The Hardest Easiest Fall Wreath Ever

Well, I’ve been at it again. It’s been a while. Almost two years – if you’ve been with me that long, you remember the hardest, easiest Christmas DIY wreath ever:

I had moved on from THEDWE (short for the hardest, easiest DIY wreath EVER, if you didn’t know). I had finally put it out of my mind. The ornaments popping off. The hot glue madness. The wire hangers that would. not. bend.

And I lived to tell the story.

Little did I know that I’d be dealing with yet another…this time for fall.

It started innocently enough – with this pin:

(source)

Isn’t it lovely? I thought so.

I got a grapevine wreath (half off!) to try it out – and then decided at the last minute that I wanted to fill a whole foam wreath with those felty goodies.

Big mistake. HUGE.

Warning! Warning!

Danger Will Robinson!!

I know that now.

I used a foam circle I already had – I took the rose petals off this old Valentine wreath:

And then wrapped it with some scrap fabric I had:

This was just because the foam wreath was pink, and pink isn’t exactly the fall look I was going for.

I got some felt from Joann’s in some fallish colors – orange and green -- then started my felt flowers. At first I traced circles onto the felt using jars and such, but then about half way into I skipped that and just started freehanding it.

After cutting the circles, you just cut them into a “swirl,” then wrap them into little flowers:

I didn’t realize they really look nothing like my inspiration till just now. Awesome.

Mine are much looser, not as tightly rolled. I like the tight roll a lot, so someday (years from now) when I’m up for attempting this again, I’ll try it that way.

I got a little tricky with mine, by cutting some of my circles with pinking shears. It gave them a little texture which I loved. Here’s how I did them:

The are SUPER easy. You start with the inside of the swirl, then just wrap it around itself and then hot glue the “tail” to the outside of the flower. I used one tiny dab of hot glue on each one, that’s it! They held up great for the most part.

There are two different versions – if you start from the inside, you get the wider, looser flowers like mine. If you start from the outside, you get tighter rosettes:

And I just answered my own question – I bet the one on the right is what’s used in the inspiration pic above. Duh.

Anyway, I used the bigger version so they would take up more space on the wreath – you can see how much bigger they end up being.

Thank the heavens I decided to do that, cause I would have TOTALLY lost my mind if the flowers were smaller.

Cause for two days, this is all I did:

I exaggerate. Just a smidge. I did bathe, eat and play with my child.

But my goodness…it was a lot of stinkin’ crafting. I mean, I love to craft, but really.

The flowers themselves take about a minute to do each – not bad at all. The more you do it the faster they go.

It’s the volume of them that made it take forever. GAH.

Which is my fault, cause I kept going and going – I don’t like wimpy wreaths.

As I made the flowers, I just hot glued them on here and there, and filled in where needed:

Towards the end, I had a ton of scraps, so I cut up tiny circles and made smaller ones to go inside the bigger ones for some contrast:

(That color is weird on that pic, sorry about that.)

And finally, after eleventy billion hours, I had a fallish wreath:

I’m actually quite smitten with it, even with all the glue gun burns. ;)

It’s different and FUN which is just we need fun around this water-ridden house lately:

I have plans to make another fall wreath (hold me?), so we’ll see which one ends up on the front door. This one could go up on the mantel, on the back door, we’ll have to see.

I love it! And it only cost $5 in felt to make it – I used 16 sheets of felt total.

I think the time I put into it makes up for the thrifty factor. Whatever. I just keep telling myself five dollars. Five dollars…five dollars…

The porch hasn’t gotten it’s fall treatment just yet, but this is a great start! I hope to find a pretty fat ribbon to hang it from, maybe a bit lower (if this one stays on the door). For now it’s just hanging with what I had on hand:

Felt and yarn wreaths are sooo in this fall! If you try this one, maybe try it on a smaller scale, or just a few as an accent on a wreath, or just know it will take you a few months days to complete.

:)

So there. you. go – THEDWE -- the fall version…hope another two years passes before the next one. Have you made a fall wreath yet? Was it easier than mine? Wait, don’t tell me, I don’t think I could take it. It’s still too soon…

Mini Transformations

Hey hey! How are you? I’m super excited because it’s only supposed to get up to 79 tomorrow – ahhh, I’m in heaven! Although that is perfect deck staining weather, unfortunately. Fortunately? Whatever.

I’m back with one more post about the family room redo – are you tired of seeing it yet?

Don’t answer that. :)

Many of you had questions on the little details in the space so I wanted to get the info on all of the accessories in one spot.

First up, the TV area – the old TV spot was a thorn in my side, and now I couldn’t be happier:

The dresser was (another) Craigslist find. I told you it’s story here. It’s a Henredon and I adore it – it’s one of my very favorite pieces in our whole house. It’s GORG.

The lovely lady lamps were from HomeGoods last year – they are a beautiful green with a gorgeous finish. LOVE.

The mirror was also a HomeGoods find and it started out black. I got it months ago for another room, and it didn’t work there, so I put it back in my car to return it.

When I went to open the back of my SUV to get it out, it fell out in the parking lot. GAH. So…it wasn’t going back. ;) Drats.

The corner was busted and it had a few scratches (I can’t believe the mirror didn’t break!), so I sanded those down a bit. It was way too dark in black (I wanted something brighter above the black hole of a TV), so I took the mirror out and  spray painted the frame bright white. It turned out beautifully!

I haven’t found the mirror again, but I did run across this one at Target just recently:

It’s so close, and I think it’s the same exact size! I love how the mirror balances out the dresser and TV and all that jazz.

I showed you the mantel changes awhile back:

And it mostly stayed the same, but that brown candlestick needed some color!

Enter my Mountain View spray paint:

It was just what the mantel needed!:

That mossy “S” was a crafty project using sheets of moss:

I showed you how I hot glued my fingers made that one here.

The IKEA sofa table got a little accessory redo too, yet again using what I already had:

I had never done much to accessorize the top before:

So I went hunting through the house. :) The lanterns were a smashing deal a couple years ago – I got them for $10 each at Walmart. They used to sit on our deck and looked like this:

I wanted a brighter look, so I busted out the brushed nickel spray paint and there. you. go:

The tray was a $4 Goodwill find I’ve had for awhile and was black, originally white:

Someone had spray painted it black and I sprayed it back to white. Again. Got it? ;) I picked large blue books, again to pull some blue over to that side of the room. The faux greenery puff ball I showed you here.

And the lamp has gone through a few transformations – the latest being a coat of blue:

It’s a vintage light that started out ivory and brown with a different shade:

Then went to black, then green:

I luuuuurve the funky shape of it! We’ll see what color it is next. ;)

The very first thing I do when we get a new sofa (which is all the time, you know) is to take off the pillows that come with it. I ditch the matchy matchy and use pillows as a chance to pull in some color and customize the space:

I used the pillow forms that came with the sofa and made the striped pillow covers with Waverly fabric from Joann’s. The large furry cream pillow in the corner is from Target and IT’S SO FLUFFY!!!! (Name that movie!)

The others are all Pottery Barn pillow covers I picked up last summer. The embroidered one on the left was a total splurge but I. LOVE. it. I don’t buy my pillow inserts there though – they are insanely expensive and I actually don’t think they are firm enough anyway. I use old pillows to stuff my cases, or get forms with a coupon at Joann’s or Hob Lob.

Whew! I hope that helps to answer any questions you had about the space! Other than a few pillows, I used what I had to finish up the accessories and wall decor for the whole space. I’m really, really pleased with how it all came together!

If there’s something I missed, let me know in the comments and I’ll let get back to you there! And…I swear, that’s the last I’ll mention the family room for about, uh…a few days? ;) 

So tell me, have you transformed something with spray paint lately? It’s magic in a can, I tell ya.