December 5th, 2011

DIY Christmas Yarn Balls

I actually made these with my sister and brother-in-law in 2008. I stumbled across the photos and thought I could do a the most basic of instructional posts. I got the idea from a DIY string lamp in Ready Made Magazine. Theirs is a much larger and more complex project. These can be made in nearly any size. Mine are approximately 5 to 8 inches across.

Supplies:

• Yarn or string (the amount varies by size and number, start with a skein for each color)
• Fabric stiffener (I buy Stiffy, mostly because the name makes me laugh)
• Balloons
• Waxed paper
• Small paintbrush
• sink or bowl
• clothespins
•  rags or newspaper

Instructions

1. Blow up a balloon to desired size and knot end to close. (You’ll need 1 balloon per ball)
2. Tie string between the knot and the balloon.
3. Wrap yarn around balloon repeatedly created a random, full coverage pattern. (Note: the thicker the layers of yarn, the longer it will take to dry.)
4. When you like the look of your covered balloon, cut the yarn and tie the end under the knot.
5. Dip your brush in the fabric stiffener (or put some in a paper cup and dip brush) and brush on to the string covered balloon, covering thickly. You could also pour some in a bowl and dip/spin the balloon and use the brush for detailed coverage.
6. Hold over sink until it mostly stops dripping.
7. Hang to dry. (I used the string ends and a clothespin and hung them in the shower to dry over night. You could also hang outside or over a pile of rags or waxed paper.
8. The next morning (make sure the string is dry) pop the balloon using a needle, knife or scissors.
9. Decorate with your balls! I’ve hung them (just loop some string through the top, small ones could be put in a bowl or vase). I also just put them on the coffee table on a tray. Super fun and easy!

December 1st, 2011

Winter Yarn Wreaths in Blue

I really loved the look of my halloween yarn wreath: modern and simple, with the clean lines that come from using yarn to cover the wreath form instead of pine cones or branches. I thought I would repeat the idea for winter, but opted to do a solid color with a showier embellishment. My crafting abilities don’t extend to making fabulous felt poinsettias or snowflakes to decorate a wreath and I like my projects to be completed in just about one nap time and the easiest way for me to accomplish that is to make the wreath and simply buy the embellishments.

For the wreath for my front door, I knew I wanted blue to fit with my planned blue/silver decorating scheme and the lighter blue just popped better against the color of the door. This one is a wrapped wreath form (one layer) with a single large branch decoration. I wrapped the tip of the branch to bring it all together and simply tied the branch in place.

Not too shabby for $10 ($4.50 wreath form, $3 branch (I think, It was cheap), and $3 yarn with 2/3 of the skein left).

I’m slightly addicted to making yarn wreaths, so I whipped up another in blue, but a different shade. This one was sent off to Virginia so if a certain someone doesn’t want to see her wreath, she best close the window now.

For this one, I stacked 3 different silver floral pieces from the dollar bin. I love how dramatic and shiny it is with the royal blue yarn. I must admit that I was a little tempted to keep it. I’m going to be doing some mini wreaths for indoors, I can’t wait.

(I am also more than a little bummed that I didn’t actually look at the pictures I took of the dark blue wreath before I shipped it. The tan wall is not doing it any favors. It is really quite cute.)

November 29th, 2011

Wordless Wednesday: Christmas of Yore

I was looking through the archives trying to find some sort of suitable christmas card picture and went way, way back and found this gem from Spencer’s first christmas. I wonder if that hat still fits; it’s so cute.

Do you have a wordless wednesday post? I’d love to see! Link up below.

November 25th, 2011

Leftover Turkey

Are you drowning in leftover turkey? I’m not. We didn’t even have turkey. But. If you are, here is a handy dandy list of recipes from last year’s turkey week on Soup or Salad Blog. Yum. They are all fantastic.

Turkey Bacon Salad

Turkey Stock

Turkey Chili Verde

Turkey Salad Stuffed Tomatoes

Turkey Bacon Salad

Turkey Jambalaya

Leftovers Soup

Turkey Orzo Soup

Turkey Chili Verde