Lemonhead Spring Wreath

Bright yellow is such a cheerful color.  It reminds me of springtime.  This wreath looks like it's made from tasty Lemonhead candy, but not to worry.  No Lemonheads were harmed in the making of this wreath.  It's made from ping pong balls, of all things.

Materials needed:

• 98 ping pong balls - Buy a gross (12 dozen) online.  They don't have to be fancy ones, just cheap craft ones are fine.  I bought mine on Amazon.  Ebay is a good source too.
• 12 inch styrofoam wreath 
• Yellow spray paint - I bought one that said it is meant for plastic.  Look for a color that reminds you of lemons.
• White glitter
• Spray glue
• silk flowers
• ribbon
• hot glue

Spray your foam wreath with the yellow spray paint and let it fully dry.  Take that hot glue gun and glue on all of the ping pong balls.  This is trickier than it looks.  You would think that they would all line up perfectly, but because they're on a round wreath you need to leave little gaps to get the right spacing.  You might want to line them all up to make sure the spacing will work before you start gluing.  You will make five rows of balls.  I started with the inside row and then the outside one.  I worked toward the center row.  That way you can make sure the back of your wreath will lie flat.  The center row ended up not lying flat on the wreath, so several balls in that row are glued to other rows rather than to the wreath itself, which is fine.  You can't tell after it's all painted.

Next go to town with that yellow spray paint.  I painted it outside, even though it's still cold and wintery.  We were lucky enough to have a day around 50 degrees, which was just warm enough to paint.  I brought it inside after I did several coats so I could be sure the temperature was warm enough to fully dry the paint for 24 hours.

After the paint has fully dried, take some spray adhesive and spray small sections of the wreath and immediately sprinkle with your white glitter.  Spray adhesive dries quickly, so it's better to do a small bit at a time.  You could probably use spray glitter instead if you have some.

After the paint and glitter is fully dry, you can attach flowers or ribbon or other decorations.  Then hang it on your door.  I used a flat thumb tack to attach the hanging ribbon to the top of my wood door.

Spring is almost here!

Here are a few other Lemonhead wreaths I found online that inspired me to make this one.   

{Lil' Luna} {Sweet Pea}.

Easter Dress

I found a great tutorial for my daughter's Easter dress on Ucreate.

 

This was my first complicated piece of clothing, and this tutorial was a good one to start on.  It's fairly simple, no buttonholes, no fancy stuff, just a straight-forward dress.  I made the 5T size for my average sized almost 4-year-old daughter because I'd rather have it too big than too small.  It fits her just right and there's quite a bit of adjusting you can do with the button placement.

I changed just a few things- 

• The skirt hem is shorter (about 1 1/2 inches instead of 4-5) because I didn't have quite enough of the yellow accent fabric
• I used 3/4 inch buttons instead of larger fabric covered ones
• I did flat-felled seams instead of serged or zigzag seams inside the skirt.  It should make the skirt more durable and there won't be any fraying.
• I tacked the front of the sash to the dress just to keep it in place.

Also, check out the matching tie I made for my son.

Welcome Spring with Birds on a Branch

It's snowing outside right now, but spring should be right around the corner.  I found this idea on CraftyStylish, and I had to try it.  I have a bunch of birds and butterflies all around the house, so it fits right in.  It would make a great centerpiece for an Easter celebration.  It's sitting on my end table right now.  The nest is attached with a twisty tie, so I can take it off and have just the birds if I want to change it later.  The branch is sitting in a vase I made way back in High School.  I filled it up with beans that I had around, but you could also put this in a clear vase full of Easter candies and it would be really cute.

I had a hard time making the nest the way she did with yarn and glue, so I crocheted it instead.  I added a few Reeces candy eggs.

I'm glad I picked up these little birds at the after Christmas sales in Hobby Lobby.  They came in handy.  They are attached with wire so I can change their positions.