DIY: First Day of Fall Wreath!

Fall is officially here! I've been waiting for scarf and boots weather for MONTHS, and even though it's still 80 degrees outside, it has not deterred me one bit. In order to ring in the fall properly, I decided to make a new wreath for the front door, inspired by this one at Paper Source. But instead of paying $20, you can pretty much make this from scraps you make have lying around the house. 

Here's what you need:

1. Cardboard for creating the wreath ring and the leaf template

2. Fabric and/or paper scraps (I used a mix of fabric, paper, pleather and felt)

3. Hot glue gun and glue sticks

4. Scissors

5. A pen

Optional Supplies:

1. Iron and starch

2. Feathers 

3. Stalks of dried wheat

I started by tracing a dinner plate onto the cardboard, and then a dessert plate inside that circle. I then cut around the outer line and the inner line to give me my wreath form. Then I freehand drew the leaf template and cut that out too.

Then came the tedious part. I traced the leaf onto all the fabric and paper, and cut out millions of little leaves. Okay, it was more like 100, but it felt like millions.

It's not important to have an even number of colors, I wound up using about 12-16 of each (I had 7 different fabrics). You can always cut more if you run out! My fabric was a little wrinkled, so I starched and ironed the leaves, folded them in half longways, and then pressed them again. The crease makes them stand up a bit, and gives the wreath a little more body. 

Next, hot glue your leaves, round-side down, to the outer most part of your wreath form, overlapping the sides just a bit. I tried to use every color equally, without it being too perfect or deliberate. As I went around, I incorporated the feathers and wheat stalks.

You should end up with three rows of leaves on the cardboard ring. For the fourth and final row, glue the leaf onto the ring about halfway up the piece of fabric (instead of on the round bottom), and then fold the round part around to the back of the form and secure it with more glue. This way you'll hide the rough edge of the cardboard. 

When you're all done with that, secure a loop of ribbon or string to the back of your wreath for hanging. Because my wreath is going to end up on a glass door, I finished the back by gluing a ring of the pleather.

I also added a bow to the front, to polish things off. And there you go! A super snazzy new fall wreath! Paper Source, eat your heart out!

DIY: Back to School Book Covers!

Confession: I am not actually going back to school. But I do miss shopping for school supplies - the smell of new binders, a fresh ream of college ruled paper, testing all the different pens to find the ones with the smoothest action... ah the memories. And perhaps this was a harbinger of my later love of paper crafts, but I always enjoyed making paper book covers out of brown paper shopping bags. 

It occurred to me the other day that just because I don't have any textbooks lying around, doesn't mean I can't dress up all my old paper backs with a little splash of color! So I hightailed it over to Michaels, carefully selected seven coordinated sheets of scrapbooking paper (59 cents each), and set out on the easiest project ever.

In case you don't remember how to do this, it's pretty simple. Here are the materials you need:

1. decorative paper
2. pen (I am using a metallic gold artist's pen, but you can use whatever you like)
3. scissors
4. a book

And here is what you do:

1. Trim the paper to remove any barcodes or other elements you don't want on there
2. Center the book in the middle of the paper (paper should be pretty-side down)
3. Make creases in the paper that align with the bottom of the book and the top of the book, so you're basically folding the paper lengthwise into three sections
4. Wrap the paper around the book, folding under the excess paper on the ends 
5. Tuck the covers into those newly created flaps
6. Write the name and author of the book on the spine, so you know which one it is

And this is what it should look like when you're done!

Now my little book collection is super adorable! Much better than the dog-chewed paper backs that I was too embarrassed to display before!

Now I can't wait to make over all my old books! 

PS Aren't my bookends adorable? I got them at Home Goods!

Ikea Clock Makeover

I spotted this tutorial on Design*Sponge and immediately thought it would make an adorable kitchen clock. Plus, the clock was two bucks at Ikea -- a craft project AND a good bargain? How could I resist?

I did take the liberty of simplifying their project even further. Instead of fabric and embroidery, I used a nice thick craft paper and traced on some medieval-style numbers from this free clipart library (my laptop makes a great lightbox). Lastly, I painted the second hand to match the newly painted clock frame, and voila! A kitschy clock is born!