Spring Flower Hanging Wreath

I'm loving this upside down wreath I made to hang from our chandelier - yes, it's a lot going on since the chandelier is solid shells... but I like it. I made it out of dollar store finds so it only cost 7 bucks, you could spend less by not buying as many flowers and/or skipping the garland, and you could make a simple wire ring instead of using a pre-made wreath form.

For my base I saw a plastic and tinsel bunny hanging thing, I only wanted the bigger circle so I just snipped off the top and used the body. Using little wire cutters, I snipped off the flowers and stems from the bouquet base and bent the ends to create little hooks. Before attaching the flowers I needed to hang the thing up so I could build the wreath - using white twine I ran it around the outside edges 4 times to make a hanger, then hung it from a cabinet knob so I could add the flowers. Then working from underneath, push the little hooked ends up thru the tinsel and hook on one of the plastic rings that form the wreath. Fit as many as you want - I made some short, some long, and tried to stagger the different colors thruout the wreath. Once you have it how you want, attach to the bottom of your chandelier using more twine. To finish it I just wrapped a piece of 4' garland around the top part.

Supplies:

• wreath base (if it isn't covered already you'll want to wrap it with something - rope, yarn, garland, tinsel, etc.)
• 5 flower bouquets (each bouquet had 6 flowers in it, except for one of them that I didn't check before buying it and it was missing a flower!)
• little wire snippers or strong scissors to cut the flowers off the bouquet.
• twine to hang the wreath.
• garland to finish (not really necessary but I had it so I used it). 

My dining room table is covered with junk so I didn't take a picture from a distance - hope you can tell how pretty this turned out without a photo from farther away!

one year ago: how to make mod podge
two years ago: make a bracelet out of a zipper

DIY Mod Podge

1. Pour 8 ounces (225 milliliters) of white school glue into a jar.
2. Stir in 4 ounces (112.50 milliliters) of water.
3. Add 2 tablespoons of water-based gloss or varnish if you want glossy Mod Podge.
4. Add 2 tablespoons of fine glitter if you want glittery Mod Podge.
5. Close the jar tightly and shake it to combine.




I needed mod podge to make the cute k-cup blue birds (click here for that post) and found this recipe. I didn't need this much of it so I just used the formula (2 parts white glue 1 part water) to make a smaller batch in a little disposable cup. I didn't add varnish or glitter. 

K-Cup Birds

It's almost April and time for some spring crafts for Ronda's seasonal display table...these little blue birds are too cute and I had to make them.  Seriously just try to tell me you don't think these are super cute! Yep they're a little silly and cutesy but I love them.

I got the inspiration for these online and changed them a bit - you don't have to make them just like I did but here's what to do if you do!

Supplies:

• Clean recycled k-cups (I hope you've been saving these now after the couple other cute crafts I've shown you! click here and here for those posts)
• blue tissue paper, orange and black cardstock, black marker or sharpie, mod podge, foam brush, hot glue

Directions:

Cut or rip tissue paper up into small pieces, spread both sides with mod podge and stick in place all over the K-cup. Keep applying the mod podge and paper until the entire surface is covered, overlapping the edges. Once it's dry hot glue a small bunch of crumpled tissue paper on either side for wings, a small orange triangle for the beak, and black feet (note I punched out a flower shape using a Stampin' Up die cut shape I had on hand and then cut in half, you can just cut out whatever shape you want for feet - or draw on 3 little black lines instead). Dot eyes on using the black marker.

Mosaic Magazine Project...by Brooke

Brooke made this very cool paper project in art class at school, I love it and asked her to blog it for us - here is what she did in her words:

"so first thing i did was cut white poster board into squares. then i drew on the non shiny side of one of the squares the object i wanted to make. so after i had my flower drawn i took magazines and cut the pages out that had the color i wanted for my flower. then after i had those pages i cut the colors i wanted into many different triangle shape for my project. then i would put down some mod podge on the flower drawing and use the bits of magazines and put them where they would go and where the mod podge was!"


I asked if she put mod podge over the entire picture when it was done but she said nope, the teacher said that's just a waste of mod podge. She just brushed some on the picture and then stuck on the little pieces of cut up magazine page - normally when you decoupage the piece of paper gets mod podged on both sides and also on the surface where you are laying the paper...seems to have worked just fine doing it her way though! Isn't this a fun idea? Great kid craft!


I like this project so much I laminated it and hung it up in the rv - original artwork in the camper :)