Necktie Wreath Tutorial

Pinterest Project #1: A necktie Wreath

This is the wreath that I saw on Pinterest! I thought it was AMAZING! Wouldn't this be perfect for June (Fathers Day) or maybe a missionary homecoming? You could use all of the ties that your husband or father (or missionary - because they come home with SO many ties) doesn't want anymore!

Credit should be given to the original creator - I found her on Etsy!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/NaturallyNatalie?ref=seller_info

There are a couple of different shops on Etsy, one allows you to send in ties that are special to you and they will make the wreath for you, another site just send you a wreath of ties that they have.

I googled tutorials, but I couldn't really find one... So here you go!

What you need:

• Foam Wreath Form (mine was 12 inch) You can get them at the dollar store!
• Neckties (approx 1 tie per inch of the wreath + one for the bow)
• Straight Pins
• Hot glue gun
• Something (wire, etc) to hang the wreath with
• 

Simply wrap the first tie around the wreath starting with the thin end. Make sure that you point the thin end of the tie toward the inside of the wreath so that the large end will point out.

Once it is in place, pin it on the underside of the tie. This makes everything a little less permanent while you put each tie in the right place. Repeat for each tie. I tried to mix my ties up

You can take the pin in and out and slide the tie where ever you need it on the wreath! Just make sure that the pin goes all the way through the entire tie. I put a little bit of hot glue under the tips to make the form a little more permanent.

Take the last tie and make a bow with it (you can skip this if you want) place it where it highlights the other ties. I pinned mine on the inside of the bow, and then added hot glue to finalize it.

This is my final product! I think it turned out pretty well, what do you think? Someone saw it hanging on my door, and featured it on KSL's show- Studio 5! Yeah!

Only 2 months to Halloween!!

I have the fattest babies in the world. Lat year baby J was SO fat, that someone said we should make him a sumo wrestler for Halloween. TA DA! Isn't he adorable?! I mad his little costume out of a long strip of red fabric, a piece of foam wrapped inside, and a little bit of that iron on seam stuff. Only took me about 30 minutes total - I made it during his nap before the Halloween party. I guess I spent another half hour before we went to the store looking at sumo wrestler images on google. I tried to make it authentic! His "top knot" is a black knee-sock. I put it on my head first to make sure that it wouldn't be too tight. Then i put it on his head and tied the end into a knot. I can't find the other pics right now, but the belt ties into a bow in the back, and I made the extra material wide enough to cover his diaper. He was the hit of the party. And my dad has had this pic as the background on his phone and showed it to everyone who will look for almost a year now!

So now I have 2 moths to Halloween - and a whole SLEW of ideas of what baby J could be. I've had a lot of suggestions about Chris Farley characters. Baby J has long blond curly hair now. Also, Samwise Gamgee. I have a list of 15 different things. Pinterest has only made the decision harder!! Stay tuned for what I come up with this time. I'm VERY excited! Baby N has joined our family as well, and will need his own little getup.

The Pinterest Projects

I have always considered myself the artsy-craftsy type. I took sewing classes when I was ten, I dressed my stuffed animals in homemade costumes, did paint by numbers and made jewelry with my dad. Over the years I have learned that I do not always come up with creative ideas, but when I see something I like, I can usually figure out how to replicate it!

If I can get a picture of something, my brain seems to work backwards from the final product. Take this for example. I wanted a pottery barn bedding set for my baby that was WAY out of my price range. I especially wanted the adorable mobile to go with it!

Isn't it too cute!? The whole theme was zebras, but only in different shades/prints of blue.

I decided that the price for the total set was outrageous, so I settled for the crib bumper, and then decorated the rest of the nursery around it. I found all kinds of different blue prints and looked very closely at the only two available pictures of this mobile on line. I borrowed my friend's sewing machine, downloaded patterns for small stuffed animal horses, and I got to work. Here is what some of the project looked like:

Anyway, I thought it turned out really well, and my baby just loved it! I started saving images of things that I liked in a file on my computer - for later projects of course! THEN, I discovered pinterest. BEST DAY EVER. I have now 'pinned' a never ending list of things that I would like to do one day. I've already started on several of them. So enjoy my future posts detailing all of my pinterest adventures. :)

look, i'm blogging!

These are all pictures from my very first blog post (which I have now edited).

i made these little fimo clay creations when i was in training for a new job a few years ago. the trainer explained to us on the first day that there are different types of learners. one type is a kin aesthetic learner, which as i understood it, means that one listens and learns better while doing something with their hands. on all the tables for the trainees, there were several boxes of modeling clay to play with if we wanted to. so i started with this modeling clay, and it turns out, not only do i listen well while i play with it (i haven't fallen asleep in class ONCE in 3 months!) i'm actually pretty good with the stuff! i started making little versions of everything i could see or think of. everyone in class commented on them, but at the end of the day i would squish them and put them back in the box of clay. then my trainer, martin, pulled me aside and told me one day that i should attempt to do something with my little clay creations. he told me to go get some bakeable clay that i could cook and play around with that so that i could save my creations. i took him up on it and headed to the craft store. he was conviced that i could actually make money off of the little things, but i'm really just doing it for fun.

so i started baking my creations, and learning about tools people use, and watching how to videos on youtube. it's really fun! i've even started doing it at home for fun sometimes. i looked it up on line to see if it's something common, and a lot of people actually do it. they make tiny clay miniatures for dollhouses! some of the artists out there are AMAZING, and make a lot of money doing what they do.

so today at the city library there is a 'dollhouse festival'. it is a fundraiser for something called the children's justice center, or CJC. it's a place where children who have been sexually or seriously physically abused go to be interviewed. their interviews are recorded and the idea is that they only have to tell their story and all the details once. it's traumatizing to a child to have to tell and retell a story of abuse. they relive the experience each time they tell the details. the CJC eluminates all the extra people. one interviewer talks to the child while a detective and anyone else who needs to be involved watches on a screen in another room. the place is just a big house, that has been converted into the center and there are tons of toys and homey, welcoming rooms. the children can feel very comfortable there.

anyway! there is a fund raiser for the CJC this weekend called the dollhouse festival. the festival was looking for people to donate dollhouses and dollhouse accessories to be auctioned off to raise money for the CJC. i thought i would go out on a limb, and i donated my little clay creations to the festival. i don't know if they will sell or not, but i thought, hey, if they are popular, what better cause?

well, i seem to have rambled enough. i'm going to go check the festival later today and see how my little guys did. hope you like the pictures! this is just a few of them. the end.