inside...

 
again I used the Basic Grey paper pad and embellishments that I had left over from Mondays cards.
 
 
I think they are clean and simple and could work for either a guy or girl...
 
I am linking this up to the following challenges;
creative moments - anything goes - teentastic
frilly and funkie - anything goes - HAPPY
kraftin' kimmie - anything goes
word art Wednesday - anything goes - family friendly
crafting by designs - sentiments
 
happy crafting
xo
tina
 
 


Sunday, May 17, 2015

crafty weekend

I love when I can craft uninterrupted - you know and really get stuff done. Well, I guess I should clarify...I have a houseful of kids and a husband to care for - so I don't mean completely uninterrupted but when my brain is uninterrupted I can work so freely and really crank out my stuff. Sometimes I get those bursts of crafty mojo - where everything I pull out paper, stickers, flowers all seem to come together so nicely take for instance these scrapbook pages

 
I used a new paper pack from American Crafts and had some fun embellishments from a basic grey paper kit on the table and all of sudden these 2 pages were made -

 
aren't they the cutest?
 
ok so then I had some miscellaneous chipboard stickers left and decided to make some cards and just like that - with a whistle in my step I made 5 cards...
 
here's the first of the 5:
 
 
no stamping, just a little ink for the edges, a lone flower + basic grey chipboard HELLO sticker and in another blink of my eye a sweet card.
 
I just love creative spurts like this - wait till you see the other cards...cuteness x 100%
 
hope you have a crafty week and get tons of stuff done...
 
I will be linking this up to the following parties:
 
CAS on Sunday - CAS + cheer up buttercup
scribble & scrap crafts - anything goes
stamping sensations - flower power
 
happy crafting
come back tomorrow and see the other cards I created during my "Crafty Mojo" weekend.
 
xo
tina
 
 

Friday, May 8, 2015

Mother's Day Album

I just got a brand new paper pad from American Crafts and fell in love with the papers inside so I decided to make the sweetest mini chipboard album using those papers and some other small journaling tags to create this baby:
 
 
sweet right?

 
cute tag embellishments through out the album


 
the photo below is my favorite...

 
how sweet is that there tag?


 
I really love the colors - I love that the album is scattered with colors - I like that nothing really matches.

 
bright happy pinks, yellows, blues, gray and some green...happy summery and perfectly represents mommy & me.

 
 
I usually like to list my albums on ebay or etsy and even though Mother's Day is this Sunday it could still work as a birthday gift or belated Mother's day gift.
 
Anyway here is wishing you a beautiful weekend.
 
xo
t
 
 


Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Teacher appreciation Freebie

Lately, all the blogs have been sharing some fun free printables for Teacher Appreciation week...I have to be honest that I have passed on quite a few. Some really good ones, too. But nothing was calling to me. Then just today I realized that it's Wednesday and I need to get a move on getting something together for my boys teacher...so I decided to pick one of the freebies  offered today and found one (wish I could remember which blog I got it from) I printed it this morning and tonight around 9:00 pm I decided to put it together.

Now being that I am an avid crafter I had a bunch of things in my hoard that I knew I could use - so I was going for a framed piece but I couldn't find a small enough frame - then I remembered that somewhere in my space I had a small clip board, the ones you buy at the dollar store...


Once I brought it in - I literally pulled all the other items out from my scrapbooking desk.
I used Washi tape at the bottom, taped the verse in the middle under the clip then needed to hide the awful metal clip so I grabbed some really thick ribbon and tied a bow then hot glued it to the top. To finish it off I grabbed one of my little crocheted hearts and hot glued it to the bottom corner. 

And there you go; what started out as a free printable turned into a really sweet gift for a pretty cool teacher...aren't freebies Awesome! Great jumping off point for sure! 

I will be sharing this at all the parties above...here's to all the wonderful freebies offered out there - may you find some that ruffle your fancy!