It seems the majority of commenters shared the same distaste for Black Friday that I have. Not much, meaning not even a good deal, will lure me out of bed at 3 in the morning, especially a crowd of rude people, long lines, and lack of parking. Congrats to those who are brave (and insane?) enough to venture out of the house on Black Friday.
Congrats to Sondra, number 49, for getting a free Black Friday deal, all without leaving your house. I think that might be better than Cyber Monday.
Are you ready for another Christmas craft project? You are? Good, I’ve got just the craft for you, a Christmas ball ornament wreath. To start, you’ll need to acquire a roll of floral wire, a wire wreath form, tons of cheap plastic ball ornaments and a sheet or two of felt to match your color palette. It also helps to have a glue gun and plenty of glue sticks handy.
I got a large form from Hobby Lobby for $3.47 and nine packages of ornaments from Target’s dollar section. I chose all silver to keep it timeless and go with any color palette in the years to follow. Seriously, the best deal I’ve found. Get an assortment of sizes, too. I used 2 1/2 packages of the small (16 per pack), 5 of the medium (8 per pack) and 1 large with 4 per pack.
After you gather your supplies, start by cutting a piece of wire about two feet in length. For this part of the process, use only the two large sizes. String the wire through the top of the ornament. Wrap the wire around the wire form and twist the loose end to secure. Then, wrap the long end through another section of the wreath form, go back up and add another ball. Basically, you’ll make a zig zag pattern with the wire to connect the ornaments on a few long wires.
The zig zag will help keep the ornaments in place. They will still move around a little. This is where the glue gun comes in. Place a few little dots of hot glue where the ornaments meet and allow to dry. This step is most easily done in small sections. I don’t recommend waiting until you’ve attached all ornaments to glue.
Continue attaching the ornaments until you’ve covered the wreath form. You will have spots where the wreath form is still visible, just as I did with the pine cone wreath I recently made. If you have visible areas on the very inside or outside of the wreath, wire small ornaments in place, gluing to keep from moving.
Then, hot glue the smallest ornaments onto the larger ornaments to fill any areas you can see through those ornaments.
Again, continue until you’ve covered all areas. If you want to add a splash of color, you can add a bright bow, hang an ornament in the center of the wreath or choose a brightly colored ribbon to hang the wreath from. The possibilities are endless.
To prevent from scratching the surface the wreath will rest against, hot glue small pieces of felt to the back or the wreath form.
Hang on your door to add a ton of Christmas cheer and greet your guests.
Still looking for Christmas decorating ideas? Fret not, we’ll share another DIY idea tomorrow, but you can check out our Christmas tree in the mean time.
Happy holidays! We’ve made gift giving simple over at Our Humble A{Bowe}d by adding a print and stationery set to our shop. Now, you can purchase your favorite print and coordinating set of stationery for a friend, family member or yourself.
Choose your favorite print from our shop selection and we’ll customize it, which is always free of charge, and we’ll alter the print to a stationery card size.
If a custom art piece doesn’t fit your need, (I don’t know how it couldn’t) here are a few items I think would make great gifts. Recently, I discovered Uncommon Goods. It’s a great online shop with unique gift ideas such as a Grandfather Clock Slice. I love the modern take on such a classic.
Or this cute Eye Clock for a child’s room. So adorable!
I really love this Chalkboard Vase, too, though I think a DIY version could be equally great.
Uncommon Goods also has a series of beautiful hand embroidered state pillows.
Seeing anything that tickled your fancy? What is the best or worst gift you’ve received and why? I love giving and receiving hand made or personalized items rather than big box store things. It’s much more meaningful and shows you’ve put some thought into the gift.
That’s right, folks. I know it’s not December yet, but Christmas is right around the corner. Have you started decorating? I think most people decorate the weekend after Thanksgiving, and usually I do, too. But, this year, we’re running around like crazy people the week before, so I decided to decorate a few weeks ago. Yep, you read that right, weeks. What was the first Christmas thing to go up? The tree, of course!
This year’s color palette is silver, white, blue and green. Not very original, I know, but I bought ornaments at Target (love Target!) the day after Christmas last year. So, I’m working with what I’ve got. Every year, it’s Ben’s task to add the lights to the tree. We both prefer the plain white strands for a classic look. So, he lights the tree and I add the ornaments. This year, I had a little help from Vincent. Of course, most decorations are at the bottom two feet, but hey, it’s free help.
A white dove is perched atop our tree this year.
I have my eye on a beautiful Capiz star topper from, where else, Target. It’s currently priced at $20. Not bad, but it will be much better when it’s 50% off, dontcha think? Yeah, me too. What else is on my Christmas tree wish list? A cute tree skirt of some sort.
You see, we don’t have anything covering that ugly tree stand right now. I want something white or silver, but I haven’t seen anything I really like yet. I think I’ll buy some fabric and make a tree skirt at some point.
So, that’s what our Christmas tree looks like this year. What about your tree? Have you set it up yet? Do you have a color scheme or theme you’re sticking to or do you prefer to decorate with all of those mismatched, collected-over-time ornaments?
Raise your hand if you’ve fallen in love with the Moooi Random Pendant light?
I have. What I haven’t fallen for if the price tag. $510 for the small, $1807 for the large. Ouch! So, I did a little research and found a few success stories to recreate this thing of beauty. Jen at Made by Girl did a fantastic job on hers and offered a tutorial, too. Most DIY versions, like Jen’s, involve string, yarn or another fiber soaked in glue, wrapped over a ball. That sounded a little messy to me. I thought, “Hey, why couldn’t I use wire?” So, I picked up silver 26 gauge wire, marked a circle on my ball and started wrapping, holding the wire in place. After about 10 times around, I let go and everything unraveled. I guess there is a reason I couldn’t use wire.
So, does anyone know of a wire that would hold its shape to create something like this? Do I need a heavier gauge? Any tips would be greatly appreciated for plan b.
Wanna see a successful DIY pendant? Check out my coffee filter cloud pendant.
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