Typical Fall Scenes

Beautiful masses of leaves upon trees.

Beautiful boy in masses of leaves.

♥M

Little Paper Wreaths Au Natural

Now just grab your small paper wreath forms made as per yesterday's tutorial, your glue and some natural decorative bits, and DECORATE till the cows come home!

I used dried hydrangea florets, sorbaria seed heads, and dusty miller leaves as well as an assortment of fallen leaves - you know, all those dead things from the yard - to spiff mine up.

Cutie pies.

♥M

My Tiny Brain Wave #5 - Easy Paper Wreath Forms

I'm afraid it's been ages since my last Tiny Brain Wave. Do you even remember this little series? Do I? Let's harken back for a moment... Ah yes! A tiny brain wave is that immensely occasional feature wherein I share an idea that, in itself, is NOT a craft but rather an idea or technique that might come in handy for making a craft somehow sometime.

Right. Oh.

Today I'm showing you how I made the simple little wreath forms above. Okay then?

You will need: a pair of scissors, strip of craft paper (or any paper), water, yogurt tub (or something equally cylindrical), microwave oven (optional)

I started by cutting a roughly 5 inch (12.5cm) strip of paper the width of my craft paper roll which I'm guessing is about 30 inches or 75 cm wide or so.

I poured a little water over the strip. I didn't completely wet it. Just mostly. And then I folded in the raw edges of the paper.

Working gently so as not to rip the paper, I twisted the entire wetted strip. I then wrapped it snuggly around a small plastic tub, the kind yogurt or sour cream come in, you know? The twisted strip made it around the tub 2 whole times.

I tucked both ends of the strip between the tub and twisted strip. It held in place quite securely.

Finally, I placed the tub with twisted paper in the microwave on High for 2 minutes. Had I been more patient I could also have let it air-dry overnight. Alas, patient I was not. Not this time. The microwave allowed me to make 4 little 4 inch (10cm) diameter wreath forms in a matter of minutes. See how cute?

These little wreath forms are very lightweight and quite sturdy because of the doubly-wrapped twisted paper. I wouldn't go so far as putting them outside or anything krayzay like that. But they are ideal for indoor decor and perfect for kids to get involved in. All you need are some paper strips, water and a cylindrical thing to act as a mold!

And now for the best part... DECORATE AT WILL! That's up next...

♥M

P.S. For a million (okay, maybe not quite a million...) wreath ideas hop over to The Wreath Blog!

P.P.S. Go to the bottom of the page HERE for old Brain Waves.

Judge-Mental

Hey, guess what I'm up to this week... I'm over at The CSI Project guest-judging this week's Wreath and Porch competition. Pretty sweet, eh?

While I'm at it, I thought I'd encourage you to join in the fun on Thursday and...

Link up that resplendent wreath and/or porch!

Not only will it give your wreath (and/or porch) a chance to possibly place in the illustrious Top 10 and win a coveted CSI Project Badge and some well-deserved attention for your hard work (not to mention my ever-lasting awe and admiration), BUT I may also decide to post your wreath on The Wreath Blog, my personal collection of wreath-delight from around the web where it will stand along side some of the prettiest wreaths out there!

Find out more about how the friendly CSI Project competition works HERE.

Come on, let's see some serious wreath-age!

♥M

A Collaborative Quilt

I had the pleasure of sharing the making of this vibrant quilt with my youngest sister Ariane. It's gotta be one of my all-time favourite projects. While visiting my parents this past weekend I re-discovered it and just had to share it with you. Every time I encounter it, I love it more.

The unnamed queen-size quilt was made a few years ago as a gift for my parents' wedding anniversary. It lives in our beautiful childhood home (in my old bedroom in fact) where my parents reside to this day. It was created after a pattern by Lynn Roddy Brown in her book Simple Strategies for Scrap Quilts. In fact, our inspiration quilt is right there on the cover.

I remember Ariane and I getting together to make our version of the nine-patch, the discussions over colour, the pooling of resources, the shopping trips, the strip-cutting, the chain-piecing. I also remember my sister lugging her old reliable sewing machine to and from my house. I remember us sitting there at my dining room table each at our old machines, chatting and sewing, sewing and chatting. We machine-pieced the quilt but when it came to quilting, we decided to hand-quilt it. We quilted it on our laps, echoing the simple piecing.

Working on this quilt with my sister is a memory I will always cherish. One I hope to repeat again. And possibly again after that. Maybe one day Ariane?

♥M

HERE is Ariane's post about this quilt from back in 2009.