Wednesday, March 14, 2012

I was crafty!

I follow several blogs pretty regularly.  You can check out many of them on "My Blog List" located on the right side of the page.  2 of my all time favs are "Young House Love" and "Bower Power."  These are the 2 that I discovered, sort of randomly while I was on maternity leave.  As soon as I found them, I was hooked.  I went back and read all of their posts to the start.  That took a while with both of these blogs because they post a lot (unlike a certain other blog you are reading right now...)

Young House Love is a cornucopia of all things DIY.  The blog is a husband and wife team that have redone one house from the floor up and then moved, and are in the process of redoing the house they live in now.  They are self-taught and do virtually everything on their own.  They have great ideas and share how they do everything in detail, sometimes including videos, and always including lots of pictures to help show you how to do this yourself.  They really have a knack for home decor and DIY. 

Bower Power is so fun!  Katie Bower writes about her life with her husband (whom she calls boyfriend) and her little boy Will (who is C-U-T-E!)  Her blog is about all things in her life, nothing seems to be off-limits, which I love, because she seems to have a super fun life!  She is also a super talented DIYer, and shows all of her projects around her house that she has been working on.  I am always impressed with the stuff she does.  Like YHL (as those in the know call it), their family is in the process of redoing their second home.  And what a home it is!  It's large and lovely! 

Why do I bring them up, you ask?  Well, they are hosting a Pinterest Challenge, and I want to be a part of the action (they are the 2 originators of the Challenge and have asked 2 other bloggers to join in on hosting this shindig : "The Great Indoors" and "Hi Sugarplum").  The Challenge is to find something on Pinterest (my happy place) and craft something of your own inspired by a pin, then take photos and what not, post them on your blog and link back to their websites.  I thought this sounded like fun and would be a great way for me to get off my toosh and actually create some of the pins in my (quickly growing) "DIY" board.
So, here is my first dive into the Pinterest Challenge, winter edition...
This was my inspiration pin:


I thought this was so cute and would be perfect for our front door.  But, I didn't necessarily follow the tutorial, although it is a good one and could easily be replicated.  I changed it up a little. 
First, I bought a couple of bags of cheap, plastic eggs from Christmas Tree Shops.  I don't know if they have these stores everywhere, but it is a place that has just about everything you could ever even imagine.  I also got 2 bags of the bright green, fake grass from the Dollar General, along with a spool or light blue ribbon and a can of spray glue.  I had one pipe insulator left over (used here originally). 
First I made my circular shape with the pipe insulator. 


Then I set up a little space in the basement with a cardboard box.  I knew that the spray glue would get messy and I didn't want to make the floors all sticky.  I also opened the windows to get good ventilation and lit a candle to help with any of the fumes.  I worked in little patches at a time.  I sprayed the foam insulator and grabbed handfuls of the fake grass and applied it where I sprayed.  This continued until the entire wreath was covered with the stuff.  You could still see the grey through the grass, but I wasn't concerned with that right now.  I let it dry because I knew that it would be a little tacky if I started on it too soon. 


Then, while the babe was napping, I grabbed the wreath, my eggs, ribbon, and my glue gun.  And literally, I just started gluing the eggs on. 


I tried to keep any colors from repeating next to one another (I am a little OCD like that).  But other than that, I had no plan starting out.
And this gluing continued until the wreath was covered. 



Then I took the ribbon and made a hoop around the wreath and through the center.  I glued this hoop to itself.  Then I made a bow and glued it to the hoop at the top.  The I hung it on our (ugly) front door and snapped some pics. 



All total, it took about 30 minutes, not including the time waiting for anything to dry.  But seriously, could it be easier? 



What do you think?  Are you guys gonna join the party?  I hate when there is a party going on and I am not in on it!  So, I had to.  Head on over to any of the websites and see what everyone else has done.  There are lots of good things going on.  Lots.

1 comment:

  1. LOVE! And was so hoping you would participate in the pinterest challenge :) The wreath turned out amazing!

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