Please excuse the personal goodies in the background, but I couldn't wait to put it up.
Step One - Visit your local home improvement store, and pick up a few paint chips. I know they put these out for people to take, but I still have trouble taking them without feeling like a thief. That doesn't stop me though! I picked up a slew of different fall and harvesty colors.
Step Two - cut each sample down to 1 inch strips. The Behr samples I got at Home Depot are five inches so they cut down nicely and evenly...I hate needing to do math. Then if you are a control freak as I appear to be...lay out the color scheme as you want it to look in the garland.
Step Three - Choose the first color and put a piece of tape on the lightest color, then bring the darker color around and make a circle.
Step Four - I chose to link two of the same color together, so no color would be lost in the garland. Thread another strip through the circle you just made, and tape it closed. Continue with this step until the garland is the length you want!
Step Five - To create the leaf embellishment in the center of the garland...turn over one of the paint chips. I free handed these leaf shapes, but if you want there are tons of leaf templates to be found on Google images.
Hint! Make sure you either have wrong sides or right sides facing each other or you have 2 leaves that cannot be put together with the color swatch on the outside. OOOOPS!
Step Six - After cutting the leaves out the right way (way to go me)! Attach double stick tape in the middle and put the leaves together.
Step Seven - Use a small hole punch to create a hole in the stem of each leaf.
Step Eight - Add a twine string between two leaves. This way they will hang nicely in the center of the garland
Step Nine - I can't show this step in real life...but once the garland is tacked up in the middle. ..wrap the twine around the tack and shift the leaves up or down to your liking.
Finished garland and my very decorated hearth area.
I wanted to share this tutorial because I was seeing this type of wreath pinned over and over on pinterest and I had a blast making several of them for different family members. I added the turkey myself, but other than that I think it is very much like the inspiration piece. Also, FYI...I am new to making tutorials so I don't have a picture of each step. Once I start working I sometimes forget to snap a picture of what I did...OOPS! Well...let's get started
Step 1 - Cover a wreath form in yarn. This one was 12"...but I did a 10" for Halloween and a 14" for a family member. I think all of them turned out fine. The 14" looked a little thin, but overall was alright. I wrapped first with some brown yarn I had leftover to fill out the form a little and then wrapped around that with a marbly green (lots of shades of green, some red and even a little brown). The original brown is peeking through, but I really liked the way that looked.
Step 2ish - Cut a piece of felt into eighths. I used regular felt from the craft store, but I have ordered some better quality felt and I do like the colors of the higher quality felt. there are SOOOOOO many choices. After cutting the felt find a pencil or other cylindrical object (mine is a pinwheel stick). Wrap the felt around the stick. I wrapped a little asymmetrically to make each piece look a little different.
Step 3 - Put a bead of hot glue down the outer edge of the felt and then roll it onto itself. I found this is the best way to avoid burning the bejeesus out of your fingers. After rolling it up pull it off the pencil or pinwheel stick.
Step 4 - repeat steps 2 and 3 about a gajillion times...until you have a healthy pile of felt rollups. I used 10 colors and did at least 4 roll ups of each color. I had 6 rollups left when I finished the wreath. I really just added this picture because I liked all the colors together.
Step 5ish - This is where I left out a few pics. I started with three felt rollups on each side of the wreath . I'd say I left about a quarter of the yarn wrapped wreath showing at the top. After that I started adding rollups down the left side. There really isn't any method to my madness. I just add any color I wanted trying not to have any of the same colors touching. If you use fewer colors it really isn't any big deal if they touch.
Step 6 - Repeat on the other side. I didn't bother covering all the way to the center, because I knew I would be adding the turkey at the center.
Step 7ish - Cut another 2 pieces of felt into fourths hot dog style (meaning fold the felt long ways before cutting). this way you end up with four long pieces. Put a bead of hot glue down the long edge and then fold the felt over on itself. I forgot a picture of the first two parts, but you end up with eight long teardrop pieces of felt. The two orange pieces are for the turkey's feet. If you are not making a turkey, all your pieces can be the same color or you can mix up the colors.
I forgot to take any pictures of the turkey assembly. I hope to get better at this. Take each felt teardrop and make a felt flower. Here is a YouTube tutorial of the process...it shows how to make three flowers, but the first one is how I make the turkey.
After making all the felt pieces into flowers I glued them into the middle of the wreath where the rollups come together. this makes a great fluffy pom body for the turkey. You can't see it in the final picture, but I glued the orange flowers to the bottom to make the turkey feet.
Final step - make the turkey head. Again no pics of the step by step...sorry. I took a scrap of brown felt folded it in half and cut out a head shape...that way I had a way to put a pipe cleaner int he middle so the head will stand up. I made the turkey neck about 4 inches long so I would have plenty of room to adhere it to the wreath. I put the pipe cleaner in the middle and then glued the two pieces together. then I used more felt scraps to create the beak, waddle and eyes. My dad really thinks he needs google eyes, but I didn't have any so I made a google looking eye out of felt.
So....I hope that was tutorially enough. I have another one to post later about how to make felt hair embellishments. I think I might have stepped over into the crafty abyss...felt is my new pest friend. Oh well...this turkey makes me insanely happy. I am so glad that tiny things like this make me so happy. Not hard to turn a bad day around when roughly 13 pieces of felt and some yarn can make a person giddy! Have a great day!
What a day....this was one of those days that come along every once in a while and I just bask in the glory of it for about a week after. Robin and I both had a holiday yesterday and today. Today I finally felt up to leaving the house. We went to Hobby Lobby, Michael's, the mall (GASP!), and the grocery store. Once we got back home, Robin and I settled into our crafty groove and watched some quality television (Judy Moody and Bad Dog). Robin made several multicolored spiders to add to our Halloween decor,
and I started on her hand painted Toms. I have one shoe finished, but I have not been able to convince her that the one shoe painted, one shoe plain look in totally in this season. She is insisting on two painted shoes.
I also worked on some of my fall themed wreaths. I am having so much fun rerouting my teachery craftiness into basic crafty goodness. I found this wreath on etsy and have made a halloween one, two fall ones, and once I get the right green yarn I will be starting on a christmas version.
I also made some duct tape flower pens to add to a birthday gift that I dropped off this afternoon. The pens didn't take long to make at all and they are soooooo cute!
In other news...my mom made it home from Vegas in one piece...with some amazing stories. What I wouldn't give to be a fly on the wall for one of the infamous "Sister trips." As is the norm with our family the trip home from the airport took about 6 hours instead of 45 minutes, but Mimi was already to a pretty good place about the whole ordeal. I love it when I don't have to be present when things fall apart, and I get to see the hilarity in the retelling of the experience. So Robin and I split the day between relaxing and being productive and now we are waiting for our baked potatoes. Tomorrow...it is back to business as usual...for now at least
