DIY Summer Wreath

I have learned that wreaths are probably one of my favorite things to make. I love when the season changes or a new holiday arrives and I get to swap out my wreaths!

I've had my Easter wreath hanging up since the end of February, which I'll share in a later post, but I told myself that I would not let it reach June and not have a summer wreath up on my door! And I barely made it. My wreath went up May 31st at like 10:00. But hey, I made it!

I've had my Easter wreath up since March and I desperately wanted needed a change. I wanted something with flowers since it was summer, but I also wanted it to have a personal touch.Thanks to Pinterest and Home Idea Maker, I knew exactly what I wanted to do!

Lovely little wreath from Home Idea Maker

I love that it's simple, but personal. And I also love those wispy flowers and that burlap bow! While it was very simple to assemble, shopping for the supplies turned out to be the hard part.

Now as I'm sure pretty much everyone who uses Pinterest knows, when you go to Hobby Lobby or Micheal's to buy supplies for whatever craft your doing, things often take a turn.And by "take a turn," I mean, they don't have anything you need. When I went to Hobby Lobby, I found the wreath base, burlap ribbon, initial, and moss pretty easily. Picking out the flowers, however, that's a different story.

I probably spent a good hour just in the flower department. I have this thing with craft store flowers. I want mine to look real. Like, just picked from the garden real. I don't like the plastic-y looking pistils (thank you 5th grade science) or petals that look like they're made cheap discount fabric. I'm very picky about my flowers, y'all.

So after picking up and putting back like 20 different flowers. I finally found the right ones. Finally.

Once I got home, I assembled all of my supplies and got to work!

This wreath really was easy to make. The only "hard" part was gluing the moss to the initial. And it wasn't really hard, it just took patience. To attach the moss to your initial you'll want to first spread out the sheet, spray with adhesive, and lay the initial down, flipped the wrong direction.I used spray adhesive, but I'm sure hot glue would work too.

Then just cut off the excess. Now, your scissors are going to get really yucky. Use a pair that you don't mind getting sticky. After you're done, just rub some goo gone on them and they'll be brand new!

Now spray the back of the letter with adhesive and fold the edges over. Again, hot glue will probably work too. I actually think hot glue would have been better for this part. I had to hold the folds down for sometimes a few minutes before they dried and fully stuck. Hot glue might eliminate that problem.

You might notice that you need to trim certain spots, so do that as you go along. You may need to flip it over and see what needs to be covered or trimmed. Before I glued the initial in place on the wreath, I added some wire to the back of it and wrapped it around one of the thicker twigs on the wreath base. Once I had it where I wanted it, I glued the initial directly onto the wreath. The wire just helps with sturdiness.

Once you're done, just hot glue the flowers and bow in place, and you have a new summer wreath!

My mom and I also made a wreath for her front door. Here's a quick picture:

Like mother, like daughter! :)

 Thanks for stopping by!

DIY No-Sew Christmas Tree Skirt

I have been in the Christmas spirit since the day after Black Friday. I like to start Christmas early, as in before December. But not before Thanksgiving because that would just be too much.

I have been on a non-stop Christmas binge. Christmas movies, Christmas treats, Christmas music. If it has to do with Christmas, I'm doing it! Including making my own tree skirt! Thanks to Pinterest there are so many cute (and easy) tree skirts to choose from and make! Here were some cute ones I found that you might like to make:

I love this vintage tree skirt from U Create. Burlap and lace are two of my favorite things and they look so good together!

This simple burlap and linen tree skirt is from Dwelling Cents. I love that it's simplicity doesn't take any focus away from the tree. I love the added detail of the buttons and ribbon too!

My personal favorite was this beautiful and ruffly tree skirt from Blooming Homestead! I loved how light and airy it looked. The only problem was I wanted a little bit of color and I think J would have thought it was a little too feminine. Maybe another year...

I loved the idea of just using two neutral-colored fabrics, like the one from The Johnston's. This tree skirt served as the pattern for mine.

This tree skirt from Done Over Decor is very similar to the one above from The Johnston's. I especially loved the red in it. It gave it that extra Christmasy pop that I wanted!

After looking at all the different tree skirts to choose from, I came up with my own version!

I was a little worried about how this would turn out because I have never hot-glued fabric before. But it turned out awesome!

Here's what you'll need:

-A yard of fabric for your base (my tree is 6 and 1/2 feet tall and it fit perfect)

-A yard each of two different colored fabric (mine are red and white)

-A ton of hot-glue

I started by cutting my felt piece into a circle with a small circle in the middle. Then I cut my colored fabric into long 3-inch strips. They don't have to be perfect.

Make sure you wrap it around the base of your tree and it's the size you want. Once you've got it to the right size, start hot gluing those strips on like a mad woman!

Looooonnnnngggg way to go!

I didn't have any idea how I was going to create the ruffle effect when I first started, but eventually I got the hang of it. All I did was lay a line of glue down, press the fabric on top, then backtracked and glued a little ruffle over the top of the glued-down fabric. That may not make any sense when you're reading it, but once you start hot-gluing you'll figure it out!

After four and a half hours you'll end up with this!

Please ignore all the crap on the floor. It was like 4 in the morning and I was half asleep and covered in hot glue strings and third-degree burns.

But doesn't it look beautiful?! Here it is under my Christmas tree!

And here it is completely covered where you can't even see it. And not a single one of those are mine...

But anyway! What do you guys think? If you make one, I'd love to see it!

Keep up with my projects by following my I'd Pin That pinboard on Pinterest!

Dresser Makeover!

To celebrate almost being done with school I have decided to show you guys a dresser makeover I did! All by myself, I might add. :)

Over the course of two months, I somehow finally found the time to give my bedroom dresser a little facelift (please ignore the crap piled on and around it, please). Although I am SO relieved and overjoyed to finally be done with it, this thing was a beast! It is huge!

I mean, seriously. It's massive. I had to have a ladder to even see the top of it!

It took some serious motivation to get the ball rolling on this project. I have painted before, but never such a big piece. It was definitely intimidating, which is why I put it off for so long. But one day to escape some intense boredom (there was nothing on TV), I decided "What the heck?! Let's see what happens!"

So I went to the store to get some paint and primer, brushes, and a ladder and got to work! The color I chose is Valspar's Du Jour. It's a milky cream color and looked beautiful on my dresser! I plan to paint my bed frame this color too someday, whenever I get motivated again.

It looks way more cream colored in this picture than in real life. It's much more white in person.

Quick side note: Zinsser primer is the best stuff ever. Even if you just use one coat, use it!

I had pictures of the drawers with just primer on them to show how much of the dark wood they cover (there's a small one at the bottom), but somehow they have disappeared so you'll just have to take my word for it. I didn't realize how dark this dresser really was until I started putting the primer on. I thought I was going to be painting for weeks to fully cover the dark stain, but all it took was two coats of primer and two coats of paint.

I wanted to really make this piece special though so I decided to add some new hardware (here they are in brass, I had to special order them in pewter) and paint the inside of the drawers!

I love how this dresser turned out! It was so dark and gloomy before and now it's bright and happy and looks perfect in my bedroom!

I've got some other furniture projects I'll be posting about soon. You can see some of my other projects and follow me on my Pinterest page I'd Pin That!

DIY Sunburst Mirror

Hey guys! I know it's been so long since I've written anything. I've been busy packing up everything that we won't need for the next 3 months until we move! I have been working on a special project on the weekends though!

I saw this sunburst mirror at 346 Living and knew I had to make one for my living room via Pinterest. I made the basic shape the same way, but decided to change a few things.

346 Living

The "directions" were slightly misleading, since there were no clearcut directions. I basically went with the list of materials that were given and used trial and error to make it work. Once it got going, it was fairly easy to make. I did use a hot glue gun to glue the individual shims together, but the first couple ones I did kept breaking because I didn't use a hot enough gun. I would strongly recommend using the hottest glue gun you can find to make sure they stick together. Otherwise, when you go to hang it up, it's going to break.

I glued each "ray" separately and then after making enough, glued them all together in a circle. This is where the trouble started. By the time most of the sunburst was glued together, it wasn't fitting right. I had to break some of the pieces up and stick some shims upside down to space the rays out to make a better fit (I don't have a picture of this, but I will take one ASAP).

After I fit it all together, my stepdad glued a board on the back and attached a wire for it to hang. From there, all I have to do was decide how I wanted the mirror. While I like the use of the embroidery hoop over the mirror, I was worried about glue poking out around the edges and I wanted mine to pop more. My mom had the genius idea of using a plate charger so the mirror would stand up off of the base. So the next time I was at Hobby Lobby I picked up a wooden charger and the mirror fit perfectly inside!

While it's not primed or painted, I love the way it looks! I think I might just keep it like it is!

So what do you guys think? Do you like how it looks so far? 

I've linked up to Not Just A Houswife's Best DIY Project of 2012 Contest! Check out their post along with all the other DIY projects!

Don't forget to check out my other projects on my blog and on my Pinterest account I'd Pin That. You can also follow me by clicking on the button to your right!

DIY Rainboots

Oh my gosh. My last post was December 10th....and it's February 7th.

I've been SO busy lately with school and you know, basically figuring out what I want to do with my life (totally not kidding about that. I've had many panic attacks these last few weeks deciding on a major. Scariest decision of my life. EVER.).

Anyways, I've finally gotten around to doing a project! YAY ME!

I've seen these really cute rainboots all over Pinterest (picture below) and I've been meaning to give them a try. I have a lonely pair of rainboots that have been sitting in the back of my closet forever, just waiting to be worn. But to be honest, I always kind of hated them because they were so plain and boring. Well, thanks to an awesome tutorial from BeachBrights, I gave my boring rain boots a whole new look!

BeachBrights

Basically all you need is a pair of rainboots (Target and Walmart have some really cute ones for very cheap), eyelets, a hammer, and some coordinating ribbon! To put in the eyelets, just follow the directions on the package. And make sure when you buy the eyelets, you buy enough. I only bought one packet and ended up being 3 short. When putting them in, I used a sharpie to trace where I wanted the eyelet to be and then used an exacto knife to cut a hole out. Here they are after putting in the eyelets:

Here's how mine turned out! (Sorry about the terrible flash! I hate using my iPhone for a camera!)

What do you think? Now I'm just waiting for some more rain to come my way so I can actually wear them!

You can find this and my other projects on my Pinterest board I'd Pin That. Check out my other boards as well! You can also follow me by clicking on the link to your right!

Peanut Butter Balls

Thanks to Joy of Baking, I have a new obsession: peanut butter balls. Just the sound of their name makes my mouth water...

The best part (besides how delicious they are) is that they're pretty easy to make! Although they're pretty easy, they do take awhile. But trust me, it's worth it!

I've made these twice now and the first time I followed the directions. They were delicious, but a little too sweet for me. You can find the original directions and ingredients list at the above link but I'll list mine for you here.

Ingredients:

For Peanut Butter Balls

2 cups creamy peanut butter

1/4 cup (half a stick) of unsalted butter at room temperature

a pinch of salt

1/2 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 -2 cups confectioners sugar - I say to 2 cups, but I only used 1 1/2 because 2 was too sweet for me

For Chocolate Covering

About a bag or a bag and a half of semi-sweet chocolate chips - it's better to buy more than you need then not have enough

optional: 1 tablespoon shortening - to make the chocolate shiny

First things first, put the peanut butter, butter, and salt in a microwavable bowl and heat in 20 second increments (very important!!!), and stir in-between. Do this for about a minute, or until soft. Next, add the vanilla extract and confectioners sugar. Start mixing until it becomes dough-like.

I don't know if you can see it or not, but when I added the sugar, the peanut butter started getting really clumpy. Just keep mixing until most of the clumps are out.

Now this is where I have a useful tip. When I was making them the first time (I watched the video from the link), the lady said to just roll the peanut butter into balls with your hands. Well, mine WOULD NOT roll. They turned into cement on my hands and would not come off. After becoming very frustrated, I just plopped some somewhat ball-shaped clumps on the cookie sheet (covered in wax paper), stuck 'em in the freezer, and called it a day.

After about 15 minutes, I went to gaze at them in hunger.. And then I thought, I should try rolling them into balls now that they're a little harder and will maintain their shape better! After I was done rolling all of them into a more ball-like shape I stuck them back in to the freezer for another 15-20 minutes and prepared the chocolate coating.

I used exactly 1 bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips. Another tip, get the mini ones at Kroger. They're cheaper. I decided to use the shortening just so it would make the chocolate last longer. Heat the chocolate 30 seconds at a time until melted. Don't forget to stir in-between. I used a spoon to roll the peanut butter balls around in the chocolate and place them back on the tray.

Mmmmm....Delicious.

Once the chocolates on, put them back in the freezer for 10-15 minutes so the chocolate will harden. Once hardened, you can store them in a container in the fridge!

They turned out great! The original recipe said it yielded about 60. Mine came out to about 45, but I made mine a little bigger. Either way, they won't last long!

Do you know of another recipe for peanut butter balls I should try? Let me know!

You can find this and my other projects on my Pinterest board I'd Pin That. Check out my other boards as well! You can also follow me by clicking on the link to your right!

DIY Tissue Paper Trees

I know, I know. It's been FOREVER since I've written a new post. But to be fair, finals are next week and I've been cramming my brain with as much information as possible. I should be a genius by now, but unfortunately this is not the case and I have to study even more.

Anyways, I thought I'd take a big break and do a little project! I'd been seeing these tissue paper trees on Pinterest and feel in love with them! Now I've only had the time to do one, partly because this tree took freaking forever! It took TWO DAYS! TWO DAYS for one tree! It's a good thing I picked the most time-consuming one to do first because now the other two won't seem as bad!

My inspiration for these trees came from Spunky Junky and Creative Mommas (how cute of a name is that, by the way?). The tutorial for the tree that I did (the red one) is on Spunky Junky but the other two (gold and green) can be found on Creative Mommas. I will show you guys the other two as soon as I'm done with them (hopefully sometime before Christmas..).

Creative Mommas

Now, this is slightly embarrassing, but the hardest part for me was rolling the poster board into a cone. It just didn't want to stay! But I finally got it, taped it up real good (you won't see or notice tape underneath, so tape as much as you need!) and came up with this. Oh, and please ignore all the crap in the background. I currently have like 5 projects going on at once that have been put on hold until after finals.

I used the smallest one for my tree which was a smart idea since it took so freaking long, but it's incredibly poofy so it looks twice the size it really is. Once my cone was all rolled up, I picked what tissue paper I wanted to use. I thought I'd go with silver for the poofy tree. I didn't want it to be too overpowering of a color. What I did with the tissue paper was fold it half and cut about 1 inch strips all the way down from the crease. Then collect all the strips together and cut them into squares.

Now as far as folding them, I didn't really have a "method" like Spunky Junky did. I just sort of pinched the center, added some glue, stuck in on the tree and moved on. In total, I used probably 5 or 6 tissue paper sheets and about 4 glue sticks. But I'd say it's worth it because my tree looks pretty darn good.

Not the greatest picture quality in the world (someone needs a new camera for Christmas...) but you get the idea! I'll try to take a better picture of all 3 when I'm done!

While I loved how it turned out, I would never make this tree again unless someone paid me. So if you find yourself questioning whether this is a project you want to spend some time on, just forget it. To those of you who decide to go for it, good luck!

So what do you guys think? Let me know!

You can find this and all my other projects so far on my Pinterest board I'd Pin That. You can also follow me by clicking the button on the right under my picture!