Fall Wreaths!

I want to share some fall wreaths I made recently. Because well, it's fall y'all! Sorry. I couldn't resist. I'm in a local moms club and I recently organized a craft night! We had a lot of fun. But I wanted to make sure I had an idea of what the cost would be, how much time it would take to make it, and how it would be put together. So I headed out to Hob Blob (Hobby Lobby) - my favorite store ever. I was picturing something simple, but cute so we could put it together easily, while socializing, in a reasonable amount of time. At first I thought a yarn wreath with rosettes would do the trick. But after thinking about it some more and wondering how much yarn we would use and how long it would take I wasn't so sure. Then I stumbled upon this wreath here on pinterest. It is simply wrapped in fabric; quick, easy, and cute! I loved the idea. I really liked the fabric she used, but was looking for something more "fallish" as opposed to Halloween.

Here's a shot of all the goodies I picked up at Hobby Lobby. Sorry the fabrics are hard to see because they are sitting in the bottom. I selected a good assortment of fall looking fabrics and bought a yard of each for making the rosettes. And I found two fabrics that would be good for wrapping the whole wreath. So I bought 3 yards of each of those.

Before I started on the wreath I painted my "FALL" letters with craft glue and added orange glitter. Looking back, I wish I had done brown because I think it is too much orange for the wreath and they don't quite stand out. But that's one reason I was making a trial wreath! That way people could see what they liked and didn't like and do their own version. 

For my sample wreath I chose the brown and orange fabric for wrapping the whole wreath. I kept the plastic on the straw wreath to keep things neat. I had my scissors and tacky glue handy for the next step.

First, I laid out my fabric and started cutting about 2" strips from the longest side. My large sized wreath took about 2 1/2 strips to cover.

Here it is all covered up. I just wrapped it as tightly and neatly as possible. When I was at the end of a strip, I used my tacky glue to glue it in place. You could probably start wrapping a new strip without gluing, but that's the technique I used.

Next, I made the rosettes. You can see a tutorial on how to make them here. After that I hot-glued them onto the wreath along with some fall decor items such as the pumpkin, orange sprigs, pine cone, and acorn. Then I hot-glued my "FALL" letters. Lots of glittery goodness! Last, I cut a 4" piece of the brown fabric, folded it in half, and tied it in a knot to hang the wreath.

I decided to add one last finishing touch...the pearl stickers in the center of the rosettes. I painted these with craft glue as well and added orange glitter. I used them in another rosette project here so they were a good buy! Not sure it makes that big of a difference on the wreath, but I like a little extra sparkle!

Do you see the difference?

Oh and here's one from our Mom's Craft night! I love how they are all different. Oh and I decided to make another one as well:-) You can never have too many fall wreaths, right? This time I made a smaller one and went with the brown fabric. It's a little more simple. I like them both though. I like different things about each one. Here's a close-up of my other wreath:

What do you think? Which one do you like better? Are you making a fall wreath this year?

My Stenciling Project

When I finished this project I wanted to shout it from the roof tops! It. was. hard. I want to be upfront with you, but like most things that are hard...it was worth it!! I'm so excited and pleased with the outcome. I've been wanting to try stenciling and I absolutely love it! But I think it will be a while before my next project ha ha. Without further ado...

What do you think? This is in my daughter's new room so I wanted something girly and sweet, but nothing too bold because I wanted it to flow well with the rest of the decor. For instance, I thought about doing a damask stencil but was afraid it would clash with window treatments, bedding, etc. So I like how this one is simple, but elegant.

Here's a shot of the whole wall...yes, I used a stencil for each one of those suckers! I suppose you could make a stencil with several designs on one to save some time, however, it may be harder to line up and adjust. And you'd have to find larger stencil film. I chose to do an accent wall...I think doing the whole room would have killed me. But there are crazy people out there who do...like these folks here who I got the idea from! Just kidding...they're not crazy, props to this woman's husband for his very hard work!

Please ignore the weird blank stare on my face here, lol. I'm telling you...hard work. I guess I was in a daze for a second? Any who...this is a good shot of the actual stencil. I didn't bother putting together a tutorial for making the stencil because there are some excellent how-to videos by Pottery Barn on You Tube.

The blog I got the idea from had a printable, which I printed but it was on an 8.5x11 so it was not as big as theirs. So if you are good at resizing and have larger print sizes to work with you won't have any trouble. But since my feeble attempt at resizing didn't work I decided to draw a bigger version.

Stencil Lowdown:

I sketched the design on a larger piece of drawing paper. Then I took my Martha Stewart stencil film (purchased from Michael's at $9.99 for a 3 pack) and followed the directions, basically just peeling off a clear cover. Then I taped it to my board cutter (technical term?) with painters tape. Next, I taped my drawing on top and cut through my design (very carefully) with an X-Acto knife. Again, sorry there are no photos of this process, seriously, you tube videos!! As you can see in the above picture I was about 1/3 of the way through my stenciling. Just a heads up...this wall took 3 stencils!!! Yes, I had to make 3 of them. The reason being that after using one for a little while the paint would build up, coating it so bad it started looking messy (no clean, crisp lines like before). At first it seemed like I could just touch it up, but it kept getting worse. So I made a new stencil to solve the problem. I'm not sure if part of the problem was the type of stencil I used (perhaps it is intended for craft use)? I'm guessing the stencils you can order online (if you don't want to make your own design) would last a lot longer.

Ok, back to the wall. Since I'm not math whiz measuring and figuring out spacing was challenging. However, I feel like I got really lucky and the spacing worked out perfectly. I did measure and eyeball, but it seems like how I envisioned them spaced (having them be whole and even across the wall as opposed to getting cut off on the sides of the wall) just worked out in my favor (thank you Lord!). I thought the top of the wall was the hardest until I got to the bottom of the wall, lol. They were both challenging for different reasons. The top of the wall was vital as it paved the way for the rest of the wall. I started by measuring my design and loosely measuring along the wall to see if I would have room for however many whole scallops (that's my name for my design). Then I stenciled two on the ends and one in the middle and went from there.

As you can see here I measured the length of each design and then added a couple inches for spacing in between. I didn't make pencil marks or anything...just lots of eye balling and adjusting of the stencil. Time consuming! Measure twice, paint once. Well, you can touch up too!;-) Also, notice in this picture how the stencil film is lined up. Part of the very top is on the ceiling. I wanted to get the paint/start of my stencil as close to the top of the wall as possible.

The bottom was difficult because I was only using half of the stencil and the base boards were a bit of an obstacle as were the outlets. I really like how it disappears into the bottom of the wall though:-) I wondered if I should have done that with the top? Owell, I'm happy so let's not go there! The trick to the bottom is lots of painters tape...over the outlets and on the trim/base boards. I lined up my stencil just like before and painted as much of it as I could with the small roller brush. After that I used a circle foam paint tool (Martha Stewart as well) to fill in the rest with a dabbing/blotting motion (kind of like sponge paint?). However, I would suggest getting a short stubby flat paint brush/stencil brush like the You Tube videos suggest. I honestly forgot about that part and just used what I had. Luckily, it worked nicely! Oh and last, but not least was touch up time! I just went back with my wall color and touched up any bleeds/splotches with a small artist paint brush.

As far as timing for this project...I worked on the wall two different days. The first day it took me a few hours and I got about 1/3 of the way through. Then I worked on it another day and it took me about 6 hours. Hopefully that will help in planning/scheduling your project!

Ok, so there you have it! Like I said, lots of work, but lots of enjoyment as well. And hopefully my post will provide some helpful tips or at least help you know what you're getting into!;-)