A New Stitched Inch AND A New Blog AND a Lazy Days Skirt AND a Project Preview!

I'm falling behind on my embroidery for the stitchalong. I just got a bit stumped on what to do for some the remaining letters of the alphabet! So last night I skipped to the last square and did this:

Today I have some ideas for my remaining letters and hope to get back on track!

Recently I posted THIS tutorial as my entry into the $5 dollar store craft challenge. It's a knockoff of a pretty ribbon wreath I saw in a boutique.

Just last week I came across another tutorial over at Embellished Bayou who made a similiar knockoff wreath. She used some different supplies, like staples instead of hot glue. I think I like the colors of hers MUCH better.

Great minds think alike!

And of course, now I am LOVING her blog. Those fleur de lis shirts she appliqued are awesome. She's also made ruffle butt onesies, some gorgeous Easter decorations, adorable welcome signs, and just some overall interesting posts.

Gosh, all these awesome new blogs I keep discovering. There are some crazy talented chicas out there in blogland. I need to step up my game! In an effort to be original, I purchased a large men's Tshirt at Old Navy this past weekend on clearance for less than $2, with the plan to turn it into something for Delilah.

Here's the shirt. Stay tuned for the "after picture" outcome which I hope to post on Friday. (fingers crossed)

And, just one more thing, here is another Lazy Days skirt I made for Delilah. These skirts are ridiculously easy to sew up and I love them. One of these days I'll get her to model the Popover Dress, also a free pattern from Oliver and S that was so easy to follow.

Off to have a cup of tea now. Ta Ta!

$5 Spring Decor Craft Challenge Wreath

No picture for the stitchalong today. I will post one tomorrow!

I read about a nifty challenge here.

Basically, spend $5 (or less) at the Dollar Store and create a Spring Decor item. Participants are allowed to use some items they already have on hand. Post a tutorial, and link it to the site on March 25th.

(EDIT: Also entering in the CSI Project Challenge)

Here is my entry!

SPRING WREATH

(Turns out I have no wreath hook on my front door, so here it is on the kitchen wall!)

Now, I figure there will likely be a bunch of wreaths in this challenge. For some reason, blogger peeps seem to really like wreaths. I just hope there isn't another one with this idea. Inspiration came when I saw a similiar wreath for sale in a fancy boutique store here in Atlanta. It looked so yummy with pretty bright candy colored curls and it looked perfect for a birthday party. The pricetag, however, not so perfect. I googled a bit trying to see if I could easily find other wreath tutorials that look like this, and was relieved that I didn't find any. I just wanted my entry to be somewhat original and not something that everyone had seen before over and over.

Here is how I made my version.

First, gather supplies.

Wreath form (My local Dollar Tree had 3 sizes, I bought the small and medium ones and decided to use the small one as I wanted to make sure I had enough ribbon to finish and stay under the budget) Curling ribbon (I bought too much), a pair of scissors, and hot glue gun. the rules say you can use your own tools and glue. This particular glue gun actually came from Dollar Tree also, and they sell scissors, so even if you don't have these items on hand, you could get them at the dollar store and with 2 spools of ribbon, still be under your $5 budget!

Cut your ribbon into pieces between 12-16 inches long and curl them. (I used my scissors, but I think you can buy little gadgets that make curling SO much easier.)

Don't forget to curl the tail. I mean, when you grasp the ribbon and curl it, the part you held will still be straight, like so:

(Ignore the bad manicure. Ick my nails are gross)

Curl that end also. Keep going, curl like mad! Be a curling fool! (Will Canadians be naturally better at this? Haha - we love Canadians at our house. It's a whole story. Some other time.) Then stop and admire your bunch of curls.

Ok, time to start glueing. For this step, I recommend having a cup of tea. Gather your supplies:

Mmmmmm. PG Tips is the best.
OK, back to glueing.

Twist a few pieces of ribbon together in the middle, like so:

Apply hot glue to the wreath and stick them on. Note: You don't need much glue.

(In order to protect my dining table from errant hotglue, I used the lid of a plastic storage bin as my workspace.)

Don't worry so much about how it looks at the glueing spot, later curls will cover it. Feel free to be messy.
Keep glueing more ribbons. Sometimes I glued 4 at once, some just 1 at a time, filling in and alternating colrs as I worked around the wreath. If you go in one direction, this is easier. I worked my way up the wreath, trying not to forget to glue some around the sides to give the wreath dimension. .

Stop every once in a while and admire your progress:

About half way through, sigh with relief that you are still on your first spool of curling ribbon and have not somehow massively underestimated what you will need and will be able to finish. Also realize you could have made the bigger wreath after all and wonder if you will ever get to it.

And there you have it! A pretty Spring wreath! I tied a piece of the non-curled ribbon around to hang.

In the end, I used 1 spool of ribbon and actually had a little left over. So this project was just $2 in supplies = a wreath and ribbon. Way under the budget! A bigger wreath would use more ribbon, but hey, the $5 budget has lots of room! If you don't have them onhand, you can also buy a glue gun and pair of scissors from the dollar store, and the total budget is still just $4.

I can see this wreath as a cute decoration for a baby shower, or with more colors of ribbon as a festive decoration for a birthday party.

I gotta say, completing this $5 challenge makes me feel like a million bucks. I love the wreath, and am so happy I actually figured out something to enter. (Being Jewish all the Easter stuff was off limits for me.) I can't wait to see what everyone else came up with!

Woo hoo!