Saw It, Pinned It, Did It: {Ruffled Tree Skirt}

Holy 5 days until Christmas, Batman! I can't believe 2012 is almost over. It's been a whirlwind, that's for sure. I'm ready to spend the weekend with family and spend Christmas Day for the first time in our new home with my love and Riley. We decorated a little bit for Christmas and I will share the rest of our decor tomorrow, but now it is time to share my most recent DIY project with you! I totally stole was inspired by Katie's ruffled tree skirt project and I knew I had to make one for myself. Not only was I inspired by Katie's project, but by this pretty one I saw on Pinterest:

I obviously had to keep with the burlap and red theme. I think one made out of all burlap would be really cute, too! So, you will need:

• Fabric of choice. I used a little less than 2 yards of each.
• Glue gun and glue sticks. I needed a whole bunch.
• An old tree skirt for the base.
• Scissors.
• Patience and time.
• Wine.

1. Purchase awesome old tree skirt from the thrift store and debate keeping it as is. Everyone loves Tigger!
2. Cut strips of fabric about 2 inches wide. No need to measure, I just eyeballed it.
3. I found it easier to make my ruffles first and then glue that strip to the old tree skirt. Start at the outer edge and where the slit in the middle is and glue your strip to the skirt.
4. Make your ruffles as big or as little as you want. You can make your placement of the different fabrics as wide or thin as you want. There's no right or wrong way!

This isn't meant to be perfect so just have fun with it! It only takes a few hours if you do it all at once and yes, you will burn your fingers. I'm very happy with how it turned out and Travis likes it just as much! Oh, and good luck from keeping your critters off it while you work. #hesluckyhescute

No Riley, I'm not trying to do something productive...

I'm pretty obsessed with the Christmas lights and the background of city lights.  

Sorry there are more pictures of my dog than the actual process! Really, it is as easy as it looks! I can't wait to see what everyone else has been up to!

Saw It, Pinned It, Did It: {Yarn Wreath}

We finally got our house [a little] full of Christmas cheer and I wanted to make a few projects myself. I've been wanting to link up to Katie's and Steph's spectacular party since they started it and it was just the motivation I needed to stop pinning and start doing!

I've been seeing those yarn wrapped wreaths all over the interwebs and Pinterest for forever now. They look so easy but so cute and can easily be made for any reason/season. I like projects that I can do myself but take minimal supplies and not too much time. I'm a really picky pinner (is this in the dictionary as a verb yet?) and since there are so many variations out there, I pinned a simple one I liked and used it as inspiration to make one for our front door.

Pinned from here

So cute and simple, right?

So, first you'll have to gather supplies. I used:

*1 Styrofoam wreath, any size you want
*yarn, any color you want
*felt, a few different colors you want
*ribbon, twine or anything you have around for hanging
*glue gun
*scissors (make sure they're sharp)
*any other pretty things: twine, beads, etc. to jazz it up

See, cheap and easy (just the way I like it)(that's probably what he said), especially if you already have some of these things on hand!

....Drum-roll please....

Voila!

I didn't take pictures of the process because it really is so easy. I took my pretty red yarn, hot glued the end to the wreath and started wrapping. Round and round you go. I would hot glue about every 10 wrap-a-rounds just to hold it in place. If your yarn is nice and thick it will cover pretty well so you shouldn't have to go around more than once. This only took about a half an episode of 90210. There were a few sad spots, so I just randomly wrapped yarn around those spots, which also added a little bit of variation and texture. It won't be perfect but that's okay! Imperfection is better in this case.

Now, for those simple little flowers, all you have to do it cut some circles or strips out of felt. Make some bigger to add some excitement to that little wreath of yours. There are so many tutorials out there to make felt flowers, so I'm just going to direct you to the one I used. She spells out five different ways to make them, and seriously, once you read through them, you'll probably never have to refer back to it. It's that easy. Can you tell which ones I made?

After you make as many flowers as you want, start hot gluing them to the wreath in any arrangement that suits your fancy. I didn't make a specific plan or anything, I just started gluing one by one.It would be fun to add some pine tree sprigs or mistletoe to jazz it up a bit, too.

In my case, I used a pretty ribbon that came from my wine club vino to hang the wreath on the front door. I'm pretty smitten with how it turned out and I can't wait to make some more. These would make a great handmade gift, too! There are so many ways to personalize them. I can't wait to make one that can be hung anytime when there isn't a specific holiday coming up.

Now let's hope the crazy wind we have up on the hill won't blow this baby away....and next time maybe I won’t use such a baby sized wreath…