Craftiness

I've caught a bug of sorts lately.  It's called the crafting bug.  Not sure why but I have a bug.  So the obsession of late has been creating wreaths.  I love all the cute felt flowers you see.  So I took to my other addiction pinterest for some motivation.  After finding several wreaths and felt flower tutorials I took to creating.  Now I have to say I am novice at best but still happy with my creations.

The first wreath came from sixsistersstuff.com.  Now I have to say I was so SAD when I visited my hard not to spend money store of Hobby Lobby and they had no orange burlap.  I opted for this green burlap hoping in would still look "fallish" and yes it does. 

Materials:
Wire wreath form (comes in varying sizes)
1 1/2 yards of burlap cut into strips
Felt square pieces
Embelishments for middle of flowers
Hot Glue Gun

I cut my strips into 1 inch wide strips by about 6.5 to 7 inches.  There is no rocket science to it.  That's why it is my kind of craft.  Then tie the strips to the wreath form until you get the desired fullness you like.

Some of the websites for the flower tutorials are found at  thecraftedsparrow.blogspot.comfor the looped mum flower. Or try http://fabricbowsandmore.blogspot.com/2011/01/ultra-easy-felt-flower-tutorial-by.html for the pom-pom type flower.  The yellow flower on the wreath.  For instructions on making a felt rose visit http://santabarbarawedding.com/blog/?p=4417 and then for my favorite flower but most time consuming the website http://makeanddogirl.com/2011/10/tutorial-diy-felt-flowers/ has step by step instructions (the orange large flower above.) 

Next, I wanted to use some pine cones my mom had and some fall berries I had.....This is what I came up with.  I had a few extra felt flowers so I incorporated them as well.

Lastly, I found this Santa Belt wreath on etsy.com and also at itsmeanic.blogspot.com and loved, loved, loved it.  My neighbor told me she wanted a wreath so I thought to myself, "A project to try and a gift to give!"

 Teacher Gifts for 2012 Christmas were a saying found via pinterest. The blue is actually a bright, fun color but the amateur photographer didn't get a very good picture :(  Nonetheless, I really like the saying.

Add caption

Elf Shoes made from thediaryofdaveswife.com

 

 There a few more crafts in the unfinished category (I am notorious for this) and will hopefully have them finished by next Christmas for display.

Halloween

 I realize Halloween was two months ago but I am playing catch up on the blog today.  My kids love holidays and Halloween is one of  their favorites.  Carving pumpkins, trick or treating, Halloween dinner, and making crafts is always on the agenda.  This year  Liv and her friends decided they were going to be M&M's.  We spent an afternoon (with help from the silhouette) doing freezer paper stencil M's on their shirts.  The kids did a great job and had a lot of fun.

Liv painting her M&M shirt

Modeling the finished product

The M&M package (minus orange)

Bellar as a fairy - she HAD to have a tiara and wand

Yearly carved pumpkins - dad and Liv did her initials.  I carved Tangled for Bellar.

Even the dog had a costume - thanks to the kids!

Liv by her initial carved pumpkin.

 Our Halloween Dinner this year consisted of band-aids, ear wax, snot nose burgers, and a spider mocktail.  I have to say the drink was a bit too sugary even for my tastes.  The kids loved the band-aids.  We also made our now traditional bloody toes and jello brain.  Neil thought the snot nose burgers were a bit too much on presentation even though we eat burritos all the time at our house.

Band-aids made with graham crackers, frosting, and red decorating gel

Ear Wax - sucker sticks, marshmallows, and caramel dip

Snot nose burritos - tortilla folded to look like a nose

Jello Brain!

 

Making bat craft at annual neighborhood Halloween party

Spider Mocktail - way too sugary!

Olivia making her bat craft.

Bellar with her finished bat.

Fall Pumpkin Patch

 What a fun day we had at J&J Nursery Pumpkin Patch this fall.  For a can of food for the food bank, we went on a wagon ride to the pumpkin field to pick our own pumpkins. 

Bellar with a pumpkin she later rejected for a larger size.

Neighborhood kids at Pumpkin Patch

Wagon Ride!

On the way back from the pumpkin field.