Monthly Archives: November 2016

Fall Wreath

Posted in Crafts/DIY by

Happy (day after) Thanksgiving!  I was seriously behind on my Thanksgiving crafts this year.  I meant to make a few things in the beginning of November, but didn’t have time to head out to Michael’s or JoAnne Fabric to get supplies.  But, I was finally able to find some time last weekend to make the trip.  In addition to getting some fall craft supplies, I was also able to stock up on some holiday supplies, which is always good.  Although we are nosediving right into the holiday season,  I still wanted to post this super cute fall wreath I made yesterday on Thanksgiving.  There are still a few days left in “fall” (aka November!).

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Materials:

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Styrofoam wreath 12″ diameter
Yarn (you want the color to look like a snowy branch)
Felt squares (fall foliage colors)
Squirrel ornament
Mini pinecones and acorns
64″ Burlap ribbon
Pencil
Hot glue gun & extra glue sticks

Directions:

1. Freehand or using a printed template, trace and cut out multiple leaves out of your fall foliage color felts.  I ended up cutting out 4 of each color (20 total).

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2. Using the hot glue gun, glue the yarn onto the styrofoam wreath.  You’ll need to keep the yarn together, so I just looped the entire bundle through the wreath each time.  I would also put a small line of hot glue on the top and underside of the wreath, and wrap the yarn around the wreath, attaching with the glue.  This is a tedious process, but necessary so the yarn doesn’t slip around.  When I arrived back at the beginning, I did another quick loop with the yarn around the styrofoam to make sure I didn’t have any of the styrofoam peaking through.  The second go does not have to be as tight as the first.

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3. Once your yarn is set, arrange your leaves how you’d like to them to be clustered.

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4. Flip the cluster of leaves over (kind of like flipping a pancake) and glue the cluster together.  You can do this by seeing which parts of the leaf overlap another and just glue that little part.  Your cluster should basically be one entity when you pick it up.

5. Glue your cluster of leaves onto the wreath, leaving space for your squirrel ornament.

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6. Glue on your squirrel ornament, pinecones, and acorn.

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7. Take your burlap ribbon and loop it into the wreath.  Tie a bow at the top and hang!

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My Book Review Blog

Posted in Read This...Not That! by

For the past five years or so I’ve been keeping another WordPress blog about books that I read, called Read This!…Not That.  Because that blog is so old I don’t really want to start new on this blog, I’m keeping everything over there.  I wanted to give ya’ll a heads up if you’d like to take a look!

My most recent post is for a book called Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain.

Enjoy!

Felted Fish Tank

Posted in Crafts/DIY by

I received a Fido Felts for my birthday from my boyfriend’s parents and I was very excited. I had never tried felting and it seemed like a really cool new craft to try.  I also love dogs, so I was excited to make the mini felted dogs the kit offered.  If you’re not familiar with felting, it’s pretty simple.  You take some wool and essentially stab and shape it with a needle until it’s in the shape you want.  The dogs from the kit are actually quite difficult to make, but I still had a good time making them.

Recently my grandfather has been in the hospital and a rehabilitation center, so I wanted to get him something.  He lives on the other side of the country, so it’s not easy for me to visit.  I figured flowers are very cliche, and I like making things.  I did a lot of googling on things I could make or get for him other than flowers and I came across a post on radmegan where she made a goldfish aquarium.  I thought this was a great idea!  My grandparents have a huge fish tank in their living room, so I thought this might give my grandfather a touch of home at the hospital.  I made some tweaks to what radmegan did, so here is my take on a felted fish tank.

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Materials:

Felt for felting – specifically orange, yellow, black and white felt
Felting kit (needles, styrofoam, etc)
Large jar (I used an old pickle jar)
Blue ribbon
Aquarium gravel
Pipe cleaners – blue for fish stands, green for plants, purple for starfish
Silver & white small pom poms
Hot glue gun

Instructions:

  1. Ensure your jar is clean.  If you’re using a repurposed jar, there might be lingering smells, so be sure to clean thoroughly.  If you want to keep the top, you can definitely do that, but I find it difficult to completely remove smells from the jar top.
  2. Felt your fish.  I created a large goldfish and two smaller yellow fish. I used this tutorial on Youtube and thought it was very helpful.  The changes I made were that I added felt eyes by felting some white onto the body and then two small black dots inside.  I also added a smile.  For the yellow fish, I did not add a top dorsel fin and I made their tails slightly longer than the goldfish.
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  3. Once your fish are complete,  take the green pipe cleaners and mold them into a wavy pattern for the plants.  I used 4 pipe cleaners that were cut down a little, but depending on the size of your jar you may want more or less.  Fold the bottom of the pipe cleaner into an “L” shape and using the glue gun, glue the bottom part of the “L” onto the bottom of the jar.
  4.  Use the hot glue gun to glue pipe cleaners onto the fish.  You’ll want to cut your pipe cleaners to the lengths you’d like your fish to be at.  Then, fold the pipe cleaners in a “]” shape, glue gunning the top part to the bottom of the fish, and (when that part is dry) the bottom to the bottom of the jar. I used the same pipe cleaner for the two small yellow fish.

bottom-of-tank15. Once the glue is dry, pour your aquarium gravel into the bottom of the jar until the glued bottoms of the fish and plants are no longer visible.
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6. Create a starfish out of pipe cleaners and place into jar.
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7. Take one or two silver and white pom poms and drop into jar (I imagined these as sea urchins).
8. Lastly, take your blue ribbon and tie it around the top of the jar.  I glue gunned it down in a few places so it would not slip around.
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9. Enjoy!