How to make Your Own Cotton Boll Branch Wreath

I'm in love with the cotton boll branches that you see often in home decor right now. Not to mention how pretty fields of cotton are.   I decided to make a wreath using cotton for the Fall show I'm doing this Saturday.    

 

 

Horse Collar and Horseshoe Sunflower Wreath

Last Christmas I made a wreath out of an old, worn, leather horse collar . I added a couple old horseshoes to it, some greenery and a burlap bow. It really turned out nicely. Feel free to take a peek at it here.   Recently, I found another horse collar at a flea market for a reasonable price, so I brought it home.   I had a couple more old horse shoes and decided to make another wreath. This one is perfect for Summer and will even work into the Fall.  

 

Dirty White Cabinet gets a Fresh New Farmhouse Look

I mentioned earlier this week that I worked on a little white cabinet to put in my booth and here it is.  

 

 

Super Easy Patriotic Burlap Banner

During a trip to Hobby Lobby this week, I spotted this ready made burlap pennant banner. It was 1/2 off, so I purchased it.   You can easily make any kind of banner you would like. I decided to make a patriotic banner to add to my window booth space.  

 

 

Patriotic Burlap Wreaths

What better way to show honor to the soldiers and families that sacrifice so much for our freedom, than to display symbols of the freedom we have because of them.   As we take time this Memorial Day to remember and thank our heroes, past and present, I thought I would share a patriotic burlap wreath that I made.    

 

 

Free Chair Turned into a Planter

Free is good right?   That's what I thought when I spotted an old chair outside of a thrift store with a sign that said FREE.   I kind of felt guilty taking it because I didn't purchase anything there that day, but I had great plans for that chair and couldn't help myself.  

 

Handmade Burlap Wreaths and My First Spring Festival

Well, tomorrow is the big day!   I'll be hosting a booth at a Spring festival, at a local antique mall.   I've been busy preparing for it this week and wanted to share a few of the wreaths that I made for the festival.    

Burlap wreath with white sunflowers and a burlap bow

 

Barb Wire and Horseshoe Wreath

I am very blessed to be great friends with my mom. She lives about three hours from me in western North Carolina.   I was able to spend two days with her last week and like always, I came home with goodies.   Two barb wire wreaths were some of the goodies from this trip.    

    Some time ago, my brother had been visiting with her and was helping my dad with some of the fencing.   There was some old rusty barb wire they tore down and didn't need, so rather than disposing of it, he rolled it into wreaths for her.    

Spring Daffodil Watering Can Centerpiece

Here in South Carolina we have been super blessed with warmer temps these last few days.   It definitely makes it feel like Spring, especially when daffodils are blooming everywhere.   I brought a little spring indoors today by creating a centerpiece using daffodils, a rustic wood tray and a few thrifted watering cans.    

 

 

I found this set of three cute watering cans last fall

and purchased them to use this spring.

 

Springtime Floral Wreath in Galvanized Container

I've finished up a couple more of those projects that I had started last week. I seem to have been on a red and black kick.   I'll be sharing those projects soon, but not today.   Today I wanted to share a little more Spring inspiration!  

I'm a sucker for anything galvanized,

so when I found these containers for 80% off last summer I grabbed four of them.

Burlap Easter Spring Wreath with Nest and Eggs

I was so inspired last week by the burlap wreaths that Sharon from Elizabeth & Co. created that I had to make one!   Sharon has been nicknamed "The Queen of Wreaths" and if you check out her blog you will see why.     I just happened to see her Spring wreath post a few hours before I was heading to Michaels. Talk about perfect timing!    

 

 

How I Upcycled a Sweater into a Valentines Day Wreath

Have you seen all of the things you can makes with old sweaters?   I've hesitated to try my hand at any of them because I wasn't sure about sewing something bulky on my sewing machine.   Well, today I tried, and I'm super happy with the results.  

 

I had a white sweater that I was going to wear on Sunday

and when I put it on, I noticed there was a gaping hole right under the turtleneck.

I don't know how it got there and I hope it wasn't there the last time I wore it.

Old Leather Horse Harness Christmas Wreath

Last year I picked up this old leather horse harness at an estate auction  from a farmhouse here in South Carolina.  

(this is the back, I did not take a before pic)   I actually bid on it because it had a roll of old chicken wire with it. The wire was perfectly aged and rusty in spots and would work perfectly for so many projects I have on my list.   The harness got put in the attic of my workshop for a while, I even think it made it into the Goodwill donation box at least once before I decided to hang onto it.   Boy am I glad I kept it.  

Burlap and a Dollar Tree Ornament

During a recent trip to the Dollar Tree to pick up a gift bag,  a package of 6 glittery snowflake ornaments made their way into my cart.  

  Believe it or not, this creation was not what I had in mind when I purchased the snowflakes.   I'll get around to creating my original idea and post about it later...  

Old Tin Measuring Cups Turned Christmas Decor

Are there certain items that you always tend to purchase when you find them at a really good price? Even if you don't need them or know what you are going to do with them?   Aluminum measuring cups are one of those things that I always grab when I see them. I don't even know why, except that I like them.  

 

Rustic Pine Cone and Burlap Wreath

Here's another quick and easy, simple and neutral wreath.  

 

 

The inspiration for this wreath came from Pinterest.

 

Rustic Burlap and White Pumpkin Fall Wreath

Oh how I love fall. The scents, the cooler temps, the colors, the coziness of it all.

I wasn't going to start decorating for Fall until the first weekend in October, but with the temps dropping a little and all of the wonderful inspiration around, I just couldn't help myself. I had to make something for Fall. I dug around in my craft stash and found a few things that got me started on this wreath.

 

This is an image I pinned last year and it is also where I drew my inspiration from for this wreath.

 

Source

 

I love the neutral, rusticness of it. (is that a word?)

 

In my craft stash I found everything I needed to make this wreath. I had 6 faux orange pumpkins, scrap burlap, twine, stencils, paint and a grapevine wreath.  

 

 

First, the orange pumpkins were getting a creamy white makeover to start this project.

I removed the brown stems from the pumpkins so that they wouldn't get painted white. I put them back in after the pumpkins were dry. I stuck the pumpkin floral pick stems in styrofoam so that I could spray them from all angles. This took a couple of coats of paint. In between these coats I started making the GIVE burlap pennant banner.

 

I cut a length of twine and also cut four 2" wide by 2 1/2" long triangles out of a manilla file folder to use for the letter pennants. I cut squares of burlap large enough to fold over the twine and cover both sides of the manilla triangles. With spray adhesive glue I attached the burlap to the triangle and them trimmed around it. I did this for each of the four letters.

Once the pennant banner was ready and the pumpkins were dry, I painted the letters on using stick on reusable stencils and black acrylic paint.

Notice the brown pumpkin stems are back on the pumpkins now :)

 

I was stumped at this point because the grapevine wreath I had wasn't large enough to accomodate all of my pumpkins without making the word THANKS look funny.

 

Then I remembered a different grapevine wreath, kindof a basket type, that I had picked up at a yard sale for a buck earlier this summer. It was larger and because it had an open basket type bottom, it worked great!

 

I tied the twine ends from the pennant around the top part of the wreath and started arranging the pumpkins on the bottom part. I used the stems to weave through the grapevine to hold them in place. The wreath looked a little bare at this point, so I added fall leaves and didn't like them and started looking for something else. That's when I found some preserved green moss. I placed it around the pumpkins and I think it was the finishing touch that the wreath needed. It kept it neutral, but added a little pop.

 

 

 

I'm thinking I'm liking the white pumpkins this year.

What about you, do you prefer orange or white?

 

Happy Fall decorating.

 

 

'til next time,

Adina


Linking to:
Vintage Inspiration Party
The Pin Junkie
Craftberrybush
Farmhouseporch
A Night Owl Blog
Shabbynest
Tatertots and Jello
Six Sisters Stuff
Funky Junk Interiors
Its Overflowing
Uncommon Designs
Home Stories AtoZ
Cherished Bliss
Your Homebased Mom
Flamingo Toes

Upcycled Ornate Frame into a Unique Clock

These vintage metal frames, Made in Italy, turn up every so often at thrift stores and I always seem to scoop them up. Sometimes they have glass or a mirror and sometimes they don't. This guy didn't have anything in the frame other than the original backing. I debated what to do with it. They are popular enough just left empty, but while I was taking the backing out of the frame, it hit me to cover it in burlap. My first thought was to paint a word or silhouette on the burlap and then, I thought, what about a clock?

 

 Why not a clock, so here goes my creative process on this one.

 

The first thing I did was trace the backing of the frame onto burlap, cut the burlap oval out and glue it onto the backing with craft spray adhesive.

 

 

Then I moved onto the frame. I sanded and cleaned it so I could paint it.

 

 

Well, as you can see,  first I painted it white. The white didn't contrast enough with the burlap, so then I painted it black and forgot to take a pic.

 

 

Then I made a quick trip to Hobby Lobby to buy the numbers and the clock mechanism.

My wonderful husband drilled a hole in the middle of the burlap covered backing for me while I spray painted the clock numbers, hands and bolts black. (They were gold).

 

 

 

 

Once everything was dry, it was time to glue the numbers into their places and assemble the clock mechanism and hands according to the directions on the package.

 

 

 

 

I placed the required AA battery into the clock and it works!!!

Well, there you have it, my upcycled clock!

 

 

I have 3 additional frames like this in different sizes, any ideas on what to do with them?

Let me know what you think.

 

'til next time,

Adina

 

 

 

Linking to:

Craftberry Bush Happy Hour Party

Scrap Wood Patriotic Star Wreath

While we were building our log cabin, I saved ten small scrap pieces of wood from the burn pile and two years later I have turned them into stars!

I made two identical star wreaths. Each star used five pieces of the wood scraps. I arranged them into a star and glued the pieces together.

Then I brushed a vinegar solution onto them to age the wood. (let rusty metal sit in  vinegar overnight to make this solution)

Once the stars dried for a little while in the sun today I attached red and blue pip berries, along with a burlap bow and an american flag with floral wire.

That's it. All done. I hung one on the front door of our cabin and the other one is for sale in my Etsy shop.

Every time we burned scrap wood while building I cringed. I had plans for all of it, however, my husband kept reminding me that as long as we were building there would be more scraps.

Don't you just love making a project from trash!

'til next time,

Adina

                                                                        Linking to

Farmhouse Friday Patriotic Decor

Burlap & Wood Love Frame Collage

I've been imagining this one for a while now and am happy to be able to finally show it off! The inspiration came from all of the different collage frames and frame gallery walls that seem to be everywhere lately. 

After a trip to Goodwill and $4 later I was well on my way to starting my frame collage.

I had black primer and black spray paint on hand already, so I gave the mismatched frames a couple coats of each.

Much to my dismay, when I asked my husband for help gluing the frames together, he told me I should've glued them before painting them. Apparently wood glue doesn't adhere to paint very well. I had to sand the paint off of the edges of the frames before I glued them together. Once I finished sanding the edges, I just needed to come up with a design and glue them together. He was kind enough to let me borrow his wood glue and his clamps.

Two days later I removed the clamps and used a small brad nail gun to shoot small nails through the portions of the frames that were glued, just as an extra step to make sure that the collage was good and sturdy. I had to spray paint them again to cover the edges that I had sanded.

In the meantime, while the frames were drying, I cut pieces of scrap burlap to fit the cardboard backs of four of the frames and glued the burlap onto the cardboard with spray adhesive.

Now I have a secure frame collage and burlap pieces for the four frames that I want to spell LOVE and two empty frames for pictures.

I decided to find a font online and print the letters LOVE on a manilla file to create my own stencils.

I cut the letters out of the manilla files with an exacto knife and painted the letters on the burlap cardboard pieces with black acrylic paint and a sponge brush. Now all I had to do was wait for the black paint to dry on the burlap, attach a sawtooth hanger on the collage, clean the glass pieces, print two pictures and put the frames back together.

The entire collage measures 27" across and 20" tall. There are four 5x7 frames and one 4x6 frame. The total out of pocket cost was $4.

I already have frames to make another one with the word FAMILY. I'm debating using vinyl letters directly on the glass without the cardboard backing. Tons of possibilities with this one. You can even use an already made frame collage to save time. I've seen them at Old Time Pottery and Wal-mart for as low as $10. I've thought about using scrapbook paper with solid color letters over it in the frames as well, with color coordinated paint on the frames to match the scrapbook paper.

Let me know what you think.

'til next time,

Adina

Linking to

Metamorphosis Monday at betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com

uncommonly-yours-link-party-28 at Uncommon Designs