the thrifty crafter

The weekends have been nice around the beach lately so we’ve been taking our dog down there to play. There always seem to be an abundance of nice, big, unbroken shells at Dog Beach (probably because you don’t see many little kiddos running around with their pails full) so I’ve been picking up the pretty ones and saving them for a craft.  As most seashell decorations tend to not be my favorite, I wanted to create something that brought in my love of nature-inspired, textural elements.

I’m a collector of all notions crafty  – when I head to a thrift store, discount store or garage sale (or even when someone does their spring cleaning and discards perfectly good items that could be repurposed!), I’ll take home things that I might not have an immediate need for and save them until inspiration strikes.  Such is the case with this twig wreath, which I found discarded on top of someone’s trash.  It originally had ugly, fake flowers not-so-delicately hot-glued on it which were easily removed to reveal a clean and natural base.  The lotus seed pods were found at a thrift store mixed in a bag with preserved leaves for $2 (but you can find them at any Michael’s) and my reindeer moss is leftover from some Christmas projects.  I wanted another textural component, so used my trusty 40% Michael’s coupon to purchase these interesting dyed and dried mushrooms.

While I think the addition of succulents would be gorgeous, I wanted something dried so that I could hang it, then store it away with the seasons.  So grab a hot glue gun,  get inspired by your findings and leftovers, and get creative!

Around St. Patty’s Day, I found a lovely tutorial for a rosette wreath made from a zillion felt circles.  Little did I know when starting the project that my delicate dentist hands would hurt for a few days afterward from cutting all those circles!  BUT, I still love the tightly clustered look of the wreath and decided to change it up a bit to make it 1.) easier on the hands, 2.) less time consuming and 3.) festive for the 4th of July! Instead of circles, I cut 3 inch squares out of leftover fabric from my flag bunting, leaving the edges a bit raw to create the illusion of bursting fireworks.  Hands are fine, I was done in a few hours (instead of a few days) and the colors really pop!

Here’s what you need:

• 10-inch white styrofoam wreath form
• box of straight pins
• approx 2 yards of scrap fabric, the thicker the better
• rotary cutter, rotary mat and Omnigrip (so fast and easy if you are a quilter and have these already, otherwise use a ruler and scissors)
• scissors
• ribbon for hanging

Here’s what you do:

1. Snip edge of your fabric every three inches and rip out strips.

   

   

2. Layer strips of fabric together and cut out three inch squares.

   

3. Fold each square as shown, such that the folded over corner bisects the edge it is being folded over upon.

   

4. Fold over again as shown, so that you have four points sticking up.  Insert pin at folded edge.

   

5. Pin each folded square onto wreath form, clustering tightly to create bursting firework effect.

   

6. Fluff fabric after adding a few squares and continue adding until all visible surfaces of wreath are covered (everything but the backside).
7. Flip wreath over and use straight pins to affix your ribbon hanger.

Cost: $5, after using leftover fabric from another project!  I picked up the wreath and straight pins at Joann’s and used a 50% off coupon toward the wreath.  A super thrifty holiday craft!