Friday, January 17, 2014

Upcycled Scrap Fabric Wreath DIY

I have all of my daughter's baby clothes that I need to do something with.  I have sorted the ones I want to keep and donate, but I have been struggling what to do with the extra loved pieces, that are in too bad of shape to give to anyone.  I did not want to throw them out, so I found this little item that I thought would be fun to do.  I took all the clothes that had been really loved and I made this.......



I thought I would show you how to make one of these lovely upcycled wreaths.


Here's what you'll need:

Fabric
(I used old baby clothes as well as a few other scraps of fabric that I had around)
scissors
wire wreath ring


Instructions: 


Cut fabric into 2.5" by 6" or 7" strips 
I would not go any shorter than 6" because it will make it too hard to tie onto the ring.


You are going to need a lot so keep cutting.  I used fabrics that were all around the same shade but in different hues (colors).  But I also used a few darker and brighter fabrics to make it pop. 
I ended up using about 220 strips on the 14" wire wreath.


Once all your fabric is cut you are ready to start assembling your wreath. 

Side note: I organized my fabrics in order on how I was going to place them on the wreath.  I did not want any one color clumped together on the wreath.  This is purely a personal choice.  You can choose to do this or place them randomly on the wreath.



While this is an easy task it is time consuming.


Take a strip of fabric


Then fold it in half length wise. 



Take it and tie a knot around the wire wreath ring.



 I tied the cross bars first.


(I am going to number the rings starting with the very outside ring being 1 and the two middle rings are 2 & 3 with the inside ring being #4.) 

Tie scraps onto rings 2 & 3
I reversed my pattern that I did on ring 2 for ring 3 in each section.
Photo shows rings 2&3 with all scraps tied on and 1 & 4 are empty. 

Finally I tied on rings 1 &4


Here is what the back looks like


Here are a few images of the final product. 



Good luck in making your wreath.  Please post a comment if you have any tips on this project or any other project you would like to learn how to do.



I listed it on ETSY so if you don't feel like making your own....



Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Love is in the air........

Well we are a month away from Valentine's Day.  It think Valentine's Day is such a fun day.  I loved it as a kid.  My favorite part was decorating my Valentine box!!!  Imagine that, something creative.  Since I no longer have a Valentine box to decorate and my daughter would prefer to do it on her own.  I like to decorate my house instead.  So in honor of getting in the mood......

Friday, January 10, 2014

Coaster Crazy!!!

It's all coasters over at VaVa's Vintage lately!  


That is all I seem to think about these days.  
Maybe because they are my number one item or the fact that I am working on 
designing a beautiful new package for them.  Since I have had coasters on the brain. 
I thought I would take a quick minute and share with you the new designs I have.





Here is a photo of my temporary packaging.  Much better than the ribbon I was using before.  But still not quite what I want.  



Here's a sneak peak at some awesome new paper I picked up this week.  That I will be using for some new coasters this weekend.  



Thanks for stopping by and reading what I'm up to.  
Thanks for reading and as always
have a wonderful day full of life and color!

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

DIY Winter Decor From Items Found Around The House


So it's been a while since my last blog and I have been slowing taking down all of the Christmas decor in the house.  I love my Christmas decor, it is so full of memories.  But that is for another day.  Today I wanted to share what I made from things around the house for my table centerpiece.  Here is a photo of my table.
Winter centerpiece on my table.
What I would like to show you today is how easy it is to make the bird display in the center of the table.  

Here is what it looks like when it is done. 



This is so easy it will shock you!

Here is what you need and hopefully you will have most of it around the house. 


Cake stand



Large vase

Make sure when turned upside down the top of the vase can rest safely on the cake stand.


A couple of sticks or twigs from the yard and a twist tie.



birds

I used 3 birds in my arrangement.

fake snow

This is what the bag looks like but any fake snow will do,  I found this at Lowes in the holiday section.


Ok I had to buy the birds and the snow but since it is post Christmas I got them for super cheap the snow was $1.74 and the birds (6 of them) $1.50.  So I spent a total of $2.24 for my center piece. Not bad!


This is so easy that anyone can do it.  The kids can help too.

Step one clean your glassware. 


Step two fill your vase with snow. 
I filled mine half way but you can add as much as you would like. 


Next

Take you sticks and twist tie them together in an X at the bottom.  
This will help them from falling all over the place in the vase.  
This step is completely optional but I found it helped to keep my sticks from clumping together.



My birds came with clips so it was very easy to attach to the sticks.
If yours did not come with clips you will need to hot glue the birds to the sticks.


Clip the bird on the tops of the twigs.
Arrange to your liking.


I forgot to take a photo of the birds on the sticks. oops.

Place the sticks into the vase like this. 
With the bottom of the sticks facing up.


Gently push your sticks and birds into the snow.  You might need to dig in the snow a bit to do this.
I accidentally broke one of my sticks when doing this.


Now take the cake stand and place it on the top of the vase like this.

  
Hold your cake plate and vase together and carefully turn over.  Be careful not to let them come apart or your snow will fall out and you will have a giant snowy mess.  Also it might be heavy, mine is!

It took me a few times of going back and fourth to get it just right.
But here is how mine ended up.



I just love it.  I am thinking I might make a spring one with grass and colorful birds and maybe a nest.  That would be so cute!  

I placed it on the table and added a few things I had around the house. 







Thanks for reading and as always
have a wonderful day full of life and color!