Ruffled Felt Tree {and tutorial}

There are endless amounts of beautiful craft projects on Pinterest. Picking one to make can be tough, but with Christmas right around the corner, I figured one with a holiday theme would be best.

I went with a Holiday Ruffle Tree and I'm happy with how it turned out!


My Ruffle Tree

What you’ll need:
Styrofoam tree form
Felt
Fabric scissors
Dressmaker pins
Circle template
Decoration of your choosing or glitter (optional)



Directions:

I used a bottle cap as my circle template and folded the felt over so that I was able to cut lots of circles each time.

I did the circles very close together on the tree and probably cut about 350 in total, which made this very time consuming. You can do less and space them further apart.



Take each circle and fold it in half two times to make a rosette shape.



Insert one dressmaker pin as close to the bottom as possible and push it into your tree form starting at the top.



Continue these steps and work your way around until you complete the tree.



Top with glitter or decoration and you’re done!



When I finally decorate for Christmas, this will look nice tied in with all of my other decor.

P.S. The lucky winner of the Julep Nail Polish giveaway is Leslie from Life in its Ordinary Form. Congrats, girl! Email me with your information when you get a chance. Thank you to everyone that entered!

Yarn Wreath Tutorial

This has been a popular craft as of late and something that was too cute not to make. I followed Ashley’s tutorial while adding a few of my own twists. This was fairly easy, but somewhat time consuming. It really did make the perfect craft for a girls’ night.

What you’ll need:
Foam wreath from (I used a 12 inch)
Large roll of yarn
Several squares of felt in various colors
Glue gun
Fabric scissors
Push pins/T-Pins (optional)
Ribbon

Directions:
Tie a secure knot around the wreath with the yarn and start rolling. After emailing with Ashley, I decided it was best to start this the night before. It took about 2 hours in total.





Create the leaves by drawing an oval/leafy shape on the felt and cut out as many as you wish to use on the wreath. I did this in two different shades of green.



Create the flowers by cutting out 2-3 inch strips of felt. I found that 2.5 inches worked best after a little trial and error.



Put a thin line of glue at the very edge of the strip and fold over to attach.

Start cutting notches with fabric scissors on the fabric that does not have the glue. The more notches you create, the more dense looking the flowers will be. The less, the fluffier looking they will be.






Before you start rolling the flower up, you need to put down another line of glue. It is now time to start rolling.



Completed flower



To make a large flower, you do the same steps as above but instead glue 2 strips of felt together. Ensure they’re glued at the very edge so it doesn’t get bunchy.



Once all flowers and leaves are complete, you’re ready to attach them to your wreath. They can either be glued directly to the wreath or be pinned on. I preferred to pin them so that they can be interchangeable if I decide to make flowers of another color.



Attach flowers and leaves to your wreath as you wish them to be placed, hang from any ribbon and add it your favorite door with a wreath hanger.


My wreath & Kristen's St. Patrick's Day themed wreath

Weekend recap

Friday, I took the day off and got a ton of errands done. The weather was crazy and while I was in Target, they lost power. Shopping in partial darkness was interesting to say the least. I came home and starting working on a craft, watched some Grey’s Anatomy, Dateline and read for a little while.

Saturday was my friend Danielle’s shower. She is due with her first baby boy next month and I’m so excited for her and her husband. She is one of my besties from high school and it’s so crazy that she is going to be a mommy. Her shower was beautiful and someone gave her the funniest and most creative gift. It was an after pregnancy survival kit complete with Tucks, wine, Excedrin, earplugs, etc. Everyone really got a kick out of it. Her stepmom also made the cutest cookies. It was great to see her and catch up with my other friend, Brit.


Danielle's Shower...cute cookies!

Saturday night, Kristen came over for craft night. I made some delicious dip (that I’ll share the recipe for tomorrow) and we enjoyed some Sam Adams Noble Pils. We decided to make yarn wreaths. They turned out really cute, but it was a lot of work (tutorial to come). The whole night was a blast and anytime spent with Kristen is always the best. We laughed until 3 in the morning. It was some much needed girl time.


My yarn wreath

Sunday I bummed around the house. I finally watched (500) Days of Summer. If you haven’t seen this yet, watch it. It was so good even down to the songs used in the film. I really like Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel. This is one I’ll watch again and again.


A must-see

My mom came over for Oscar night and I made us chili and cornbread for dinner. It was a wonderful weekend!

XOXO Valentine's Day craft idea

I’ve admired Jen and her blog, Tatertots & Jello for a long time. How she balances being a mom and an amazing crafter boggles my mind. She posted this adorable idea for Valentine’s Day last year and I knew I had to try it.



What you’ll need:
4 frames (I got mine at Dollar Tree)
2 Sheets of scrapbook paper
Floral marbles
E-6000 Glue (found at Michael’s)
Ruler



Directions:

Cut paper down to size to fit the frames (in my case, 4x6)

Found a cup the right size to trace my O’s and then found the middle of the paper and used a ruler to make my X’s.



Take the E-6000 Glue and put it on the X’s and O’s that you made. Immediately begin adding the marbles to the glue one by one until it’s all filled up. Leave it out overnight to dry.



Add completed X’s and O’s to the frames. The glass that comes with the frames I put behind the paper with the marbles on it. That way, it keeps everything together to use for other projects or for framing photos after Valentine’s Day.



Enjoy!

Weekend recap

Friday, I grabbed Geof from the airport after his business trip to Toronto. He was gone a few days and I was so happy for him to be home. We stayed in while I did some work and then watched Jersey Shore. Ronnie’s doppelganger cracked me up!

Saturday, we headed down to Philadelphia and went to The Bourse. We wanted to walk around the city since we found such great parking, but it was freezing cold so we went to The Piazza at Schmidts in Northern Liberties to try a new place for dinner, PYT. It’s a tasty new burger joint and we were looking forward to going there. The food was awesome, the service not so much. Hopefully we can go back and we’ll have better luck. Geof got their special Krispy Kreme burger, complete with chocolate covered bacon. Let’s just say that is something to enjoy once a year at most. I got their signature PYT burger and it was delish. They also had some great beer on tap. I tried the Ithaca Apricot Wheat. I’ll be on the lookout for this at our local beer place, because it hit the spot! The other positive was the music and atmosphere. It was nice to have dinner listening to some old school Prince and Michael Jackson. After dinner, we headed home and had a nice night in.


Us at PYT


PYT


Geof's Krispy Kreme Burger


Ithaca Apricot Wheat

Sunday, I got my mom and we went to Marshalls and T.J. Maxx. I really didn’t find anything, but it was nice to browse. Those places are always hit or miss. I came home, watched some football with Geof and made two pearl bracelets.


My pearl bracelets!

Cheer for my Pom Pom Necklace {and tutorial}

I’ve admired many crafts and beautiful creations since I started blogging and always watched from afar thinking, I could never do that. This year I made a promise to myself to make at least 3 crafts and I surprised myself by making two in one weekend. Wow!

I saw this last week on Little Miss Momma’s blog and decided I was going to make it. Her instructions were so simple even for a newbie like me. This necklace completely reminds me of something I’d pay mucho dinero for at Anthropologie and I made it for about $10!



What you’ll need:
Cotton fabric remnant
1 Square Foot Felt
Chain/necklace
Glue gunFabric scissors



Directions:
Cut out 5 – 1 inch felt circles



Cut out bunches of fabric circles the same size as the felt circle. I used one of the 5 felt circles as a template and folded the fabric so that by cutting one circle, it would make 8 circles at time. This was a huge time savings.



Once you have your fabric circles, you’re ready to make the pom poms. Take one fabric circle at a time and scrunch it. The technique I used was grabbing it in the middle and making a cone shape so that each circle had a point. I used the hot glue gun to put a dot of glue on each point of the circle and then affixed it to the felt circle by pushing down and starting in the middle. Keep doing this until you like the overall shape and fluffiness of the circle and continue until you have all 5 felt circles completed.





Place pom poms on top of the remaining felt in the shape that you want your necklace in.
Glue down each pom pom with the exception of the top two and then glue the ends of the chain down to the remaining pom poms and then glue those down to the felt along with the others.





All pom poms will be attached to the felt at this point. Finally, trim the felt around the pom poms until you’re left with your beautiful necklace!



Let me know if you try this!