Nov 29, 2012 | DIY
Whip up some sparkling, shimmering ornaments super-quick, and with only a couple of supplies! This can even be a great project for kids to work on their fine motor skills.
Materials:
sequins in leaf shapes or snowflake shapes / pearl-head pins in red or pearlized / round styrofoam balls (you can paint them different colors before using if you don’t like the white showing through) / glitter ribbon
Tools: glue gun / scissors
How to:
1. Cut a short length of ribbon, enough to go around the styro ball and create a hang loop.
2. Use the glue gun to attach around the ball at the center. Loop the end of the ribbon over itself and glue together to hang.
3. Use the pins to attach sequins all over the ball. 
For the holly ornament, use 2-3 leaf sequins strung on one pin, and for the snowflake ornament, use 1-2 sequins on one pin.
4. Keep adding pinned sequins until the ball is completely covered.
Hang on your tree, pile in a bowl, attach to a garland or a wreath – however you decide to display these pretty ornaments, they’re sure to be the star of your holiday decorating!
Thanks to LocalSpotter.com for featuring these DIY Sequin Ball Ornaments in their Christmas Gift Tips series today! Check out their whole Christmas Guide series for some major holiday inspiration!
Happy DIY’ing!
xoxox
Carly
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Dec 20, 2010 | DIY
Since I’ve posted a how-to for a cheap n easy Easter Wreath and a similar one for a Fall Wreath, I thought a Winter Holiday Wreath was in order. Though you don’t have to buy your bits and bobs at the Dollar Tree per se, I found that they had such a variety of items I could just mix and match add-ons to their pre-fab wreaths…which alone, looked a little sad and like you bought it at the Dollar Store. And we want something a little more fabulous, no?
(Everything except the tiny ornaments I bought at the Dollar Tree…and the ornaments were in the $1 bin at Target near the entrance of the store!) Though the method is a little self-explanatory, I figured why not do something easy when everything’s all caught up in that last-minute countdown to Christmas?
You Need:
*evergreen wreath base
*4 assorted decor sprays (mine had pine needle sprays, pinecones, tiny horns, wrapped packages, and plastic fruit, already affixed!)
*large red velour bow
*pack of tiny ornament balls
And…
*hot glue gun & gluesticks
*wire cutters
How-To:
1. Trim the ends of the decor sprays so they won’t stick out from your wreath. Also: Fluff out the pieces of “evergreen” towards the outside so the wreath looks a little fuller – we’ll be angling all the stuff we’re sticking on towards the inside to create the illusion of a nice, full wreath.
2. Attach the bow at the bottom of the wreath base – mine had a pipe cleaner attached to the back for easy-affixment.
3. Hot-glue the decor sprays around the wreath.
4. Add the tiny ornaments, hot-glued in-between. (I chose ones that were within the same color scheme of my other decorations: red/gold.)
Done!
Okay, that took 5 minutes. Now on to the million batches of cookies I still have to bake!
Did You Know? The familiar stick-on 8-point ribbon bows that so many of us use on our holiday gifts are actually called “German Christmas Stars” (among many other names). There is a great step-by-step illustrated tutorial here for those of you who want to try folding your own (just don’t flatten down the points to get that “present bow” look).
Happy DIY’ing! (And if you’re looking to jazz up this wreath a little bit, do so with my Super-Easy $5 Holiday Wreath Tutorial…coming up shortly!)
xoxox
Carly
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Sep 27, 2010 | DIY
So sorry no post yesterday…I actually took Saturday off! Like, completely off from the blogosphere. I haven’t done that in a long time. (Felt a little guilty, though!;-)
But I let it go and had a great day, taking Lil Tot to a birthday party at a really cool community center I’ve never been to before (with a swirly 2-story water slide and multiple fun-showers in the toddler pool!! And free fitness classes!) and then the Oregon Fiber Arts festival, where I bought a huge skein of mohair since I think I’m going to attempt knitting this sweater…and maybe one of these sweaters or dresses too…someday…and Lil Tot petted the many goats, bunnies, and alpacas there.
Now that he knows alpacas are neither caramels nor tax forms nor fish but are indeed animals…they are his favorite animal recently!
They are so adorable, and make this tiny hiiiiiin, hiiiiiiin sound. I’ve never heard an alpaca cry before. Lil Tot has even renamed his fave game “Duck, duck, goose!” to “Alpaca, alpaca, capybara!” (and the inclusion of the capybara is an even longer story;-)
But I digress. Even though I didn’t post on my blog yesterday, I still DIY’ed!
Following up on my $4 Easter Wreath that I made for…um, Easter…earlier this year, I decided to hit up my local Dollar Tree once again in order to create a beautiful leafy Fall wreath bursting with color. It’s soooo cheap, and it will take you 30 minutes, tops!!
Dollar Store $4 Fall Wreath
Project Difficulty:
(easy/beginner)
You Need:
*medium-sized wreath base ($1)
*3 leafy garlands ($1 apiece – I chose a variety that had tiny pumpkins, acorns, berries, and wheat sheaves attached)
*floral wire (I had on hand, but I saw it at the dollar store as well)
*wire-cutting pliers
*hot glue gun + gluesticks
How To: (the photos are not of the step-by-step since it’s pretty self-explanatory)
1. Cut a small piece of wire and thread it through the end of one of the leafy garlands. Twist it around the wreath base and twist the ends together, hiding the sharp ends inside the wreath.
2. Cut more pieces of wire and tie around the leafy garland in various places as you place it in a circle on top of your wreath base.
3. Continue in the same manner until you’ve layered all 3 leaf garlands atop one another, going round and round the wreath circle.
4. Use hot glue to glue down the leaves to hide any of the wire or stems that may show.
Hang up on your front door and enjoy! The wonderful thing about this wreath is that the color is so vibrant…and it will last FOREVER. (And that it’s about $15 less than similar decorations you might find at Target…or $30 less than those you might find at Pottery Barn…;-)
Happy DIY’ing and Happy Fall!
xoxox
Carly
P.S. I’m not doing a Style it Chic! post today since I’ve got a huge post with ONE WEEK of styling options coming up…hopefully will post tomorrow…
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Apr 3, 2010 | DIY
I meant to post this yesterday so you’d have time to try this before Easter, but I fell asleep early and slacked a little bit. If you decide to make this, I hope it’s still in time! (Sorry about that.)
I saw this lovely Easter wreath at Target, but since it was $19.99 (and similar ones were equally-priced at Jo-Ann’s)…you can guess what went through my mind.
DIY it for less!
So a quick trip to the Dollar Tree later, about 10 minutes assembling it at home with Lil Tot, and now I have an Easter decoration I’m really proud of.
How to Make a $4 Easter Wreath
You Need:
*1 pack of Dollar Tree plastic Easter Eggs (I found some pretty pastel speckled ones)
*2 Dollar Tree leafy garlands
*1 Dollar Tree wreath base (I chose a medium size)
*floral wire (or any thin, bendable wire – you may be able to get at the Dollar store, though I didn’t look)
*wire-cutters
*hot glue and glue gun
How-To:
1. Hea t up your glue gun.
2. Using lengths of wire, attach one leafy garland around the perimeter or your wreath base. (I circled the wire around the garland + wreath, and tied the ends like a twist-tie, twisting multiple times until it was secure. Then I folded the cut ends of the wire in-between the wreath wicker pieces so there were no sharp edges sticking out.)
3. Add the second leafy garland around the wreath, paying attention to any bare spots left by the first.
4. Close all the plastic eggs. Squeeze hot glue onto an egg; press egg onto wreath in order to camouflage a wire tie.
5. Continue with all the eggs, paying attention to color, placement, and angle.
You’re done! Hang somewhere and admire.:-)
Since I got the eggs, 2 garlands, and the wreath at the Dollar store (and already had hot glue, wire, and wire cutters on hand), the project cost me a total of 4 DOLLARS.
You could also, if you were particularly enterprising, paint a layer of clear or pastel glitter on your eggs to make them even more like the $19.99 Target/Jo-Ann version.
Bwahahahaha!
Happy DIY’ing!
xoxox
Carly
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