Hoppy Easter!

Typo, but it stays. :p

Over the past week, I've been doing a LOT of web searching for easy Easter crafts, and came across a cute wreath. I remembered the basics, but of course, can not remember where I found it (I really need to start book marking these fabulous ideas!).

If anyone knows where I might have found this wreath, please let me know so I can give props to the mad genius behind it!

Michelle helped me find it! The original was done by Cindi over at This Is My Life.

Easter Egg Wreath

You'll Need:
Cardboard (the lid to the empty take out pizza box laying next to the trash may or may not work, I admit to nothing)
Regular sized plastic Easter Eggs- I used 29 for the bottom, and 11 on the top row
Easter Grass
Fake Flowers*
Ribbon*
Glue gun & like 5 sticks of glue

*optional- the wreath I saw didn't have either, but I did add flowers to mine, and considered a bow, but felt the wreath was busy enough on it's own.

For this, I dug out my "Box O'Eggs"

.....yes, I really have a "Box O'Eggs". I'm -always- in charge of the egg hunts at various relatives houses, and have amassed quite the collection. Unfortunately, I seem to have an affinity for odd eggs. I had no where near enough plain, regular sized eggs. Plenty of jumbo eggs, lots of minis, and a lot of shaped things- like peep shaped containers, and Spiderman shaped eggs, etc.

I had to make a run to DT just to make the wreath, even with a box of eggs this big.

1. Use a plate to draw the outer circle of your wreath shape on the cardboard you choose which may or may not have come from that pizza you grabbed when you felt like cheating for dinner the other nigh which probably came from a cardboard box you were right to save. For the total width of the wreath, you'll want it about 2 to 2.5" wide, so hunt around for various items, or just eyeball it for the inner circle. I had a foam wreath form, and used the inner circle to make my inner circle.
2. Take out your eggs, and hot glue the rounded "butt" end of the egg, and slap it on the form on the outer circle, with the point facing outward. You'll want to only use about half the space, because you will be adding an inner layer next.
3. Once you have filled up the outer circle, do an inner circle. If you find some areas where they don't have enough room, add a bead of glue to the outer eggs, and glue them straight to those.
4. Now the messy part. Take your Easter grass and the glue gun, and squirt glue into the center spaces between the inner and outer circle of eggs. Drizzle glue around the inner sides of the eggs as well. Then, stuff it with Easter grass. It doesn't have to be perfect. I tried using a pencil to shove it in place, but it created a bigger mess of glue and grass. Keep doing this until there is grass in ever space of the middle section. 
5. Start gluing your eggs again- you want to place eggs along the top, all around where the grass is, so that each egg is resting between the inner and outer layer. 
6. Once the top layer of eggs is complete, it's time to give your wreath a hair cut. I strongly recommend doing this over top of the trash, because it's messy. Just clip and trim until you are happy with the amount of "hair" left over.
7. I had some yellow and pink flowers hanging around, so I took the heads off, and glued them in little spaces all around the wreath. You could use bigger flowers, or skip it all together, but I like them. Of course, once I was done, I found my purple flowers. Oh well!

Because of the cardboard form, this is likely not a weather-proof wreath for outside, but it sure is cute for inside! I considered using a "real" wreath form, but I think it would have been much harder to fill out with rounded objects on a rounded surface.

Total costs:
Eggs:  $4 spent on a total of 72 eggs (18/$1 at dollar store), but only used 40 eggs- $2.22 worth
Wreath Form: Free (after a fashion...)
Grass: $1 (thought I had some, but I couldn't find it)
Flowers: On Hand, or $1 at dollar store

A fairly inexpensive wreath. Probably even more so, had I not been so picky about my eggs. I had enough medium eggs, if I had used patterned, printed, eggs with cutouts, clear eggs, metallic eggs, etc. But, I wanted plain, solid colors.

Quick, Easy & Cheap Heart Wreath

Today's the day- my house is a total disaster (though, with 3 kids, that's not new), and the living room is over run with taken down, yet to be packed away Christmas decorations. We even got the decorations that were outside down (thanks Nick!). Go us!

Psst... if you think YOUR house is messy, you haven't seen THIS yet:

Click on it to enlarge and play a rousing game of I Spy!

While I was taking stuff down, I remembered I had a stash of post-Christmas goodies in my closet, so I sorted out the things that are gifts for next year, from the items that are just decorations. In my stash were 2 candy canes from Dollar Tree.

Inspiration hit when I had to lay them at an angle to get them in the box. They formed a heart. Oh, love it! They are red and white, but not striped, more of a mix. They are just as adorable as can be in the shape of a primitive heart.

I bemoaned that I only bought 2, especially since they had them in solid red as well. Oh, well, next year, right? Anyway, as I sat there thinking of my misfortune, I thought... Why can't I just use these two? DUH! Yes, a blonde moment (I'm naturally blonde, but should have been a natural red head- true story.)

I quickly took time out for crafting. ;) All I did was use two white pipe cleaners- 1 to tie the curved tips together, and 1 to tie the ends together. Then, I had some red and silver ribbon left over from my Ribbon & Tulle Heart Wreath, so I grabbed it- just enough for an easy bow, with streamers long enough to wrap around it.

I am in love with it, and I have a wreath that can be put outside.

It cost me $1 for 2 candy canes (50% off at DT), and I got the ribbon for $1 at Goodwill, but most of it went to my other heart wreath, so maybe $.30 worth of ribbon.

End total? $1.30 for a super cute, kind of primitive looking heart wreath!

Just last night, I was looking at heart shaped wreath forms at HobLob, and cringing at the thought of spending $2.79 for the TINY one. I didn't even bother to look at the full size ones. Too pricey.

This post is linked up at the link parties listed here. 

Check back on Tuesday to link up with Talented Tuesdays at My Frugal Family!

Easy Peasy Valentine Wreath

In my invalid state (read that with a bit of sarcasm), I can't do much crafting. I can't sit at my craft desk, because the chair is a wood dining room chair. My computer chair, which is easier (but not pain-free) to sit in doesn't fit at the craft desk. So, I'm limited. And of course, the post-Christmas craft laziness had come to an end. All I've wanted to do the past few days is craft, craft, craft!

Today, I finally tried something, which I did while laying down. It kept my fingers busy, but alas, I didn't take any tutorial photos. It's really easy, though- just fold the ribbon, lay it on top of the hanger, and pull the ends through the loop. Simple.

You'll Need:

1 Wire Hanger (On hand)

2 rolls of White Tulle (Dollar Tree rolls- I used about 1 and a half, though to make it fuller, you could easily use up to 4 rolls)

2-3 rolls of various red, pink, or white ribbons- I recommend using wired ribbon.

1. Bend the wire hanger into a heart shape. Easier said, than done. The hanger kept wanting to sort of fold in half.
2. Start cutting 3-4" lengths of ribbon & tulle. For my tulle, I used 40 total, 20 for each side of the heart. However, if you want a full tulle heart, you'll want to use about 4 rolls of tulle. 40 loops didn't quite fill an entire side, and was about 1 & 1/2 rolls worth of tulle. For the ribbon, I used about 14 ribbon loops per side. Again, the more full you want it, the more ribbon you'll use. You could do 20 per side, so it alternates between tulle & ribbon.
3. I did not tie the ribbon and tulle in place. Instead, I used the folding method where you pull the ends around something, and pull them through the loop at the end of the ribbon. Did that make sense?
4. Fluff the ribbon- I used 1 roll that was not wired, and it kept wanting to droop, so I sort of tucked it behind tulle, so it was being held in place.
5. I added a small ribbon bow to the middle with the non-wired ribbon I had left over.

All in all, I used 1 whole bolt of white sheer ribbon with red hearts (3 yards), and 1 whole bolt of red non-wired red & silver ribbon (4 yards), 1 whole bolt of tulle, plus half to 3/4ths of another roll (each roll is 8 yards), and about 3/4ths of a roll of red & silver wired ribbon (this roll was 5 yards).

I had all of this stuff on hand, but you could get all the stuff needed at the dollar store for $5-6, so it's a cheap craft. And best of all- when Valentine's Day is over, just remove the ribbon scraps & tulle, and set them aside for another project

Linked up at the parties listed here.

Frugal Dollar Tree Wreath

Last night, I found a tutorial for a gorgeous Christmas ornament wreath here. Isn't that wreath just gorgeous? Today was such a lovely day, it was leaf raking day, so I went to Walmart for leaf bags- conveniently located right next to Dollar Tree.

Christmas Ornament Wreath
You'll Need:

50 Christmas Bulbs- I would recommend getting Shatter Proof. I found these 5/$1 in coordinating colors at Dollar Tree
12+ small Christmas bulbs- again, I would recommend getting Shatter Proof. These were 12 or 15 for $1 for plain, or 8/$1 in glitter finish at Dollar Tree. I bought 12, but probably could have used a few more.
1 Wire Hanger
1 Glue Gun
1 Spool of Ribbon
Pipe Cleaners

Total Cost: $13, not counting on hand items. I had to buy 11 total packs of ornaments, 1 spool of ribbon, and a package of wire hangers (I've gutted my own closets for these in the past, and knew I was out, but on the plus side, I do have a lot more now). I had the glue gun & pipe cleaners on hand.

1. First off, you will want to shape the hanger into a circle. Once that's done, untwist the hook, so you can string the ornaments on them.
2. Start by sorting your ornaments into piles, and then add them one at a time to the wreath in whatever order you want, adding in small ones every now and then, to help fill in the games that show.
3. Once they are strung on, give the wreath a good shake- some of the ornaments don't stay in their hanger, and will need to be glued back on.
4. When you are satisfied that the wreath is full enough, twist the top shut again. I used needle nose pliers to make sure it was shut tight.
5. Arrange the bulbs, and if you would like, glue them together. In spots where my bulbs wanted to spin to the other side, I glued them in place against each other.
6. Add a bow to the top. I also added ribbon trails, and wrapped them around the hanger to keep it in the places I wanted. I used gold glitter pipe cleaners to attach the ribbon to the hanger (use whatever you have on hand- I happened to have that already)
7. Use an over the door wreath hanger to hang it on your door!

I choose colors that were more of a harvest theme- orange, gold, burgundy, olive, etc. This way, I can use the wreath for both Thanksgiving and Christmas!