Tag: wire

Christmas, Craft Projects, DIY GIFT GUIDE, Holiday, Quick and Easy Crafts

DIY GIFT GUIDE: Spool Ornament

Jessica Smith

Spool Ornament Cover

Today’s DIY GIFT GUIDE post is even easier than yesterday’s and would look super cute on your Christmas tree!

Know someone who sews? Then this would be the perfect gift for them! Turn an old wooden spool into a Christmas ornament in just a few steps.

Supplies:

  • Wooden spool
  • Wire
  • Ribbon
  • Beads
  • Wire Cutter
  • Scissors

Steps:

  • The worst part of this project is the first part. Remove any old thread from your spools so they are completely bare. I did the by unraveling each spool, but if you don’t have the patience (not sure how I did) you could score yours off with an exacto knife.

Spools

  • Once your spools are naked (hehe), cut a long pice of wire and fold it in half. Thread a seed bead onto the end and let it rest in the bend of the wire. This will stop your larger beads and spool from falling off of the wire.
  • Thread your beads onto the wire — thread through both ends of the wire.
  • Thread your wire through the spool, then add beads on top. I liked my ornament simple and just added one bright red bead below and above my spool. You can add as many as you’d like.
  • Create a loop in the wire after you add your last bead, then secure the wire by wrapping the long ends around the base of the loop until your wire runs out.
  • Tie a piece of ribbon through the loop to make a hook for the tree.
  • Embellish your spool with a large ribbon.
  • Ta da! Hang on your tree!

spool

If you want to get fancy, seal the ends of your ribbon with a no-fray fabric treatment. I haven’t done that to mine, but I probably will before I gift them.

spool ornamentCheck back tomorrow for another gift idea!

 

 

Wine Crafts, Wreath

Grapevine wreath

Jessica Smith

Wine Wreath

 

I think I should be outlawed from going to Michaels. Every time I go I buy something I definitely don’t need. About a month ago I stumbled upon these adorable grapes and I just couldn’t pass them by.

This wreath was fairly simple to make, but not without error.

I started with two large grapes, a pack of small grapes and a grapevine wreath.

Before

I started this project with the intention of hot gluing all of the pieces to the wreath. Plastic + Wood = perfect, right? Nope. For some reason, the hot glue and the grapes didn’t mix, so they all fell off. Oops.

Instead, I attached the grapes with wire. To do so, I wove the wire through the grapes and the vine, then twisted it around the back so it was secure.

Wire

I did this for each of the grapes until everything was secure. I think my brain wasn’t working because I’d lay out the pattern for my grapes, then flip over the wreath and they’d all fall off. Thankfully, it wasn’t complicated (obviously) and I was able to place them all where I wanted each time I made that mistake (at least 3 times).

Wine wreath2

Even with the small snags, this was a very easy-to-make wreath.

Wine Wreath grap shot

 

I know what will be gracing my front door once winter is over!

Detail Shot

Thanks for stopping by. Check back tomorrow for my DIY GIFT GUIDE 🙂 See ya then!

Whole Door

 

Craft Projects

Driftwood and Sea Glass chime

Jessica Smith

My girlfriends and I got together for craft night last weekend, and, as always, we had a great time. Carrie came up with the idea to make driftwood and sea glass chimes (if you can call them that).  After a delicious dinner and a bottle of wine, we began to tackle our craft.

We started with individual pieces of driftwood that Carrie collected on a family vacation. Apparently she was teased for collecting the wood — I think it was a fabulous idea, don’t you?

Sea Glass driftwood

Once we picked which piece of wood we wanted, I got started on mine. Originally, I started to make mine with fishing wire. I got really frustrated with that, so I made mine with wire and chain. So to start my chime, I wrapped wire around each end of the driftwood and secured it around itself to create a hook to hang the finished chime from. Carrie and Amy used twine for this, and it worked great. It also looked really nice.

Like I said, I started mine with fishing wire. We watched a tutorial from Martha Stewart, and even she commented that the fishing wire was a pain. Clearly she, Carrie and Amy all have more patience than I do, because they made it work. I think the reason our wire wasn’t super easy to work with was because it was a bit thicker, so if you want to try this project on your own, I definitely recommend using a thin fishing line.

If you want to use fishing line, Carrie and Amy both did theirs differently. Carrie tied knots around each piece of sea glass and sealed the knot with super glue. Amy, on the other hand, avoided the knots and simply glued the wire to the glass with the super glue. She said one piece fell off at home, but it is holding up well.

Sea Glass

Like I said, I got sick of the fishing wire and the knots, so I broke out the jewelry wire and chain. Sometimes working with a familiar material is just better.

After I created a handle to the driftwood, I lined the sea glass up in an ombre pattern. I ended up only using half of these, but you get the idea.

Sea Glass1

Then, I wrapped each piece of sea glass with wire, creating a loop at the top to attach it to the chain.

Sea Glass2

Once all of my glass was wrapped with wire, I attached each piece to one of my three chain strands. Then, to finish the chime, I attached the chain to the piece of driftwood using jewelry wire.

Sorry for the cruddy picture and the not-so-in-depth tutorial. It’s a girls’ night first and foremost, so blogging has to come second!

Anyway, here’s the finished product!

Sea Glass finished

I love the colors of the glass, and now I want to go hunting for drift wood and real sea glass (these were from Michaels).

Sea Glass chime

Have a great day!