Since I’ve been successful making a nut wreath and a popcorn wreath, I decided to apply my skills for Valentine’s Day. I bought a flat wooden wreath frame at Michael’s for $4. I bought big and small candy conversation hearts in bulk at the grocery story (I think you could use styrofoam hearts instead if you wanted) and used Aleene’s clear gel tacky glue, which I already had. As always, I got excited to start and forgot to paint the wreath frame. Don’t forget!!

I wired the frame so I could hang it. I also put soft felt dots on the back so it wouldn’t scrape the door it was going to hang on.

I started gluing on the big hearts. A dab of glue was enough to place each heart, but I could only do one layer because it needed to dry. The glue makes the printed messages on the hearts run. I did all of mine upside down so it didn’t matter. If you do yours writing side up, you might want to do all face down except for the final layer so that they aren’t visibly smudged.

As you go, make each layer wider than the one beneath it, so that the wreath doesn’t look too narrow. This means you’ll be gluing some hearts on so that half of each heart sticks out into space. I did about 4 layers of big hearts and then I added some of the small hearts on top of it. This wreath was not very time intensive at all. All told it probably took an hour.

My next issue was if I needed to seal it. I was concerned that the colors in the candy would fade in the sun and I was also worried about it would hold up in storage year round, so I sprayed it with Mod Podge acrylic sealant. We tied a ribbon on the back and it was ready to go! My daughter thought I needed to cover it in glitter, but I liked it without. There is glitter spray available if you want to glitter yours.

Since I’ve been successful making a nut wreath and a popcorn wreath, I decided to apply my skills for Valentine’s Day. I bought a flat wooden wreath frame at Michael’s for $4. I bought big and small candy conversation hearts in bulk at the grocery story (I think you could use styrofoam hearts instead if … Read more →

I made today’s tree myself. After the popcorn wreath that I made turned out so well, I decided I simply had to have a popcorn tree to go with it in the kitchen. I bought a foam cone shaped form and glued the popcorn on with styrofoam glue (which dries quickly and also dries clear). I originally tried using Alene’s Tacky Glue, Clear Gel and it didn’t hold. This project was pretty quick to put together. I like have a tree and a wreath in the kitchen that match!

I made today’s tree myself. After the popcorn wreath that I made turned out so well, I decided I simply had to have a popcorn tree to go with it in the kitchen. I bought a foam cone shaped form and glued the popcorn on with styrofoam glue (which dries quickly and also dries clear). … Read more →

The wreath I saw last year at the holiday tour of homes

Every year my daughter and I go to a different holiday tour of homes. We love to see decorating ideas and also like seeing the insides of other people’s homes (yep, we’re nosy). Last year we went to Niagara-on-the-Lake, a lovely town just over the Canadian border. We saw lots of amazing things and came away with some fresh ideas. One thing that stuck with me was a popcorn wreath. It looked so fresh and white, almost like snow. I kept it in the back of my mind all year and when we started working on updating some decorations this year, I decided to get started on it.

I bought a flat wooden wreath frame at Michael’s. This is the same type of frame I used for my nut wreath, which hangs in my kitchen all fall and is one of the best craft projects I’ve ever made. I put a wire through two of the holes in the frame so that I would have a way to hang it.

I did some Googling for tips on how to make the wreath. Several sites said to string the popcorn then wrap it around the wreath frame. I spent an hour stringing popcorn then found that it looked pretty ridiculous when I wrapped it. First of all, the popcorn on the back of the wreath was going to break off and it was going to scratch against the door. It also ended up looking too orderly. I trashed that and started over. I began gluing popcorn to the wreath with a glue gun. This worked, but it used a lot of glue sticks and I also burned myself over and over because it’s impossible to see where on a kernel the glue is. If it falls off and you pick it up to restick it, you’re going to get burned.

Next I tried using Mod Podge to dip the popcorn in. This saved my fingers from burns, but it also ended up giving the popcorn a very yellowish tinge – it looked like it was buttered or even caramel corn. Next  I went out and bought Aleene’s Tacky Glue Clear Gel and that worked better, but still the popcorn turns a little yellow on contact, I think probably from shrinking when it gets moist from the glue. After three bottles of Aleeene’s glue, innumerable batches of popcorn and a lot of therapeutic time spent dipping popcorn in glue then sticking it on the wreath, I declared it to be done. My handy husband did the work with the ribbon to finish it off. I can’t even begin to estimate how much time I spent on this. Maybe 8 hours? I found it rather relaxing once I figured out how to do it well. I’m really proud of how well this turned out. I think mine looks just as nice as the one I saw last year.

Mod Podge disaster

Now, please learn from my experience. If you’re going to make a popcorn wreath, here’s how to do it efficiently:

1. Use a puffy styrofoam wreath base. The flat wooden base I used was too flat. If I had started with a foam base, my wreath would have looks fuller much more quickly, saving me hours and hours of time.
2. Paint the wreath base white. Again, something else I wish I’d done.
3. Attach wire or a hook to the back before you begin.
4. Buy regular white popcorn. I used organic because that’s what I had in the house, but Jiffy Pop White Popcorn pops up much whiter. I would have preferred that, but I was too far in when I realized
5. Air pop the popcorn. I made mine in a paper bag in the microwave.
6. Put felt circles on the back of the wreath so it doesn’t rub against the door, knocking all the popcorn off the edges. I stacked three felt circles and applied three of these stacks
7. Use Aleene’s clear gel glue.
8. Layer newspaper on your table to catch the glue drips.
9. Prop the wreath up on a couple of disposable plastic containers so you can access the sides and so it won’t stick to your paper.
10. Pour the glue into a disposable container and dip one side of each piece of the popcorn in the glue, using as little as possible.
11. Choose the big puffy pieces of popcorn as much as possible. Go around the wreath, gluing popcorn on then stop. If you try to add more popcorn on top of popcorn that is held by wet glue, it’s going to fall apart. Let the first layer dry before doing another. It needs several hours to dry.
12. Every once in a while as you are working, go around the wreath and give the popcorn a squeeze with your whole hand, molding it to the wreath and ensuring it will really stick and hold together.
13. Yes, the popcorn is going to break. Sometimes it breaks as you are dipping it in the glue. Other times it breaks when you attach it to the wreath. Sometimes it breaks later. It’s ok. You will have so much popcorn on this wreath no one will see.
14. Try to layer the popcorn so that all glued sides are facing down and big puffy sides are facing up. The better you hide the glue, the whiter and fluffier the wreath will appear.
15. Some of the popcorn is going to fall off. That’s why doing this in batches works. Let it dry, then hold it up and give it a little shake. If anything falls off, place a new piece of popcorn in its place.
16. Tie some ribbon around it when it’s done to dress it up.
17. Ta-dah! You’ve made a popcorn wreath.

Every year my daughter and I go to a different holiday tour of homes. We love to see decorating ideas and also like seeing the insides of other people’s homes (yep, we’re nosy). Last year we went to Niagara-on-the-Lake, a lovely town just over the Canadian border. We saw lots of amazing things and came … Read more →

I picked up this cute wreath at a local shop. It’s made by a local senior. He also had pumpkins, trees that similar, and some flowers made out of rolled paper. Some of his items are made with music scores as well. This is hanging on my office door for Valentine’s Day. I think it would be easy to make. Buy a heart wreath form, pick up a vintage book and a used newish book (to get the contrast in paper colors) and decoupage it on.  Cut the paper in flower shapes and gently roll the edges, layering the shapes on top of each other. I paid $21 for this.

I picked up this cute wreath at a local shop. It’s made by a local senior. He also had pumpkins, trees that similar, and some flowers made out of rolled paper. Some of his items are made with music scores as well. This is hanging on my office door for Valentine’s Day. I think it … Read more →

The best Martha Stewart craft I ever made was the nut wreath. It hangs in my kitchen every fall and has held up over the years. Based on this past success, I couldn’t help but be enticed by the picture of the bow wreath (click here for instructions) I saw in the latest issue of Martha Stewart Living.  It was super cute, and looked like it couldn’t be hard to make at all. You wrap a wreath form with ribbon then make bows and attach them to it.

The first challenge was the materials. I was in love with the color ribbon used in the magazine (and online). It was exactly what I wanted, yet none of my three local craft stores had anything close. I didn’t want to wait and order the ribbon online (Martha provides a link), so we ended up with a darker green which turned out to be almost as good.

Next problem – I bought the wrong size wreath form. Mine is 12 inches. Martha’s is 16. Oops. But we decided we would just make our bows a bit smaller and make less of them.

Wrapping the wreath form was simple. My husband was in charge of the bows. We have the Bowdabra, which makes bow-making super-simple. However, it’s still time consuming. 25 bows (more than Martha says to make) and about 2 hours later, we had a completed wreath. The bows are easy to attach to the form with the U pins.

All in all, this is a really easy project with a great result.  I’m thinking of doing one in blue for the kitchen (don’t tell my husband – I think he’s really tired of making bows!).

The best Martha Stewart craft I ever made was the nut wreath. It hangs in my kitchen every fall and has held up over the years. Based on this past success, I couldn’t help but be enticed by the picture of the bow wreath (click here for instructions) I saw in the latest issue of Martha … Read more →

We made this with a photo I took of my son snorkeling in Hawaii with one of my favorite ee cummings quotes. I framed it and hung it in my office.

We made this with a photo I took of my son snorkeling in Hawaii with one of my favorite ee cummings quotes. I framed it and hung it in my office.

Our US map

I’ve got a thing for maps. I grew up looking at the world map my grandfather kept next to the pool table in the basement that tracked all of my grandparents’ travels (they went to every continent but Antartica). I used to look at all the lines on that map (my grandfather drew lines, tracing every trip they took) and imagine myself following them. I wanted to see every single place they had been and more. That cherished vintage map now hangs on our basement stairs and I think of them every time I go past it. It is one of my most special possessions.

My grandparents’ map

Lately I’ve been drooling over the maps I saw in catalogs – world maps or US maps, framed and meant to put thumb tacks in for every place you’ve visited. But they start at about $170 (minimum  – many are over $200). Which seemed pretty ridiculous for a map. So I made my own.

I ordered a 36×24 map from Amazon for about $5. I actually got both a world map and a US map (it’s hard to fit a lot of pins close together on the US in the world map, so we did both maps so we could show every place we’ve been in the US). Look carefully at the colors on the map. I ordered one world map only to realize it was mostly pink which just looked ridiculous in the room I wanted to hang it in.

Go to your local office store and buy a piece of foam board that is at least 36×24 (about $10). Go to Michael’s or JoAnn’s when frames are on sale and buy one you like that will fit a 36×24 map (mine was about $30).

Our world map

Take the glass out of the frame and use it as a template on the foam board. Cut the foam board with a utility knife.

Make sure the map actually fits on the foam board (I had one map that was supposed to be 26×24 but in reality was a few inches smaller).

You can either lay the map on the foam board and place the frame over it to hold it in place, OR you can use a spray adhesive to spray the board and attach the map to it. It really depends on how secure your map feels without the adhesive. I did one each way. It’s much easier if you aren’t using the adhesive, but your frame might not be tight enough to keep the map from buckling without it. Do not put the glass in the frame!

Hang it on the wall. Buy colored map pins to mark every place you’ve visited. We decided that we would put a pin in every place we had stayed in overnight together. For cruises we marked each port of call.

You just saved yourself at least $130! This also makes a nice gift. I made one for my parents.

I’ve got a thing for maps. I grew up looking at the world map my grandfather kept next to the pool table in the basement that tracked all of my grandparents’ travels (they went to every continent but Antartica). I used to look at all the lines on that map (my grandfather drew lines, tracing … Read more →

We take tons and tons of photos on vacation. In the past five or six years, I have concentrated on trying to get a really good photo of the four us in whatever fantastic location we are at. We have photos of us eating shave ice in Hawaii, at the rim of the Grand Canyon, in front of a castle in England, in the Colosseum, in front of a glacier in Alaska and lots more. I pick a really good photo from each trip and frame it. However, my shelves and tabletops quickly became cluttered.

For a long time I’ve wanted to do a staircase display of photos and finally I realized that if I gathered all of these photos together from around the house, they made a rather grand collection. Fortunately, the frames they were in worked together. We had an empty wall along part of our staircase, so we got to work.

First we photocopied the photos in the frames and cut them to size. We were then able to tape these up on the wall and move them around to find the perfect arrangement. Then we had to do the hard part – remove the stands from the backs of the photos, so they would lie flat on the wall. That was a commitment because now they can only be displayed on a wall.

Next, we decided to make our lives easy and we used the new 3M removable velcro attachments for wall hangings. One piece goes on the frame and one goes on the wall and they velcro together. The sticky stuff comes off if you pull on a tab, without damaging the wall at all. Miraculous. It also allows for those “oops” moments when you need to correct a mistake.

I am hoping to be able to add to this collection of photos, so being able to remove them and rearrange if I add new photos really helps.

We take tons and tons of photos on vacation. In the past five or six years, I have concentrated on trying to get a really good photo of the four us in whatever fantastic location we are at. We have photos of us eating shave ice in Hawaii, at the rim of the Grand Canyon, … Read more →

When my kids were little I always put pinwheels in their Easter baskets. They loved blowing on them and watching them spin. I’ve never tried to make one though! Thanks to Sassy Suppers though, I now know how and it was pretty easy. Martha’s instructions are here.  We printed out patterned paper using the colored printer since I didn’t have anything cute. It’s a pretty simple matter of just cutting and gluing the corners in. I didn’t have a clothespin, so we just stuck it at the end of a stick. Very cute! And very easy. You could definitely do this project with little kids.

When my kids were little I always put pinwheels in their Easter baskets. They loved blowing on them and watching them spin. I’ve never tried to make one though! Thanks to Sassy Suppers though, I now know how and it was pretty easy. Martha’s instructions are here.  We printed out patterned paper using the colored … Read more →

Sassy Suppers has chosen a craft for our next project to get us ready for Memorial Day: Pinwheels. Sounds like fun!

Sassy Suppers has chosen a craft for our next project to get us ready for Memorial Day: Pinwheels. Sounds like fun!