DIY Christmas Wreath

Behold, we bring you tidings of great and simple crafting!

A DIY Christmas wreath, complete with a jingle bell bird nest!

YOU WILL NEED:

1 Styrofoam Wreath Ring

(size of  your preference)

1 skein of yarn

(color/type of your preference)

 Jingle Bells

(size/colors of your preference)

1 Fake Bird

(Or two, if it's a love nest!

You can get a product like this at any craft store like Michaels or Hobby Lobby)

1 Christmas Floral Stem

(design of your preference)

Spool of 1 1/2" ribbon

(color/design of your preference)

Ball-Headed Straight Pins

Small Hot Glue Gun

1. Begin with a styrofoam wreath ring.

We used a 12", but you can use whatever size suits you best.

2. Loop the yarn around the ring once and knot it tightly.

3. Wrap the yarn repeatedly around the wreath ring. Make sure it's nice and tight.

This takes some time, so be patient. Some crafters use hot glue to make sure the yarn stays in place, but if you wrap it tight enough, glue is not necessary.

4. When you are finished wrapping the wreath, tie another tight knot at the end of strand of yarn.

It's okay if the knot is slightly visible. You can always place the jingle bell nest where the knot shows to cover it up.

5. Wrap the ribbon evenly around the wreath.

Don't hot glue (at least not yet)! Pin it in place on the back of the wreath to make sure you have it just where you want it before glueing. Once it's in place, put a dot or two of hot glue under the ribbon at each pin.

6. Hot glue bottom stem of the Christmas stem on the front of the wreath (positioned around "four o'clock").

7. Hot glue jingle bells into a cluster, covering the glued bottom stem of the Christmas stem.

Put on as many or as little as you like! We used about 25.

8. Hot glue the bird in the position you would like it to sit.

We also glued some trimming from the Christmas stem onto the belly of the bird to make him look more nestled.

We hung our wreath up by another piece of yarn, but you can also get a wreath hanger at your local craft store. If you have any questions about this craft, feel free to comment!

Enjoy!

DIY Barn Door Jewelry Board

A few weeks ago, a big ol' tree branch fell on a neighbor's wooden shed. They've since been fixing it, and as they were, we spotted one of the old wooden doors in the trash and just had to have it! "Why?" you might ask. Well... to make a jewelry board, of course!

My prize :)

We first sawed it, about 2'x3'. We wanted to make sure to keep the handle on it so it still looked like part of a door. Then we went to the local hardware store and got screw hooks that fit our size preference.

Making marks where the hook will go.

Screwing holes into the board for the hooks.

The finished product. We bolted a wire to the back and hung it by two nails.

The door was free, and the hooks were only $2.50 for a pack. Plus only about an hour of our time. Ain't so bad a deal! Now what to do with those extra door pieces... a bracelet board, maybe? Hmm...