Greenery

Here is a wreath I made for a coworker. I added a large white bow (because she loves white), but didn't snap a picture of it before I gave it to her.

I've been thinking a lot about my own Etsy shop, which still doesn't have any inventory added to it. Perhaps I could gather up wreath making supplies after the holidays and work on them throughout the year and sell them? I think I'm getting rather good at it!

I love this wreath!

Christmas is not coming fast enough for me! I decided to create a wreath for my dad with the overabundance of pinecones I collected in past weeks. I had some raspberry garland left from a wreath I made for a coworker, so I added that for some extra touches. I must say, the photo does not do it justice. I cannot wait to give it to my dad! I hope he likes it as much as I do.

Holiday Gift Baskets

We are selling gift baskets at work for the holidays. I am so excited. My co-worker and I spent a few hours planning what will go into them, and we think we did a great job. To the right is just one example of the many baskets we will have available for sale. Nice, huh? Who doesn't want to get a nice beauty care basket for Christmas, especially with brand name merchandise?

More Wreaths!

I found this link on creating ribbon wreaths, and I wanted to share the outcome with you! It is a fairly simple project, just a little time consuming. You can do it bit by bit when you have time!

Supplies:

ribbon of your choosing (I tried it with wire the first time, and it flattened fairly quickly. I really like how this archival ribbon turned out).

scissors

sequin pins

styrofoam wreath (choose whatever size you would like. I used an 8 inch wreath for the wreath in the picture, but it looks great on a 10 inch wreath as well).

Directions:

1. Cut the ribbon into three inch sections. At first I measured them, but when I got used to the size, I just eyeballed it and it worked out well.

2. You can work on one color at a time, or you can do all of them at once. I liked working on them one at a time so that I could get an even coverage.

3. To attach the ribbon, form a circle around your finger, and then stick the pin through the overcrossed pieces of ribbon. Stick into the wreath.

4. Repeat until filled to your liking.

See? Super easy! This wreath took me about three hours, but that included pulling apart the wreath I had made with the wired ribbon, and cutting out all of the ribbon and fastening it to the wreath. This is a project that you could easily set aside and work on when you have a spare moment.

Gift Baskets

Part of my job is to create gift baskets. It is one of the best parts of my job because I get to be creative! Since I work for a hair care brand, it is pretty easy for me to put something together that looks great and that many types of people are able to use. Here are just a few examples of what I have made. The person I jobshare with and I are going to be making gift baskets to sell for the holiday season, and I am very excited about that. We have come up with some great ideas! I really want to start my own business and sell gift baskets, floral arrangments and jewelry, but I don't know where I would find the time! Full-time school and part-time work really beats it out of me some weeks, but maybe someday I will do this!

Christmas Presents 2010: Wreath

I love to create wreaths. It is one of my favorite things to do for Christmas. After a bracelet design failed for my Grandma, I decided that I would create her a wreath instead. I was inspired by the pinecones that had fallen in the park behind out house, and went on a hunt this morning for them. After a quick soak in a sink full of hot water and a cup of vinegar, the cones went onto a pizza pan covered in tinfoil and into a 200 degree oven anywhere from 1-6 hours until they opened up.

I was originally going to use think link from Martha Stewart to create my wreath, but I found a tip to use hot glue on a grapevine wreath instead of wiring each pinecone on individually. Since my mother-in-law had given me a hot glue gun a few months ago, I thought that sounded like a much better idea than wiring the pinecones on individually, so I broke out the hot glue gun and went at it. I added berries and a bow at the end, along with some Krylon Workable Fixatif.

I love it, and my husband said we should keep it for ourselves! I can't wait to give it to my Grandma, though. She will love it.

Christmas Presents 2010: Magnets

I've been scouring the web looking for ideas for homemade gifts for Christmas this year, and I found a list that included making magnets out of clear stones, pictures and magnets. I tried to pick out images that would suit the people I made them for, and I think they turned out great! What do you think?

Cupcakes!

I made these a couple years ago when the book Hello, Cupcake! came out. I saw these tv dinner trays when the author was on Martha Stewart and I just had to create them for myself! Don't they look neat?

Chain and Color

I forgot how much I liked this necklace! This style is in right now, with the large focal beads off to the sides instead of centered at the bottom. I definitely need to find something to wear this with pronto! It was super simple to make, with pliers, chain, and some colored beads that I found for less than $1. I recently found a necklace like this at Anthropologie for $28 and it cost me less than $5 to make! If you are interested in creating your own jewelry, I suggest heading to your local library and doing a search on jewelry making books.

A Favorite Necklace

I created this necklace after a friend posted a picture of it on facebook, letting everyone know that she loved it. I enjoy the challenge of recreating a piece of jewelry for less than it is sold for, so I jumped right on this one. I don't usually sell my jewelry because I just enjoy making it as gifts, but my friends keep telling me that I should sell it. Hmm, perhaps I could actually do something with the etsy site I have.

The adventure begins

I really enjoy keeping busy, and usually do so with some kind of craft project. I love to sew, and create jewelry, and bake~ just about anything that allows me to use the creativity that is bottled up inside me and I don't necessarily get to use during my day job. This blog will be a place where I can feature some of the things I've made, and some of the things I will make, and perhaps even directions on how to create some things of your own. Enjoy!