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| Today I am announcing the winner of my first Give-A-Way. She will win my Cherry Motif Apron featured in a previous post. I want to thank all my followers for their sweet comments and their support of my blog. |
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| Karen of http://www.sewmuch2luv.blogspot.com | Congratulations, Karen. I hope you enjoy the apron! |
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| These are the pictures I promised you in my last post. My daughter-in-law, Veronica made this wreath using the brown "natural" coffee filters. This was made with a 16th inch styrofoam form and it took 2 packages of the filters. |
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| As with my white wreath, she took two filters at a time and folded them in half and then in thirds to made a pie wedge shape. We made some leaves from various scrapbook papers and just placed them between the rows. We added a green burlap bow by clearing a small area and glueing a cube of "oasis" foam to the wreath. Then we glued the bow to the oasis so it wouldn't get buried in all the folds of the filters. This wreath had a very full "Pleated" look. Our wreath form was green and we realized after we started that we should have wrapped the wreath with strips of muslin so we wouldn't have any problems with the green showing through. For instructions on how to make one of these, please see my previous post, below. Happy folding! |
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| I have had a lot of "firsts" on my blog lately and here is another: My first Tutorial. I know there are instructions all over the web on how to make these, but I will share my experience with it as I will be teaching a class on these at our Church Crafts Night this month. |
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| First of all, purchase 2 pkgs of coffee filters, either in white or natural. As you can see, I have chosen white. I took two at a time and after separating them. I put them back together and folded them in half. Then I folded it into thirds. |
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| Next I fluffed it out a bit, separating the layers to get more volume. |
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| I decided I wanted my wreath to sparkle! (This will come as no surprise to anyone who knows me). So I had a cup with Elmers Glue and a pan with fine silver glitter. |
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| I dipped the filters into the glue and then into the glitter and gently shook off the excess. They effect was what I wanted, but I found that this process made the glue thicker than it needed to be and actually took about 4 to 5 hours to dry! I changed my method to using a fairly large brush to brush the glue on the tips of the filters and then dip it into the glitter and it dried much faster. |
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| You will need a 16" or 18" foam wreath form for this project. The one I found was flat on the front and back so I trimmed some of the foam on the sharp edge on the front to give more of a rounded shape. It only took a couple minutes. You will need to fashion a hanger on the back of your wreath. As you can see, mine isn't much to look at but it does the job. |
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| Some people suggest using a glue gun, but I used straight pins with a little ball on top and I highly recommend it. It gives you the opportunity to re-position your little "filter florets" if you are not happy with how it's looking. I recommend starting on the outside edge and do the entire row before moving on to the next row. Once I had the first two rows looking good, I did take my glue gun and put a little dab at the base of each "floret" for stability. It gets a little tricky once you get to the last row on the inside of the wreath, but if you will pin the first one with the wreath flat on a table, then you can turn it over and do the rest by lining them up behind the first one. You will see what I mean when you have it in front of you. I used an 18" wreath form and I took 5 rows to fill it in to a very nice fullness. I didn't want a "pleated" look, necessarily. I wanted it to look more like closely clustered flowers and I think that's what i got. |
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| This gives you an idea of the fullness. I love the glitter effect, but here is what I would do next time if I want the glittered look. This would save a LOT of time. Wait until you have all the "florets" pinned on. THEN, use a 3" paint brush to lightly brush on the glue to the finished wreath and then sprinkle on the glitter. Shake it off onto a large piece of paper so you can harvest the left over glitter. I think if you do this in about 4 sections, you will get a great look. My daughter-in-law made a wreath out of the brown, natural colored filters and it was a very cool, but very different look. I will show that in my next post. See you soon! |
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| My sister and I had a marvelous trip together last week. We flew into Boston from Salt Lake City and then rented a car. We drove up to Portsmouth, New Hampshire and shopped in a wonderful historic area called "Strawberry Banks" Our next stop was Kennebunkport, Maine. |
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| I had always heard it was beautiful little town, so we went a bit out of our way to see it, but I'm so glad we did. |
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| The town was quite crowded since it was the last week of August and it is clearly a tourist destination, but we still really enjoyed looking around. |
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| There were amazing beach homes everywhere. I love New England homes. On the West Coast we just don't have the same historical perspective. |
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| There really was no end to the many "colonials" I could have taken pictures of. This picture doesn't do this one justice. It was enormous and very grand. I will tell you more about the rest of the trip and our ultimate destination in a later post. Just a reminder: This is the last day to enter my giveaway for the apron you can see on a previous post. Good Luck. The drawing will be tomorrow! |
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| We gathered recently at my son and daughter-in-law's home for a family dinner and I was inspired by her back yard. Veronica spends a lot of time with her yard and her flowers and it was really beautiful. She collects these vintage aqua Ball canning jars, and she put them inside the tray you would use in the big canning pot and made a gorgeous centerpiece with them. She used flowers from her garden and the effect was perfect. |
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| I have always loved her gift for display. She does such a great job of it in her home and down at the "Olive Kat". |
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| Matt built this planter box in a spot that had been dominated by an old hot tub - BIG IMPROVEMENT! |
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| I'm including one peek at the inside of their home. I will show you more in the next few month, since I love how they decorate for the holidays! I am off on an adventure today. I am going to Maine with my sister for a family reunion of my Mother's family. I have never been to Maine, but I love New England, so expect some fun pictures in my next posting. | A Reminder!! You still have until August 31st to sign up for my drawing for the Apron pictured below in my previous posting. Thank you SO much for visiting my blog! |
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| This apron that I designed and made is the prize in my first ever Give-A-Way. |
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| The cherry motif on the yoke and pockets are hand appliqued. The Apron is fully lined with a coordinating red and white polka dot fabric as you can see below. |
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| The winner will be decided by a random drawing of all my followers. There aren't too many of those yet, so your odds are good. The Give-A-Way drawing will happen on September 1st so there is plenty of time to join if you like. You just need to set up a Google account if you don't already have one (takes about a minute). If you would like to improve your odds, I will enter your name a second time if you leave a comment (after joining) on this post, and a third time if you mention my Give-A-Way on your blog. Thank you so much for visiting and good luck! |
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| There was only one "Vintage Gathering" Flea Market sale this summer, which is sad, but it was great. I got to take my daughter, Heidi who was here visiting for our family reunion. |
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| Heidi found these cute dish towels with a raw edge muslin pleated ruffle. They were unadorned so she asked me to applique something on them for her, so Beehives it was. |
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| Love these plump organic looking pillows. |
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| There were gorgeous flowers everywhere - my favorite thing! |
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| So many fun vintage items. I found a very old (1909) book titled "The Rose Fairie and Other Stories". Of course, it had to come home with me. I am putting it to use on my pages for the Fairie Book Swap at karlascottage.typepad.com. |
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| Who can resist blue and white? |
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| My daughter bought this old painting. She will clean it up a little and paint the frame and hang it in her daughter, Ashey's room. |
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| Fabulous Hydraengas |
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| This color is amazing! Thanks for visiting. Watch soon for my first "Give-A-Way". | It will be awarded randomly to one of my followers. |
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| A couple weeks ago, I had the occasion to visit a friend on the central Washington coast. She lives and works at the "Ocean Crest Resort" which her family has owned for years in Moclips, Wa. It is a beautiful resort with stunning Ocean Views. Just a few miles down the road from there was the village of Seabrook, WA. |
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| I had heard of Seabrook, but had never seen it and I fell in love with it. Each cottage has it's own charm, reminiscent of Eastern seaboard beach houses. Seabrook isn't right on the beach but very close by. |
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| It's a planned community with a little central shopping area. We had lunch at the only restaurant and the food was wonderful. |
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| I believe the developers of this community are the same ones who have one in Lincoln City, OR. |
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| I find the small cottages rather irresistible. |
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| I love exploring the Pacific Northwest and finding these gems. Maybe one day I will be able to take some pictures in actual sunshine! :-) For more information on renting these cottages, click here: |
