Ornament Wreath

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!  We sure did.  Our tofurkey and sides were great.  :)


I have been wanting to make an ornament wreath, so with my time off for Turkey Day, I did.

Supplies:
--wreath form
--shatterproof ornaments
--glue gun and glue
--ribbon (optional) (for hanger and/or to make the bow)

This wreath was much cheaper than some of the other ones, like my balloon wreath and ribbon wreath.  I ended up using this package of ornaments, plus some ornaments I already had.  For my hanger and bow, I used scraps of ribbon I already had.

Step 1: Gather your supplies and figure out your arrangement.

Step 2:  If you are adding a bow or hanger, add them, so that you know where to place your ornaments.  I made the bow by cutting strips of 2 types of ribbon, gluing the edges to the middle, and then wrapping the center with ribbon.  It's super easy.  I added the bell for a small embellishment.

Step 3:  Glue on your ornaments.

Step 4:  Hang it up, step back, and find any large holes or places that need more ornaments.  Add those ornaments.

Step 5:  You are done.  Hang up you new holiday wreath.  Enjoy!

Interested in another type of holiday wreath?  Here are my holiday wreaths from last year:

Candy Wreath

String Wreath

Holiday Sugar Scrubs: Testing Various Supplies

Sugar scrubs are super popular holiday DIY gifts right now.  I have seen a lot of great recipes on Pinterest.  Instead of trying to come up with a new recipe, I decided to test out some different supplies.

I made 2 variations of the basic sugar scrub:

• red dyed light brown sugar with olive oil
• green dyed white sugar with vegetable oil

I used the following ingredients in both scrubs

• 3 C sugar
• 1 C + 2tbsp oil 
• 15-25 drops essential oils
• food coloring
• storage jars 

Note: You can spend a lot for storage jars or very little.  I got mine half off at Hobby Lobby.  You need something with a tight lid, preferably sealed.  Each sugar scrub filled 4 of these little jars.

Brown Sugar Scrub

For my brown sugar scrub, I mixed together all of the ingredients listed above, using brown sugar and olive oil.  I used peppermint essential oil and mixed in red food coloring.

I stirred and stirred, but the olive oil and sugar do separate.  They go back together pretty quickly.  I used the entire bottle of red food coloring.  As you can see, the color is a dark red.  I used nearly 25 drops of peppermint oil.  The olive oil has a stronger smell and kind of covers the essential oil a little bit.  The brown sugar scrub with the food coloring did not appear to stain my skin.

White Sugar Scrub

Next, I made a white sugar scrub.  For the white sugar scrub, I mixed together all of the ingredients listed above, using white sugar and vegetable oil.  I used cucumber melon essential oil and mixed in green food coloring.

There were some noticeable differences from the brown sugar scrub when I made this one.  For one thing, the color was very bright, which I would think is a result of starting with a lighter base.  I really like how the color turned out.  Another difference is that the vegetable oil had a much lighter smell and I needed less essential oil.  Additionally, the scrub mix didn't separate.  It stayed pretty consistently together.  I'm not sure if the stability is about the sugar, oil, or both, but it was much better.  Finally, I did notice that my finger tips were very slightly green after using the scrub, but it did wash off pretty quickly.



So, there you have it.  Two types of DIY Sugar scrubs.  Both were inexpensive and easy to make.  The two scrubs are very different, but they both seemed effective, and I like how they turned out.

Christmas Cross Stitch Ornaments

I'm behind on my crafting again because I have been super busy at work.  I recently had some court appearances that required additional preparation and I am preparing for another trial.  So, I am writing about a project I completed some time ago.

I found these cross stitch ornaments on Amazon.  They are Dimension's Christmas Pals, and they can be found here.  I thought they were super cute, so I had to make them.

The kits contained the pattern, cross stitch cloth, thread, and needle.  The pattern was easy to follow.  However, each of these ornaments had a lot of detail work, so they took quite some time to complete.

Instead of using the cardboard that came with the kit, I used a thicker adhesive board.  For the hangers, I used some leftover silver cording I had from another project. I glued them to the back of the adhesive board using my glue gun.

Christmas may still be a few months away, but Christmas crafts are fun any time of the year and some crafts need to be started early to be finished in time for Christmas.  Have fun crafting.  :) 

On a side note, our family recently grew by 2 guinea pigs.

Joy Sheet Music Christmas Tree Ornament

Some people do Christmas in July projects.  Well, here's my Christmas in August ornament.  Really I have just been busy and am behind on finishing some projects, so I am blogging about an ornament I made for my tree last Christmas.

This ornament was super easy to make, and it looked really cute on my tree.

Supplies:
--sheet music (I found Ode to Joy online for free)
--clear glass ornament ball (I got mine on sale at Hobby Lobby)
--acrylic paint and brush
--string/twine/ribbon
--scissors

Directions:
Step 1: Cut sheet music into long sheets that are narrow enough to fit into the ball.

Step 2: Curl the sheets some and then put them into the ball slowly so that they curve around.

Step 3: Paint "Joy" (or whatever you want it to say) on the ball.  Let the paint dry.

Step 4: Cut ribbon/twine/string in the size size you want for hanging the ornament on the tree.  Attach it to the ornament.

Back to Blogging & Christmas Wreaths

I haven't blogged in about a year now, so I thought it might be time to try again.  I tried it out last time when I was in law school, but who was I kidding thinking that I would have time to blog.  Law school is just too busy to keep up regular blogging.  Now, I'm done with law school, I passed the bar, and I have moved into the full-time job phase of life.  So, now that I work at a job that is generally 8-5, I might actually be able to do this blogging thing.

I was thinking I would try to blog about my adventures as a lawyer, homeowner, crafter, cook, wife, and student of life (rather than student of law, hence the name).

I won't be naive this time and say that I will blog daily or several times a week.  No, this time, I will say that my goal will be to blog...1 time a week.  I think that goal is pretty reasonable.

For this blog post, I will attempt to learn the features of this Blogger thing (which I never learned during my last attempt at blogging) as I share a couple wreaths I made this Christmas.

(Oh look! I can add pictures.)  Here is a picture of my adventurous, super smart cat, Darwin.  He is posing with one of my recent craft attempts from November or December--a Christmas candy wreath.  I got this idea from Pinterest. (Of course!)  My husband wanted me to make this candy wreath for his outdoor office. 

To make this wreath, I used the following supplies:
1 foam wreath form
red acrylic paint
2 bags of mints
ribbon
glue gun & glue sticks
UV paint protector/sealant spray

The steps for this wreath are really easy:
1. paint wreath form red with acrylic pain. Let dry.
2. Unwrap candies and glue to wreath form.
3. Spray with sealant.
4. Make a bow out of the ribbon and glue to candy wreath.

Warning--Here's the hard part depending on where you live:  Put in location that doesn't get very warm or very much sun.  My husband put it up on his outdoor office door.  It looked great for several hours...until the sun had its time with it.  By noon, the wreath was melting.  If you live somewhere cooler than Florida, this wreath might hold up much better.

Even though it melted, it was fun to make, and it was a learning experience.  It was one of the first times I had used a glue gun in a long time.  I was very good with that glue gun by the time this craft was done.

I made another wreath about this same time, and it did not melt.  There's no Darwin in this picture, but I think it still looks pretty good.  This wreath is a string wreath.  The idea also came from Pinterest.

Supplies:
1 wreath form
red & white string
green felt
3 large red pom poms
glue gun & glue sticks

Directions:
1. Figure out how big around your wreath is and decide how big you want your string bands to be. As you can see, I didn't spend much time on that step, so I have a spot where the bands are smaller.
2. Wrap with string.  Start with one color and wrap around until you are done with that color (maybe 2 inches), and then do the same thing with the next color.  Continue until the entire wreath is covered with string.
3. Cut out holly shape from your felt. Glue holly to your wreath. Glue red pompoms onto holly to be the berries.
4. Hang on front door and smile.  Your craft has been completed, and it looks pretty good.  :)


I think my next post will be about my recent foray into cooking tofu or about my awesome menu board.  I'm not sure yet, and it could be about something entirely different.