Tulle Diamond Wreath & Nickel Love!

Marilyn Monroe was right. Diamonds are a girl's best friend....especially around Valentine's Day!  Plus, it's always fun to come up with an excuse to add BLING to an already colorful wreath.  Here's how you can do it too!

Materials:
10 yards fuchsia tulle
10 inch white Styrofoam wreath
1 package Martha Stewart Dimensional Diamond stickers
1 package Jolee's All That Bling stickers (my new favorite thing)
12 inch wooden letters
sandpaper
white primer
silver metallic spray paint
hot glue
$12 in nickels

Tulle rosettes

I made a variety of sizes of roses.  For the larger ones, I cut 2 strips of tulle into 2 inch x 54 inch strips and layered the pieces on top of each other for added thickness.   For smaller roses, I cut 2 inch x 27 inch strips.

Step 1:  With the two pieces of tulle, roll it to form the center of the rose.  Add a dab of hot glue to hold it in place.

Step 2: While pinching the base with your left hand, hold the length side of the tulle and begin twisting and looping it around the center of the rose.  Add glue when the rose begins to form.  Remember to glue low so the dried glue doesn't show.

 Step 3: Keep twisting and gluing with every few twists of the wrist.

 Step 4: When you come to the end of the tulle, add a thin strip of glue.

Finished product!

But it's so much better with the bling!

Putting it all together

Step 1: Wrap the wreath with fuchsia tulle to help hide any white spots when you glue the flowers.

Step 2: Add a loop of tulle to the back of the wreath for hanging.

 Step 3: Place the larger roses on the wreath first.  This helps balance the wreath out and makes the placement of the smaller roses much easier.

 Step 4: Glue all of the roses and then add the diamonds where you think they fit best.

Wooden Letters

Sand 

 Prime and paint

Lay out the nickels to make sure they all fit. 

 Glue them in place.  Don't worry, the guy at the bank said it isn't defacing currency to glue Thomas Jefferson to wooden letters, and they'll pop right off if you ever need a few extra cents for the ice cream man. :)

Hang it and LOVE it!  This would be super cute in a little girl's room all year round. 

Have fun!

~ Cindy Jane

Valentine's Day Topiary

For Christmas this year, I gave my friends and neighbors paper Christmas trees based off an idea I got here.  They were so much fun to give away that I wanted to make a Valentine's Day version.  They are super easy and fun to make!  Here's how you can do it too!


What you will need:
6 sheets of 12x12 cardstock
clear glue
glitter
1/8" wooden dowel or bamboo skewers
wood or metal container
floral foam base
moss
ribbon
pony beads
hot glue gun
heart & bird cartridge for a Cricut or SCAL
(I used the Cricut cartridges George & Basic Shapes for the heart and the Storybook cartridge for the bird.)

Step 1: Cut out 3 hearts each in sizes ranging from 1 & 1/2 inches to 6 & 1/2  inches in half inch increments.

Step 2: Glue around the edge of each heart and add glitter.

Step 3: Punch holes in the center of each heart. 

Step 4: Cut the dowel down to the height you want.  I cut mine to 17 inches.  Add the floral foam to the container and put the wooden dowel in the center.  Don't glue anything in place just in case you need to adjust later.

I got my container at Tai Pan for $4 and the foam at the Dollar Store.

Step 5: Stack the hearts on the dowel and place a pony bead after every heart to add height and dimension.  Keep going until you've used all of the hearts.  (I only put one 1 & 1/2 inch heart on the very top.)

Step 6: Your topiary should look like this.  There will be extra space between the hearts so gently press down and squish the hearts closer together. 

Step 7: When it looks good, take the dowel out of the foam and glue a pony bead underneath the first heart (on the bottom).  Then glue the dowel into the foam so about 4 or 5 inches of the dowel is showing. 

Step 8: Hot glue the moss to the foam base.

Step 9: Tie a ribbon and streamers to the top of the dowel and add the paper bird.

Finished! See I told you it was easy!  If you use bamboo skewers, like I did on the pink one, it will be a little shorter, but they are both cute!

Happy (early) Valentine's Day!

Have fun!

~ Cindy Jane

Red Burlap Rose Wreath Tutorial

I love using burlap and wanted to try something different for a Valentine's Day wreath.  My sister gave me the great idea to do this one.  I've attempted to make similar wreaths using crepe paper but I didn't have the patience for them.  This wreath was time consuming, but burlap is SO much easier to use and I really like how it turned out so it was worth it.

What I used:  10 inch Styrofoam wreath

                        8ish yards of red burlap
                        Glue gun and lots of glue sticks
                        A vacuum cleaner many times during this project...burlap is MESSY!
                        Take my advice and cut the burlap strips outside. 

Step One:  Cut out a lot of burlap!  I made small and large roses.  For the smaller roses I cut out strips of burlap that were 13 inches long and 1 & 1/2 inches wide (the width doesn't have to be exact, but it's better to make the strips wider than thinner).  The larger roses were made out of strips that were 26 inches long and 1 & 1/2 inches wide.

How to Cut Burlap in a Straight Line

 Measure the width you want to cut out and use a safety pin to pull out a bit of string at that width.

Pull the string out slowly so it doesn't break.  If it does, no worries, just find the string and keep going.

 Now you've got a nice straight line to cut.  :)

Step Two:  Make lots and lots of burlap roses. I stopped counting at about 120.  This is definitely a project to do in front of a TV or with friends.

How to Make Burlap Roses

Roll the burlap three or four times to make the center of the rose.

Glue at the bottom of the petal that is beginning to form.  Make sure you glue low so the dried glue isn't seen.  Nobody likes looking at a sloppy rose....or 100 sloppy roses for that matter.

As you hold the base with your left hand (if you're right-handed), continue to wrap the burlap around the center of the rose with your right hand while twisting it towards you.  This will give it a full look and keep it together. 

Continue to glue the burlap after every few wraps and twists of your wrist.

At the end of the strip, put a generous amount of glue on the remaining flap and press it down with scissor sheers until it is dry.

Now repeat 100+ times.  :)  The smaller ones took me about 2 minutes each and the large ones about 5 minutes.  It's time consuming, but a great de-stresser.   

Step Three:  Glue the roses onto your Styrofoam wreath.  I used hot glue and it was pretty fast.  There will be a "stem" at the end of the roses that you can trim down to help the roses fit into place better on the wreath. 

I placed the large roses in and then placed the smaller ones to fill in holes.  There were still some white spots showing through so I cut dime sized pieces of burlap and glued them in the gaps so it looked really clean. 

There's the finished product.  I think it definitely helps make the world a cuter place.  :)

One More Wreath

I had some extra roses left over and an extra burlap wreath from my last post.  I added them together and this is what I came up with.