Sunday Shenanigans!

I haven’t forgotten blogging or home DIY.  Honest, I haven’t.  But the weekend had to be spent updating some technology around here.  Because of that, I’m taking advantage of what and who has gone before!

I think I could spend years just browsing the blogosphere and learning how to do things.  There are so many creative, intelligent and capable folks writing and photographing the entire process from beginning to end.  I could fall, like Alice, right down the rabbit hole – and not mind a bit!

This post is meant to be a kudos of a kind for the creators.  For the people who figure things out (because that’s just how their brains work).  For the people who freely share information  (because that’s how their hearts work).

It’s a chance for me to show off the skills of a few folks (whom I most likely will never met!).  It also gives me a convenient location to store my favorites!

So put on your “DIY” hats.  Here we go!

Cassie at Hi Sugarplum! has these wonderful little votives that would be great for any occasion.

Holly at A Baker’s House shows us how to make this petalled beauty!

Ashley at Domestic Imperfection walks us through making our own inexpensive curtain rods.

So there you have it.  Three new things to learn!  And three lovely bloggers to get to know.

Enjoy.

—

I’d really love to see your comments on the projects I do and the ideas I have.  I learn more from critiques than praise, but, honestly, I adore praise (and who doesn’t?).

Thanks for stopping by.

Faux Pool Noodle Wreath – Take 2

I have a thing for wreaths.  I admit it.  I love them on front doors, in windows, on fence posts, on mail boxes… pretty much every single place I’ve ever seen them.  I prefer them upscale and fun rather than country, but that’s a matter of personal taste.

I also like swirls, leaves and textures, but those are confessions for another post.

When I failed at the “Faux Pool Noodle Wreath” here, I was left with one half of a foam camping mat.  I KNEW that the idea was sound, but that my execution on the first one, quite frankly, was slipshod.  I blame the cat.

Absolutely gratuitous photo of fuzzy assistant.

Anyhow.

Knowing that, I started again.  This time, I glued a length of wire along the long edge of the foam.  This gave me a bit of resistance, and the firmess I needed to roll the foam up more tightly.  This left me with a faux pool noodle much like the first, but with wire sticking out of each end, and a much firmer, smoother “body”.  I twisted the wires together and used both hot glue and a bit of tape to hold the ends together.

I wanted a wreath that could “stand on it’s own” decoratively speaking.  A base wreath that wouldn’t need a lot of embellishment to change up or look pretty.  I started with a coat of white paint.

That left me with weird bumply things.And a seam of doom.Now, I’m not adverse to smooth textures, and I also like textured textures.  What I don’t like is the combination of the two.  Sanding this down to smooth wouldn’t work – it’s foam, after all.  So the only alternative was to add texture.

I could have wrapped the wreath in fabric or paper, but I didn’t want to have seam lines.  Companies do make a textured paint, but I didn’t have any on hand.  What I did have was drywall compound and a pint of oops paint ($3.99 at Canadian Tire!). 

So I mixed them together until I got what was basically a thick paint – with lumps.

I slapped it on the wreath form and let it dry.  It did need a second coat to create enough texture to hide the seam of doom, but the weird bumply thing disappeared after the first coat.

Bad nighttime picture of first coat

With that accomplished, I painted the wreath with another coat of the oops paint.  When that was dry, I applied a coat of Crayola’s “Pearl it!”

The end result is a wreath that can hang unadorned (but probably won’t) but is versatile enough to be blinged up for several different seasons/events.  Here it is with one of my paper snowflakes.

Pin It

I think it will be a wonderful base for my St. Patrick’s Day, Easter and Canada Day Maple Leaf projects.  Once I come up with a way to mount things on it without damaging the base, that is.

I’d really love to see your comments on the projects I do and the ideas I have.  I learn more from critiques than praise, but, honestly, I adore praise (and who doesn’t?).

Thanks for stopping by.

Score!

I share an office washroom with 6 other women.  Really, I’m not telling you this to give you too much information about my hygeine.  Honest.

I’m telling you this because I’ve discovered that 7 women over 8-8.5 hours can go through a roll of toilet paper and a roll of paper towel….

Which means I can collect at least one of each every work day.

Since I’m loving the faux metal toilet paper roll medallions I’ve been seeing, this gives me a chance to gather supplies more quickly that I would otherwise.

So…

SCORE!!!!

It really doesn’t take much to make me happy.  For which I think I’ll choose to be thankful!

I’d really love to see your comments on the projects I do and the ideas I have.  I learn more from critiques than praise, but, honestly, I adore praise (and who doesn’t?).

Thanks for stopping by.

Wee Wallet Wednesday!

For those of us with more taste than budget.  I won’t be putting a price limit on Wee Wallet Wednesday’s, simply because there are so many different price ranges to be explored!

Today’s example comes from Monday’s fail.  Obviously, since I put all the effort into trying to make a pool noodle wreath (without using a pool noodle), I’m rather hesitant to throw out the result.  Even if it is ugly and misshapen.

There’s also another wreath I’ve been working on that just isn’t living up to expectations.  Between the two, though, I just might be able to have a pretty spring wreath!

I’m fortunate enough that I have a glass/screen door in front of my front door.  Because of this, the wreath on my front door isn’t subjected to the elements on a full time basis.  That gives me a few more options.

The first step was to make the fabric covered base more sturdy and green.  Since I didn’t want to sink more $$ into this, I used 2″ wide painter’s tape that was close at hand.

It already looks better!  It’s also a lot sturdier and will be less prone to sagging out of shape.

Then, I gave it a coat of Crayola’s Pearl it!  This was a Dollarama score at $2.  It’s meant to be mixed in with craft paint, but my craft paint supply is still in boxes somewhere.  So I braved it and just went with the pearl medium on it’s own.  This adds a bit of pearly sheen (’cause I’m ALL about bling!).  It also provides a bit of protection to the painter’s tape from the elements.

While that was drying, I cut the long grass strands from the paper roll wreath.   The grasses are plastic, but very delicate.  Each stalk cost me $1 at the Dollarama or $.99 at the Salvation Army.  In all, I had 3  yellow and 3 green on hand.

I started out just applying the green.

But it looked rather sparse…

So I added the yellow…

Pin It

And called it done.  I’ll embellish it more before hanging it, I’m sure but, for now, it’s a pretty decent and cheap spring wreath base.

Cost breakdown-

Failed pool noodle wreath – 1/2 of a $2 camper mat – $1.00

6 strands of grass – $6.00

Painter’s tape – about $1.00 worth

Crayola Pearl it! – $2.00 – and I used less than 1/20th of the bottle

Wire and hot glue – from my stash… but would cost $2.00 at Dollarama.

There you have it.  If I went out right now to purchase everything to make it, I’d spend approximately $12.  Since it was all here in my living room, it was, effectively, FREE!

I like free.

– – –

Of course, it was only AFTER I thought I had created something new that I realized Allison at House of Hepworths had done a spring/summer grass wreath.  Check it out here.  Hers even has pinwheels!

I’d really love to see your comments on the projects I do and the ideas I have.  I learn more from critiques than praise, but, honestly, I adore praise (and who doesn’t?).

Thanks for stopping by.