Tag: craft store

Craft Projects, Wreath

Twig Wreath

Jessica Smith


So I’ve already admitted my new addiction to making wreaths, but today I’m going to show you how to make an inexpensive wreath — really! The only thing you absolutely need to buy is a single bunch of flowers from any craft store. I’d say this one cost me about $10. All of my other supplies were lying around the house or the yard — yes, the yard.

To start on my wreath, I found a cardboard box for the base. Using a bucket from Home Depot, I traced a circle onto the cardboard and then cut it out using a box cutter.

Then Remmy and I wandered the yard collecting small twigs for our wreath. We filled the bucket and headed back instead to start gluing our sticks to our wreath.

When the whole piece of cardboard was covered in twigs, I flipped the wreath over and reinforced the cardboard circle with small strips of cardboard. Then it was time to add flowers.

Before I was able to add any flowers, the hubby came down to my crafting area and asked me what the heck I was doing. He suggested I toss my twig wreath, and at first I thought I should. It was a rather odd-looking wreath before I added any bling.

Using the leftover flowers and tulle from my Ravens Wreath, I started adding things to the twigs. First, I pulled off all of the fake leaves from the remaining purple flowers I had purchased for about $5 for the bunch. I had enough leaves to cover the entire inner circle of the wreath, effectively covering all of the glue marks on the twigs and cardboard. Score!

As I glued, Remmy supervised. “Yes, Mom. That leaf looks great right there!”

Once my leaves were secure, I added little white buds around the edge of the wreath.

I really like these little flowers and they came in a huge bunch, so I had a lot left over from the Ravens Wreath. Perfecto.

With the background flowers in place, I started adding the larger purple flowers to the wreath. On my first purple flower I also added my last bit of black flowers, a little bit of black tulle, and a thick black ribbon to hang the wreath.

The tulle was a lucky addition for this wreath, but I really liked how it looked. So, with each extra purple flower (five in total) I added, I made sure to tuck some black tulle underneath. It provided a really great texture to the wreath.

The final two touches to the wreath were these little crystals that I picked up from Hobby Lobby for $1.47 a pack and a black bow to match the wreath hanger.

I let the glue dry, then hung my beautiful twig wreath on my craft room door. Take that, hubs. That is one pretty twig wreath 🙂

No worries, after seeing the whole ting completed, the hubs said he did like the wreath after all. Ye of little faith!

So with a bunch of leftover supplies and a little bit of hunting through my yard, I was able to make this beautiful wreath!

Hope you all had a great weekend. Happy football season!

Craft Projects

A wreath for us

Jessica Smith

I showed you on Saturday how to make a wreath using fake flowers and a grapevine base — I had a few flowers left over, so I decided to create a wreath for our front door!

I had a wire form that I picked up from Michaels, but not enough flowers to go all of the way around it.

To cover the rest of the wreath form, I chose to wrap it in twine. To do so, I knotted the twine and started going around the edge of the wreath. It took about 30 minutes and an entire spool of twine, but I really like the look of it.

By the time I made it close to the end of the wreath, I realized I wouldn’t have enough twine to wrap the whole thing. That didn’t matter though, because I was planning on filling that void with the faux flowers.

So, I knotted the end of the twine and started to add the flowers.

Since all of the flowers are on wire, I was able to bend the “stems” around the wires of the exposed wreath form. Once all of the flowers were placed, I took floral wire and secured the flowers even more to the form.

It’s not pretty, but no one will ever see the back, so who cares!?

I embellished with a few leaves, adding them to the wreath with hot glue at each end of the flowers. And with that, my wreath was finished. It only took about an hour — not too bad!

Craft Projects, Jewelry

Basic Necklace Tutorial

Jessica Smith

I said months ago that I’d do a few tutorials on how to make jewelry. Well, today is my lovely coworker Rachel’s birthday (happy birthday, Rachel!!!) and I make all of my female coworkers jewelry for their birthdays. So I took the opportunity to take a few photos as I made her necklace — don’t worry, I already gave it to her so this isn’t a spoiler — so you all can see what I did. This tutorial is very basic and all of the supplies (minus these specific beads) can be found at Michaels, JoAnn’s, Hobby Lobby, etc.

First and foremost, you’ll need beading wire, crimp beads, a clasp and beads. You can use crimping pliers (mine are blue) or flat pliers (mine are purple) for this project (top left photo).

Step One: Cut the wire to the length you’d like it to be. Add a few extra inches for wiggle room.

Step Two: Place a crimp bead on your wire followed by your clasp (middle left photo). For this necklace, I used a toggle clasp and a gun metal crimp bead to match it. I love toggle clasps way more than the regular lobster class. They add that extra something to necklaces.

Step Three: Send the wire back down through the crimp bead so the wire makes a closed loop around the ring of the clasps (bottom left photo).

Step Four: This step has two options, depending on which set of pliers you choose to use. Pull your crimp bead close to the clasp, so only 1 or 2 mm of wire is showing. That gives the clasp a little wiggle room on the necklace, which I’ve found to be helpful when using toggles.

When your crimp bead is where you want it, grab your pliers. For crimping pliers, smash the bead with the top notch of the pliers to flatten the bead. Proceed to the second notch and crimp it again. This step puts a fold into the crimp bead. Finally, move your crimp bead back up to the top notch and crimp it again. This will round out the bead so it looks smooth along the wire (right photo).

If you have flat pliers, you can definitely just smash the crimp bead. It performs the same function as a crimp bead that’s been secured with crimping pliers, it just doesn’t look as nice. That doesn’t mean it looks bad, though. I used to do that with all of my necklaces until I bought the crimping pliers.
Step Five: Once your bead is crimped, it’s time for the fun part. Pick out your beads! I chose white plastic beads (top left photo) for Rachel’s necklace that I found at a thrift store. Gotta love recycling beads 🙂

Step Six: String your beads along the wire however you please (top middle photo). I know a lot of people like to use necklace organization tray, which allow you to place the beads how you want them on the necklace to see how it looks. Honestly, I just wing it. I think it’s more fun that way.

Step Seven: When all of your beads are strung, place the crimp bead onto the wire, followed by the second part of the clasps. Like the first time, re-loop the wire through and crimp your bead (top right photo). That will secure all of the beads on the wire and the clasps on the end.

Step Eight: Rock your new creation (bottom photo)!

Happy birthday, Rachel. I hope you like your new necklace and that your day is fantastic!!