Welcome wreath tutorial

 I've been meaning to post this for a while, but have had no internet due to the storms that came through Alabama last week.  Storms isn't really a strong enough word - but I'll leave my thoughts on that for another time!

I'm a big fan of decorating but hate to change things each season. I just took down the Easter decorations yesterday!!  I hate the idea of changing what's on my front door every month or so.  Actually, I love the idea, but just can't seem to actually do it.  So, I thought it would be fun to make something that I could easily change each month, season or special occasion.  Here it is:

Here's what you need:

A wreath
piece of scrap wood
sand paper
paint (chalk board and color of your choice)
ribbon
chalk
drill and drill bit
two dowels
patience (I hate waiting for paint to dry)
misc. items to change it out as the times change - (burlap, paint, letter stickers, ribbon)

I started with these supplies:

I very carefully measured out where I wanted my holes - and marked the spots with a pen and then went outside to drill.  And by 'very carefully' I mean, I eyeballed it and used a piece of ribbon that was laying around!!

Next I drilled two holes.  I don't have a fancy work place to do any drilling.  I just go out on my front porch, hold the wood down with my feet and drill over the edge of a step.  It works for me, but does tend to make a mess. 

See, two holes!!

Next, I sanded the edges just to smooth it all out.

Next, I spray painted with my chalkboard paint.  I did several coats, as this type of wood just soaked up the paint.

Once it was dry, I gave it a day and then chalked it up and wiped it clean.  It was ready to go.

I picked a mid sized grapevine wreath, grabbed my ribbon and chalkboard plaque and got to work.

Cut two pieces of ribbon - I didn't measure, just cut about 18 inches each. I found that a satin ribbon worked better here - I got a tighter knot and prettier bow.  Simply thread your ribbon through one spot on the wreath, through the back and back around to the front, double knot it and thread one piece of ribbon through the hole in the plaque and then tie a simple bow.

Now, pick your next spot and thread the second piece of ribbon through, double knot and thread through second hole and finish with a bow.

Now your plaque is attached and you could just simply hang it up, write a message and be good to go.But if you want to personalize it more, keep reading!!


I decided to attach two dowels (which I quickly spray painted with my favorite Krylon Ocean Breeze Blue.  You could pick a more neutral color, but this is my current fave, so I went with it!!) I simply applied hot glue to the bottom of each dowel and stuck it in behind the chalkboard plaque.  Then added a bit more hot glue to the top part of the dowels to attach to the wreath.  You can see in the photo that I didn't hot glue at the very top of the dowels - that's so you have some room to wrap your ribbon around the top.

Now, I can change out my decorations easily by tying on a different item between the two dowels.  For my wreath right now, I painted a little bunny face on a piece of burlap.  I stitched a second piece of burlap to the back (starting at the bottom, going around the ears and stopping about an inch from the first stitch) and stuffed the bunny head with some cotton batting and finished off the bottom with a few more stitches.  I used the hot glue gun to attach the little bunny head to some ribbon (about 3 yards long) and then tied the ribbon on to my two dowels.

Here's the Easter/Spring wreath:

Here's another idea to hang from the dowels - a little Welcome sign!  We have friends that we hang out with most weekends - this would be a fun way to great them next time they come over. 

The options are endless! You could cut out some flowers from the burlap, add some paint, or leave them plain and attach them to some ribbon and hang it up!!  I could string up some ornaments at Christmas or snowflakes would be cute, too. Birthday banners would be great, too.  Looks like I need to whip up some more things and have them ready to go for every occasion! I love that I can leave the same wreath up all the time and just add one little item to the top to dress it up.

Thanks for checking out my tutorial!!  If you make one - come back and leave me a link!! I'd love to see your version!

Lisa

A little tutorial for you - framing a frame

I've had this project on my 'to-do' list for quite some time. Mentioned it to Carol the other day and just decided it was going to happen this week. So, I gathered my supplies and got to work.

Supplies you need:

framed art or photos
white contact paper or vinyl (more on this later)
scissors
a thin sharpie
a piece of chipboard or cardboard



I bought a large roll of contact paper, it's probably 18 inches wide. The photos I'm framing are pretty big, maybe 10x13. If you are framing something smaller, see my notes at the end.

First I grabbed my framed photo and my chipboard. I placed my chipboard behind the frame on the floor and sort of just sketched out where I thought my outer frame should go. When placing my chipboard and sketching my lines, I made sure to sketch it where the chipboard pattern I was creating would cover more than one fourth of the frame. You can see this here:



You can barely see the line I drew - but it's there.

Now, cut out your cardboard pattern and trace it onto the back on the contact paper.



Then flip your pattern over and trace it again and then cut out your shape. You can make your pattern over lap, or just make it a complete mirror image. For this one, I did a mirror age. You can see the complete first half here:



Now you want to trace the first half unto the back of the contact paper again. Now I took both of my two pieces of contact paper and laid them on top of each other, face up. I overlapped the scallops where the two pieces meet. I only did this because in my original attempt at this project, I ended up with this:



The two pieces just met and there's a thin line between the two. This isn't a huge deal, so I thought I'd try the overlapping to see if that looks better.

I played around and decided which piece would go on top and which would go on the bottom (for the overlapping). For the bottom piece, I cut part of the scallop off, just enough to not have a huge overlapping area in case the scallops weren't exact.



Find your spot on the wall, and peal off the backing on your first piece of contact paper. If you are overlapping, make sure your first piece is the piece with the trimmed scallops.



That's my first piece - I stepped back to make sure it was even. Sure, a level would help, but you know, that's not how I roll. Here's the completed pieces of vinyl on the wall. You can see where they overlap in the middle.



Now here are the two completed ones, with the pictures hanging up:



I really like the one on the right more than the one on the left. I may take it down and try again. I like the scallops, but think I should have made it more even all the way around - so the vinyl on the sides was as wide as the vinyl at the top. All in all, I'm happy for now and really glad to mark this off my to-do list!!

Contact paper versus vinyl - my thoughts: the contact paper is thinner than vinyl, as well as cheaper. Since I'm not the best at sticking things on the wall, I thought contact paper would be better since it's easily removable and I could reposition it (or take it off if it didn't work out). Most vinyl rolls I've seen aren't 18 inches wide - so I would have had to use a lot for this project, which really means, I wouldn't have done it at all. In the end, I'm happy with the contact paper and wouldn't trade it for vinyl. I like the way it looks just fine!

Cardboard notes: you can use chipboard or packaging from a cereal box, or even poster board. I just used what I had on hand. My piece was pretty big (luckily) since what I was framing was pretty large (i think 10x13). If you are framing something smaller, I would try to make a pattern right on the contact paper backing. Especially if you are going for a more free look. I wanted my frame to be symmetrical, so I didn't try it any other way.

Thanks for reading!!