Dare to... Deck the Halls

I'm joining up at Kim's Dare to... Deck the Halls over at Newly Woodwards!

I've always wanted a lovely white feather wreath, but I never wanted to shell out the cash to buy one... Last year I decided I'd make one, then Michael's and Hobby Lobby were both out of white feather boas when I went to buy them! Tragedy.

This year I decided to beat the crowds and bought my boas back in October.

I love it! I still HATE the color of the front door, but I love the white feathers! So pretty... One of these days I'll get around to painting the door. Some day. I'd LOVE to buy a new, beautiful, heavy wooden door with a pretty little window in it that actually matches the style of the house and lets me see who's on the porch... But I just shelled out three grand on tuckpointing and seeing as it's actually MY house and not OUR house, that made quite a painful dent in my savings account. Boo. Sometimes being a grown-up blows.

Okay, enough bitching, time for gratuitous close-ups and an unnecessary, and fairly useless, tutorial! Yay!

Oooohh... Feathers...

I added a glittery, little clip-on bird I found in the holiday section at Hobby Lobby. His beak is funny, but he's cute.

I used the largest Styrofoam wreath Hobby Lobby had (50% off, of course).

4 feather boas, also from Hobby Lobby (Not 50% off unfortunately. Those bastards are expeeensive!)

Then I found an end, and used three straight pins to keep it in place.

Wrap, Rinse, Repeat 4 times. And you have a fluffy, fun wreath! Hooray!

This is what the dogs were up to while I was busy wrapping boas.

Must be nice.

What have you made this year? This is it for me... Have you joined in at NewlyWoodwards? If not, go now!

Simple DIY Etched Candles

I thought I'd share a quick little project I did for my cousin's (and S-I-L) Christmas presents.

Start with a glass vessel. I decided on candles after finding out what their favorite fragrances are.Plus, I am a sucker for Bath & Body candles; they smell phenomenal and the company is cruelty free, as are all the companies they sell. Can't beat that!

Peel off the labels carefully, but quickly. If you go too slow of hesitate near the edges, they won't come off cleanly.

If there is an residue it can be cleaned with rubbing alcohol or Goo Gone.

Decide on a design. I went with their initials and a stripe around the top.

You will need some supplies: Armour Etch (do not buy without your Michael's or Hobby Lobby coupon in hand), a paintbrush, vinyl/painters tape.

I poured some etching cream into the cap of the bottle to avoid getting it all over my hands by dipping the brush into the bottle. It made it easier to see how much I was getting, too.

You really want to glob it on thick.

I did a tester one with my initial first and it ended up all streaky because I didn't have the etching cream on thick enough.

Now, would you believe that I forgot to take a shot of the finished candles? Doh! But here's my tester just to give you an idea.

See the streaky spots at the top and along the bottom? Meh. Good thing I actually did a tester project for once! The ones I gave away turned out really great once I got the technique down. I gave my S-I-L hers a day before everyone else and she was all "Oh. Cute". Fail. But then I found out later she thought I had bought it like that and didn't realize I had made it just for her, so apparently they look good enough to be store bought. That's good enough for me.

I figure these will be cute once they are all burned down to keep small stuff in; pencils, brushes, rings, acorns in the fall... Hell, I don't know, they've got to be useful for something right? Well, they smell great in the meantime, at least!

From "Blah" to "Ta-Da!": Dining Chair Nummer Eins

Remember this chair?

Blah

Ta-Da!

This project was a bit intimidating (the tufting), but it ended up moving along (fairly) smoothly.

There was only one screw left holding the seat on, so no complications there.

Without the seat. It looks really dirty and gross, doesn't  it? It really wasn't. But it was ivory with a browny glaze over it that just screamed '90's!

The fabric was held on with about a hundred nails. 

It took me about 40 minutes to pry them all loose. 

The tufting doesn't go all the way through the base. There was (and still is) a piece of cardboard sandwiched inside to hold the tufting.

If the velvet hadn't been superduper faded, I would have loved to have kept the hot pink!

There was/ is horsehair under all those layers! Apparently this chair is much older than I initially thought it was.

I took the chair outside and gave it a can of Cover Stain and a can of Rustoleum Gloss White. 

Then back inside (and away from the mosquitos!) to make my buttons! I bought the button tufting kit from Hobby Lobby, which comes with everything you need (except the fabric, duh!). 

I used some scraps left over from the DR tie-ups, since this chair will eventually be a dining chair.

The packaging even comes with a pattern for your fabric!

All cut out and ready to become buttons.

Mister actually said "You made those?!" That's high praise from him. I was fairly impressed myself. Although it was slightly more effort than the directions made it seem. 

This is where I got discouraged and quit the first night. I followed the pattern layed out on the cardboard, but the tufts weren't even and I was cranky about it. Plus, I had spend a good 30 min. sawing my 2 inch foam into 1.5 inch foam, because it was too thick. However, Gidget decided it was perfect for lounging as is. 

Dozer thought so too, apparently.

I used Sew Perfect "Make It Green" 2 inch cushion foam, 100% wool batting, and a blue/aqua material I found in the remnant bin. It was Labor Day weekend at Hancock Fabric so everything was at least 40% off. Score.

For some reason, I neglected to take any photos of the rest of the process, but there are about a zillion tutorials out there on tufting and reupholstering. Here's a good one.

I finally (obviously) got it all together. One piece of advice though? Don't buy the two inch foam if you already have another layer on your chair. Okay, just one more tip: Tuft through the base, don't try to tuft to a middle layer and then piece it all together; frustrating project, slightly crooked results. Boo.

I'm linking up to Pure and Lovely's Weekly Revampalooza, Between Naps on the Porch's Metamorphosis Monday,  The Shabby Nest's Frugal Friday, It's a Blog Party's Show Me How, Fingerprint's on the Fridge's Creative Chick Parade, The Girl Creative's Just Something I Whipped Up, Chic on a Shoestring's Flaunt It Friday, and Making the World Cuter Monday. Whew.

Cute Tutorial

Check out this adorable tutorial from Holly Jones at Creating Cupcakes. This is such a cute idea. Nice and wintery without being holiday specific. Love it! It's adaptable, as well. Don't like snowflakes? Make them ornaments, deer, santas, dogs, pacifiers, the alphabet, etc, etc...

DIY Snowflake Garland

This snowflake Garland is very inexpensive and easy to make. You will need some "Stiff Felt" in white or your desired color, some ric rac or ribbon, sharp scissors, a hot glue gun, sequins, and a needle with thread.

1) CLICK HERE to Download and print this 2 page PDF file. This will be the pattern for your snowflakes.
(My CLICK HERE doesn't do anything. You'll have to follow the earlier link and follow her CLICK HERE)

2) Cut out the paper snowflakes for a pattern.

3) Trace Pattern onto some stiff felt.

4) Cut snowflakes out of stiff felt.

5) Use a hot glue gun to glue sequins or embellishments to the center of each snowflake.

6) Using white thread, hand sew each snowflake to ric rac or ribbon to make your snowflake garland.

7) Find a fun place to hang your garland and enjoy!

*Note, snowflakes take a little time to cut out. I like to cut them while watching my favorite movie.

Please feel free to share my pictures and this tutorial with your friends. Please direct them to this website to download the snowflake patterns, as the pattern is not intended for

re-distribution. Thanks!