Fall Wreath

I can't get over how quickly the moths are coming and going.  Life just seems to speed up faster every year.  Thank goodness I love to take pictures because if it wasn't for our family albums, I'd wonder where time has gone.

I finally started to decorate for Fall.  It's hard to decorate for the new season because of the heat here in Los Angeles.  Today was over 100 degrees, HOT.  With this weather, it just doesn't feel like Fall.  I spent the day shopping yesterday and Fall is everywhere in every store.  I was inspired to start my decorating around the house.  I love displaying wreaths and today I decided to make a Fall wreath.  You can get very creative and make something beautiful from your imagination and it's a quick, easy and inexpensive home decor piece.  Not to mention they look fabulous.  You can place it anywhere in your house.  The one I made today only cost me about three dollars.  It doesn't necessarily have to be hanging on your front door, you can hang them anywhere inside your house.

Here's how I made it
I used a floral wreath you can find at the Dollar Tree store for a dollar and scrapbook paper from Michael's.  I found this pretty paper at Big Lots:

You will also need a paper trimmer, glue gun, ribbon (also from the Dollar Tree store), silk flowers and fall leaves 

First, cut the paper in strips, don't make them too wide, about an inch to an inch and a half is good

using the glue gun, adhere your strips of paper on to the floral wreath

 hot glue the flowers and leaves on the wreath and finally, accessorize with a ribbon

If you haven't began your Fall decorating, head on over to the linky parties below so you too can be inspired.





I'm linking to these parties:

Organza Wreath

Would you like to receive a special gift in the mail from me?

read on and find out how.

UPDATE:  WINNERS FOR THIS CHALLENGE HAVE ALREADY BEEN SELECTED

After scoring on April Cornell's beautiful table napkins from Bill at Affordable Accoutrements, I was in a giving mood so I hopped on over to Lisa's Easy Frugal Living blog for a little "Pay It Forward". This is how I get to gift something to you, I'll explain further down in my post.



For today's post, I'm showing my Pink welcome wreath

Here's what you need: Organza (my piece was three feet by six feet), scissors, hot glue gun, strips of decorative paper (I used an old book), pins, printable transparancy.

You can purchase a styrofoam circle at dollar tree store or at Michael's. Cut strips of decorative paper, enough to cover the whole circle. Use your glue gun to glue the paper onto the foam.

Once you wrap the styrofoam, it will look like this

Next, cut a strip of organza, about 5 inches wide and 6 feet long, don't worry if your organza is not 6 feet long, any length will do. My organza had three different shades of pink, very pretty.

Accordion fold the organza about 5 inches in width

Now, sew all around the organza, it's okay if the organza does not stay in a square shape, as long as you sew a square that is four inch by four inch, you'll be fine. This step is done to keep the organza together so it's easier to cut circles out of.

Next, cut a circle shape, about 3 inch in diameter, inside the sewn square, like this

You will cut through all layers and end up with all these circles. The circles do not have to be perfect, just so they resemble circles will be just fine.

Repeat the process once more until you have about 25-30 circles.

Take each circle and fold in half

Then fold in half again

now pin it to the styrofoam

make two layers, one facing up and the other facing down, you can use all same colored pins or the silver ones if you'd like. I used multi-colored pins on mine

Once they are all in place, it will look like this

I made a bow with the rest of the organza and a long strip to hang it with. I then glued a welcome transparancy sign in a cute curly pink font and, wah-lah! the final product!

I love the way it turned out. It's so economical too because it's the same styrofoam I used for my Valentine's day and my St. Patrick's day wreaths.

Now........that special gift for you, please read on

UPDATE: WINNERS FOR THIS CHALLENGE HAVE ALREADY BEEN SELECTED
PLEASE STAY TUNED, MORE CHALLENGES TO COME.

**************

The Pay It Forward challenge was first introduced by my blog friend, Lisa at Easy Frugal Living . It was on her friend's post, Rhonda, where I was selected to participate, Woo Hoo! Rhonda is going to send me a hand made gift she makes herself....I cannot wait!!!



Here's where you come in, don't you love it when you receive a thoughtful gift from a friend in the mail??? specially when it's a hand made gift made specially for you?? well, now you have an opportunity to receive a gift from me!!! with all the kindness and thoughtfulness attached to it.



Here's how it works: The first three people that would like to join the Pay It Forward Challenge, leave a comment on this post, specifying you would like to participate in the Pay It Forward Challenge, will receive a home made gift from me in the mail!!! HELLO!!! You will receive a handmade item from myself within three months, completely free of charge to you. I can promise that I will make something very special for you so that you will be pleasantly surprised when it arrives in the mail.



The Catch......sorry, there is a catch, BUT A NICE ONE. You have to Pay it Forward and commit to doing the same thing. Place a Pay It Forward post on your Blog, Facebook account, etc. Send something handmade to three people within three months, you can wait until you receive my gift, there's no hurry. The items should be handmade by you. It can be anything; an embelished scrapbook page ready for pictures, a set of greeting cards, an artist's trading card...etc...Wouldn't it be nice to make someone's day? So who's in on spreading a little Pay It Forward, Handmade Style? leave me a comment that you would like to participate, I will select the first three, it's that simple.

I appreciate and look forward to your comments. You can still leave a comment, even if you don't want to participate in the Pay It Forward Challenge.

Laura at Along for the ride, is having a $40 gift certificate giveaway, make sure you link up with her before the 27th for a chance to win:

For today's Pink Saturday Challenge, I'd like to introduce a wonderful Pink lady, and now my blog friend, Patricia from Concerning Marie. She is a multi talented artist who's subject of choice is Marie Antoinette and life in that era. If you need inspiration, head on over to her blog, there's plenty to see that will inspire you in what ever you are working on. You will find poetry, quotations, paper crafts, altered books, mixed media art and so much more, head on over and say hello.

Please visit my Linky Parties above and don't forget to go and check out all the goodies April Cornell has, trust me, you're going to be glad you found her site. Specially with Mother's day coming up.

St. Patrick's Day.....Kiss me you fool!

http://www.thethriftyhome.com/

I was looking at my LOVE wreath yesterday, the one I made by following Fire Flies and Jelly Beans step by step instructions. I LOVE this wreath and thought it was sad that now, since Valentine's day is over, I'll have to put it away.................................sorry, I had to wipe the tears.

BUT today I thought, what if I turn it into a St. Patricks day wreath? would it work????? I ran over to the dollar tree store and found some supplies. A wire garland with shamrocks and some curly bows and I was on a mission.

I cut out additional pages from that old book I had and turned them into strips, just enough to cover the "Love" letters on my Valentine's day wreath. I also pulled off the flowers and took down the red ribbon.I then brought out additional supplies: some glue dots, a transparancy sheet printable on an ink jet printer, scissors, green ribbon, and my trusty 20 year old glue gun. Yep, I bought it when I was a baby. By the way, don't you just love my table cloth? I got it at Marshall's for $20!

I glued the strips around the styrophome to cover the "LOVE" letters. This is how the back of the styrophome looks like when you glue the strips of paper on the back.

I then printed out the words "kiss me" in curly font size 200 in Microsoft Word on a transparancy. I cut around the words and placed glue dots on each corner to attach it to the wreath.

I downloaded this picture from the internet, trimed all around it and attached it to the wreath.

And here's the final product, I love it.