Archives for July 2010

A friend of mine did this on the main wall of their apartment and I fell in love!  I had to do it.  She got her frames at DI and Goodwill and found some larger ones.  She then went and had her vinyl cut at a store in the mall.  I don’t remember how much she paid for it, but I remember it was more than I wanted to pay for mine.
So, originally I did mine out of tracing paper and card stock.  I printed out the letters on the computer in a font I liked, and then taped the tracing paper and the paper I printed on.  I then used an exacto knife and cut the letters out.  I used a ruler to ensure straight, more professional looking edges.
I then cut my card stock to fit my frames.  I used StudioTac (it’s a graphic designer’s amazing friend and sold at art stores, it is kinda expensive though) to stick the tracing paper on the card stock.  StudioTac is a whole bunch of little sticky dots, so you could see it though the tracing paper.  I liked that it gave my letters some texture.  It also ensures that all your corners are adhered and stay that way.
Then I put the card stock in the frames and hung them on the wall.  It stayed like until I got my Cricut and some vinyl…

Then, I decided to update the look a little (and I saw my friend’s again and fell in love all over).  I cut out the letters BACKWARDS on vinyl with my Cricut.  I cleaned the glass well.  And then stuck the letters on the glass.  I cut them out backwards because I didn’t want the letters on the outside of the glass.  I wanted them in between the glass and the wall.  I glued the glass to the very edge of the frame with Tacky Glue (you could use gorilla glue if you’re worried about the strength of the hold, but I haven’t had any problems with them).  I left the backing off the frame so you could see the wall.  And then I added the knotted ribbon to the small frame.  Then I hung them back where they were. Perfection.
                                                                                                                                  

Here are two wreaths I made.  I have one hanging in our living room and just love how it helps brighten up the room a little.  I love the way they turned out.  They are so colorful and happy!  It’s so warm here and sometimes flowers have a hard time not getting scorched.  I still get my flower fix and I don’t have to worry about too little water and too much sun  Enjoy! 

The best thing about these wreaths:  They are all Dollar Store items!  Well, except the ribbon and the beads, both of which I already had on hand.

The wreath that has flowers all the way around it has a floral styrofoam ring base.  The flowers I cut off the bunch with wire cutters, leaving about 1 1/2 inch stems on each flower.  I just used hot glue to attach the flowers to the ring  I poked each steam into the styrofoam, pulled it back out and then squeezed hot glue into the hole and reinserted the flower stem.  Work your way around the entire ring.
I thought about hanging it with a ribbon, but I didn’t want to detract attention from the flowers so I just cut a notch in the back of the ring at the point where it stuck out the most.  It was perfect and sat on the nail just right.

The reed wreath I used the same technique as with the foam, except I stuck the stems between the reeds and hot glued them there.  For the ribbons, I hot glued the ends behind the flower heads and then just wrapped them around the top of the reed and secured them with hot glue behind a flower head on the other side.

For the ribbon flower, I took the end of a roll of ribbon and hot glued it to the wreath then I looped the ribbon to make the petal.  Put a small dab of hot glue at the spot on the ribbon where it crosses back over the end of the ribbon to secure it to the wreath.  Continue with the same process until you have enough petals to make your flower.  I just hot glued the beads to the ribbon to cover the ends and all the hot glue.  I did make an effort to put the sides with holes not facing up.