Tag: Christmas

Christmas Crafts

Holiday Tear

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The last few days have been full of decorating and creating.

I redid my burlap wreath that I just winged years ago. I wrapped and tucked and it looked ok, until I added the ribbon. Then it looked ridiculous. I got down and I put it away.

I finally decided to redo it this year, and to actually do it correctly. Using this tutorial, I got to work.

As I went around my wreath form, I knew I wouldn’t have enough to go all the way around. The tutorial calls for a 12″ form and mine is 18″. My burlap was also pretty beat up and smelled dusty.

I went shopping for burlap the next day.

I chose this one, and got 2. The tutorial calls for 1 30′ roll, but like I said, mine was bigger. I ended up using both of them.

I have the 18″ form, the tutorial calls for 12″

In the end I was pleased with my work and was already starting to make plans for Valentine’s Day and Easter.

I discovered I had several bows in the house, but being my wreath is natural burlap, it didn’t seem right to add a burlap bow or anything like that. I also couldn’t find my pinecone pins or picks (I found them after it was hung up, of course), and my other bows are way too small. So i had also picked up a larger red bow.

It’s nice and simple. And now hanging up on the wall in the living room.

Next up, seeing what I can do with my plain green wreath that’s collecting dust in the closet.

Christmas Crafts

Fun with Foam

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Many years ago, after perusing a copy of Crochet Today (R.I.P.), I had a burning desire to make a wreath. All that was required was to wrap the foam wreath form with yarn and then DC the hell out of a chain and use the natural curves from that to make a rose. It came out nice, but wrapping the yarn around the foam ring was a pain in the ass.I made it with off white so, over the years it has gotten dingy, so we have had to replace it. I have been very lax in that regard. All the crochet wreaths I have seen and liked require a level of commitment I am just not ready for. Seeing all these people crocheting around rings, though…. That seemed easy enough.It isn’t… Not with that size of foam rings.
But commit, I did.Heres what I used:

  1. Yarn. I used two strands Red Heart Super Saver for one wreath, and one strand Hometown USA for the other
  2. Size P hook
  3. A smaller hook, I used an H

Heres what I did:Make a slip knot. Pick up the slip knot through the center of the foam ring. Wrap the yarn around the back of the ring, yarn over the hook and pull through the loop.Now comes the fun part, and the main reason I am very glad the foam rings weren’t larger than they are.. You’re going to leave your hook at the top of the ring. Bring your working yarn around the back of the yarn and wrap around your hook from the back. Your working yarn will be hanging in the front of your ring. These are now your two yarn loops. Wrap the working yarn around the back of the ring and wrap around your hook. Pull the working yarn through your two loops. Continue working around, sort of scrunching your work together to make sure you’re covering the foam ring.Once you’ve made it back to the beginning, and you have sufficient coverage, slip stitch into the first stitch, then switch to a smaller hook, chain 16, then bring it back down and slip stitch into the same stitch.Using craft glue or your handy dandy glue gun, apply decorations as you please. I am using ornaments and other Christmas decorations found in the Christmas aisles at Walmart.Here’s my one finished wreath.And here is the finished camo wreath

Christmas Crafts

Crochet Wreaths

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There are a lot of crochet wreaths going around right now. I myself was looking forward to making a few.I just couldn’t decide how I wanted to torture myself.I saw a really cute ornament someone had made and thought I could do that. Then I read she’d used a milk jug ring as the base. I wasn’t too sure that would be plausible for me. I did find a suitable replacement, though.I had a bunch of hair ties already from making scrunchies, so I could always use some of those. Then I remembered that I had bought a pack of shower curtain rings, you know those plastic things you have to wrestle into the holes at the top of the shower curtain? Yea, those.I couldn’t find them, so I went and got another from Walmart. They were around $1.I crocheted around the ring in green, then did a little trim of white around the edge. Add a few chains and slip stitch it back into the work et voila! An ornament with a hanger.I did a chain of cotton crochet with a tiny steel crochet hook, which of course made me question exactly what I was doing with my life to have been brought so low. I rolled it up into a little rosette and attached it to one of the wreaths using craft glue that dries clear.

Christmas Crafts

Fun with Glue

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I am a very big fan of the hot glue gun. I am not, however a fan of the glue in the glue gun. Especially the tails I seem to drag everywhere once I’ve glued whatever it is.

So, I am on medical leave after surgery and I am going stir crazy. When I go to the store, I experience pain in my abdomen, which is to be expected having had an internal organ removed. Obviously, it isn’t anything life threatening and sitting down and relaxing helps it a lot. That said, I haven’t done a lot of shopping at all. Short trips and someone is always with me.

Until today.

Now, I’m not trying to injure myself or anything, but I’ve been looking forward to doing something by myself, finally. My first two days post surgery, I didn’t go to the bathroom by myself. Even in the middle of the night, my husband would wake up and escort me to the bathroom. I get hollered at for reaching for things on a shelf that’s higher than my head. I practically have panic attacks when something I need or am putting away is on the top shelf. We were at the store and I grabbed some whipping cream from the top shelf and all I heard behind me was, “TOP SHELF.” In the Dad voice. It was embarrassing.

The trip today was short, but I did manage to walk the length of the store, as my goal was to get to the Christmas decorations. I wanted to get a deer head ornament we had seen at Walmart in another town. I had a stroke of genius, which you’ll see tomorrow.

They didn’t have what I was after at my Walmart, but I found some cute stuff. Including these Glitter Ornaments.

This is how you know I am bored. I am known for saying that things like glitter and tinsel were creations of the devils minions and were part of Satan’s grand plan for world domination. But I have purchased more glitter in the last few weeks than I have ever had the displeasure of looking at.

So, I bought some. And a bunch of other stuff. These were going to adorn various wreaths I made or bought. Then I started thinking. I took them out and laid them out on the bed and I made a wreath with just the ornaments and I liked it.

Here’s what I used:

Hot Glue Gun

Pack of 20 glitter ornaments

Scissors

Wax paper

Here’s what I did:

I cut all the gold hangers from the ornaments- the way they are arranged, the wreath won’t hang right where the hangers were attached.

Arrange the ornaments in a circle on the wax paper. As the picture shows, these ornaments have pentagons on the ends, so they line up nicely, and using those as the connector points makes it easy to arrange them into a circle. Glue the ornaments together at the points that are touching, using enough glue to cover both parts.

Once the glue has set and cooled off (remember, it IS hot glue, a lesson I re-learned after sticking my thumb into the damn glue on one of the ornaments), peel from the wax paper and use the scissors to trim any glue that’s visible from the ‘front’ side.
Add a ribbon or string to hang wherever you’d like!

Here are mine. I used 6 ornaments for each wreath and plain white ribbon for the hangers.