DIY Fall Raffia Wreath

Disclaimer:  I am NOT ready for fall.   I am NOT ready to say goodbye to summer.   Clearly I am bucking the trend to jump ahead on the changing the seasons thing as this is what I saw last week at Michael's:

Christmas decorations?   In September?  I think not.

But with Pinterest on all-fall, all the time and the weather turning noticeably more like fall and less like summer, it may be time to start fall decorating.

I saw this  raffia wreath all over Pinterest and loved it - no orange, no leaves, no pumpkins, just a riot of ecru raffia- perfect.   And easy.

Supplies:

Straw wreath form .  I used the 12 inch size.  Be sure to leave the plastic on, since that's what holds the wreath together!

Bag of raffia from Michael's.  This bag was just enough for my wreath.   I added a little dark raffia I had in my stash for a bit of color.

Floral pins - or you could use u-pins.

This is a wing-it project - no measuring, no precise anything.   Grab several strands of raffia  and loop together , sort of like making a bow.   I made my loops about 7 inches long - I didn't measure as I was doing it, but just eyeballed it.    Don't worry about straggling pieces, short pieces in the grab- it'll all work out.  The raffia strands are roughly 2 1/2 feet long and I usually used 5-7 strands, depending on how wide they were.  Again, I didn't count each grab - just eyeball it so each section will be roughly the same size.

Now slightly twist the loop in the middle and pin to the wreath with one of the floral pins.   You will be alternating the direction of each raffia loop.  Start with the first one horizontal on the wreath.

Make another loop, this time pinning that one close to the first and vertically.   (Sorry for the bad lighting!)

Keep adding loops in alternate directions until the wreath is full.   

And it will be very full!   Now the fun part - pull, twist and play with the raffia until it looks right and there aren't any gaps showing.  I cut some of the loops open and left others as is.

I added a twisted wire loop for hanging .  You could use a burlap ribbon , but I didn't want to crush down any of the exuberance!

I love my wreath.  It says fall, but in a cheery, subtle, "let's not go crazy just yet" way.

12 Months of Christmas Project - January



I love making things for Christmas.  I don't love making everything in a three week panic mode, so I was motivated to join in on the project dreamed up by Aileen of Aileen's Musings.   She has put out a challenge to make something for Christmas every month and share our creations at the project site.

January's color suggestion is white - perfect for the project I had in mind - a white torn fabric wreath.

I started with a sad little thrifted wreath.  Since it was so puny I wrapped some batting around it to fatten it up.  The white batting also ensured that any gaps in the fabric won't be obvious.  If your wreath is not white and you don't need to fatten it up, I'd suggest spray-painting it white so the wreath color won't be obvious.

I used a bottom-weight white fabric remnant (about half a yard)  as I wanted some substance to the strips.  Tear the fabric in strips about an inch wide.  I made mine about 8 inches long, but yours may need to be longer or shorter depending on how fat your wreath is.  Better to start with longer strips and then cut them smaller if you need to. 

This couldn't be simpler - take on strip and tie in on the wreath.  I double knotted the strips and kept alternating where the knot fell on the wreath - some towards the inside, some near the outer edge to make it fuller.  If you like a more organized look, place all the knots lined up, but that kind of control makes me nervous!

Make sure your fabric strips are are close together as possible so there aren't any gaps.  Once all the strips are tied on , trim so the ends are fairly even, but embrace the chaos  - no measuring!

Since this is a Christmas wreath, a little glitter is in order.  I randomly brushed a bit of glue and sprinkled on some silver glitter.



Tie on a strip of fabric to make a hanging loop and you're finished. 

One Christmas project done - I feel so noble!

Coastal Wreath

OK, so I'm supposed to be painting the stairs, but I'm finding all sorts of very important projects distractions.   I was inspired by a bittersweet and rose hip wreath from Design Sponge and took a ride up the coast yesterday to find supplies.  I so love roadside gardening!  The coast is beautiful in the fall - golden marshes, yellow rose leaves with big red rose hips and lots, lots lots of bittersweet.  I know bittersweet is considered a bad-boy, being terrible invasive and crowding out native trees and shrubs, but it's so dang pretty!

Here's my harvest:  rose branches with bright red hips , spindle that California Daughter spotted when she was home last year, some fluffy bush branches (technical name!), bittersweet, and milk weed pods.   I gave the pods a light spray of white paint so they would show up better but still look relatively natural..

Tied everybody together with twine and then a frayed bow made from an old fabric remnant.  Love my door embellishment!  With a change of ribbon and maybe some green or red branches added in later, this will work until spring.

 

Are you a roadside forager?





LL Bean Knock-Off

 

This LL Bean wreath would be perfect for our front door, but the $60.00 price tag made me think I could make a reasonable knock-off.

Here are the supplies I used  - a wreath from Joanne's (under $5.00 with my 40% off coupon), some shells from my collection, and a piece of ribbon from my stash.  The sea stars aren't real, but look close enough and don't get me in trouble with Marine Biology daughter! 

I loosely glued on the ribbon, then added in the shells and some faux white flowers.  Here is my version - perfect for spring and summer and continuing the beachy theme in our house. 





Speaking of projects, there's an exciting link party over at A2Z featuring all kinds of fantastic projects like furniture refinishing, paper arts, cooking, and many other  creative projects.   I love Beth's  blog, even when there's not a party there.   She is wildly creative and wickedly funny. 

Lying, Cheating and Stealing - Why?

What do an author,  a Tour de France repeat winner, and unscrupulous bloggers have in common?  Apparently dishonesty is an equal -opportunity vice.



(here)

I waited for a few weeks to get Jonah Lehrer's book , Imagine - How Creativity Works, from our local library.  It sounded so interesting - investigating how the creative process works and what we can do to nurture it.   By the time I got the book, controversy swirled around Mr. Lehrer who had apparently made up some material - quotes by Bob Dylan that really were imaginary quotes made up by Mr. Lehrer.  (The irony of fabricating material in a book on creativity wasn't lost on anyone).  Making up quotes in a book about science is not like making up the science, so I was ready to read it anyway.  Then it turns out that some of the science was suspect and brought to Mr. Lehrer's attention prior to publication, but he didn't correct the errors.  I lost my enthusiasm and returned the book unread.  (Many libraries are pulling the book and Harcourt has pulled the books and stopped ebook sales).

Also turns out that Mr. Lehrer  had some issues in the past - pesky things like recycling columns written for one newspaper to another without proper acknowledgement.  When the papers are the Washington Post and The New York Times, people notice these things.

Why does a prominent, well-respected author do this?  Too busy to fact-check?  Too busy to write new material?  Or just plain chutzpah ?

(here)

 



Can we talk about Lance Armstrong?  Our DC son was a serious cyclist in high school, so I know more about the Tour and Lance Armstrong than any woman my age should.  We cheered Lance's every victory, not only for his athletic skills but also because of his history of surviving cancer and his work to promote cancer research.   While other winners got caught in doping scandals, I wanted to believe that Lance was clean, not that he had figured out a way to avoid detection. 

He recently lost all his medals rather than continue to fight growing investigations into his alleged doping.  While he technically hasn't been found guilty, (there may still be further investigations), it seems to me unlikely that he would have walked away from an historic accomplishment if he really were clean.

Why would a successful athlete do this?  Because everyone else is?  Because once he tasted victory and all that endorsement moo-lah, he wasn't willing to chance riding sans juice?

 

(here)



And now, who on earth would steal blog posts and pass them off as their own?  The blogosphere has been buzzing about stolen content . Many bloggers with lots of traffic are truncating posts in feeds and watermarking photos to make it harder for content to be stolen.

One of my favorite bloggers recently had posts stolen and her DIY projects posted on someones blog in a "look what I made" post.  Really - stealing someones craft project and pretending it was something you created?  One of the wonderful things about blogging is the free-sharing of ideas and projects.  Instead of being inspired to go make something, apparently some folks are taking a shortcut.   We're not talking forging an Renoir to sell for a bazillion dollars - what is the bang for stealing someones idea for making a wreath or whatever?  No talent, no creativity, no imagination required to copy and paste a talented, creative, and  imaginative person's work.

These sad cases remind me of The Capitol Steps assessment of John Edwards (now there's a study in lying and cheating):  "What a piss-a-dointment"!

Christmas Decorating in Progress

 

(Fabric wreath with a fringe of faux berries)

Taking out the boxes of Christmas decorations is such a treat.  Since I  buy decorations at after Christmas sales, I forget what I have and enjoy the surprise discovery.  But something weird is happening this year; I've been sending more more and more of my treasures junk to Goodwill and adopting a less-is-more approach. 

 I like little unexpected touches, like the accessories on my birds and some greenery in my shoe last:

 

 

 

I'd like my white Christmas confined to inside the house.  I spray-painted some candle holders and pillar candles and gave the candles a sprinkle of coarse clear glitter.  Add a few sprigs of holly from The Dollar Store for some color , add some white lights and my white tablescape works for me.

Same treatment for craft paper trees - white paint, a wash of diluted glue and some more of the clear glitter and a bit of gold.  I found the candle bottom thingies at the thrift store and gave them a shot of gold glitter paint.

My favorite decorations are lights - I love the glow of those little white lights, especially since it gets dark at 4 in the afternoon!  Perfect view for enjoying with my first cup of coffee!

Getting our tree this weekend - our goal once again is a smaller tree that doesn't require us to move out half the living room furniture!



Christmas Tags

Last week The Captain asked me if I was making tags for the kids before  Christmas so they could use them this year.   DUH - I usually make tags and put some in their stockings, but obviously the tags are too late for the current season.    I do love it that The Captain is paying attention to my obsessions and is even cheering them on!

So - tag production in full-force last week.   I used old manila folders,  craft paper and some smooth cold press paper I found at a tag sale and  cut them out with my BigShot.  using these two dies   (This is another one of those projects done only with stuff from my stash, and than scares even me.)

I like the big tag and the round one, but honestly don't need all the other bits.  I now have a baggy full of the stuff on the right!

And this one, an old Sizzix one with no added doodads.

Here are some of the tags:

Love this reindeer stamp -  a little embellishing with gel pens and my favorite white uni-ball Signo white pen.

White embossed stars and snowflakes on sheet music ,  then swiped on some Dylusions paint with a baby wipe.   I glued the tags onto the back of the sheet and cut out the tags.

Text stamped on first, then the floral swag with Stickles-highlighted berries.

I love all the Tim Holtx architectural drawing stamps.   It's easy to add some color with pens to make the designs pop.

Trees stamped and embossed and a strip of textured white paper with glitter glue snow.

These were fun.  I've had this stamp for ages and never used it.  I think it's supposed to be a nest, but it makes a fun wreath.  Stamped and embossed with verdigris colored powder , then  Stickles and pearl pen balls.

I love white on kraft paper.   And this stamp - a $1.50 one from the bins at Michael's.

Same stamp, this time used the whole thing and added gold pearl pen dots.   Sixteen tags with eighteen dots each = 288 dots- that's a whole lotta dots!!

This is the small circle tag - I like to use parts of stamps on these little guys.

One of my favorite Christmas stamps - bird , branch and text all in one stamp.  Red Stickles for berries and a swipe of Broken China Distress Ink around the edge.

Silver- embossed snowflake and same Distress Ink swiped over the tag .

First time using gold-leafing, a gift from DC son and his wife.   It looks easier than it is !  

First step is stamping with the special sizing - it goes on white and then when ready (tacky - about 30 minutes) it turns clear.   I tried stamping with the floral swag stamp and the lines were too fine to catch the gold leaf, so went with a pencil eraser that may have been a smidge too big.

Then, carefully lay the gold leaf sheet over the stamped tag and lightly press it into the tag.  I used the brush to sort of tamp it down as well.  It was easier to lay down the whole sheet rather tear off a small piece - that way I was sure I covered the whole tag.

Then, using the same brush, I brushed away all the excess gold leaf.   That stuff can take some serious brushing - once it's attached to the tacky sizing, it stays stuck down!   You can see my little container for all the brushings - they can all be used over again in another project.  There are of course all kinds of special tools for gold leafing, but for this project  and my skill level,  my old brush worked fine.

I added some script stamping as the tags looked kinda bare without it.

I may have gone a little overboard - ended up with 206 tags !  To paraphrase  The Count from Sesame Street,  "Once I start making tags, it werry hard to stop"!