rosette wreath gift

a dear friend of mine commented on my FB about how she loved the rosette wreath and wanted one for her condo. i decided that i would be honored if i could gift one to her..made with love. she has an extremely endearing story behind wanting this hung up on in the inside of her front door and it made me all the more determined to put all my love and care into this piece. with every twist of the crepe paper, i thought about her love story and her dedication to roses...no pressure, right? i hope i can do it justice.

i've put in the order for a 10" wreath form. surprisingly these things are so hard to find! the one i have is an 8" form and to be honest, i think it'll be a tad small. so 10" should do it. beyond that, i've already twisted 243 feet worth of crepe paper roses (3 rolls of streamer) and hot glued them shut. i've got an abundance of hot glue gun so once my wreath form arrives next week, i'll start snipping the stems of the roses that i have and if i need more, i'll just continue with the twisting. so far, the roses are turning out FAR better than the ones i made my wreath with. hallelujah!


243 feet worth of roses

crepe rosette wreath

i've been anticipating this moment for a loong time coming.....total completion of my crepe rosette wreath....and HUNG UP in the living room! ;) i just replaced the painting that was up there, but still, i can't believe it's done.
i contemplated what i would even do with the wreath itself --- paint a wooden plaque and use a plaque easel? paint a wooden plaque and hang it on the wall? paint a canvas and hang it? i just had NO idea. well, i finally made a decision and..yep..went with the cheap route. i bought a wooden frame from walmart for $10, removed the backing and glass and glue gunned the ribbon around the frame and onto the wreath. it's a bit crooked, but..whatever. it's a bit RED for our living room...but again..whatever.

well, since i'm here...

while i'm here and blogging, i might as well list out a few of the craft projects that i have lined up. so much to do, so little time. i just hate how work gets in the way of my crafting. blah.

*crepe rose wreath plaque -- status: wreath finished.
*ribbon holder -- status: items purchased, cut dowels and assemble.
*crepe rose balls on candlesticks -- status: balls purchased. can't decide on color of paper.
*toilet paper tube wreath - status: collecting toilet paper tubes - approx. 10 collected so far. a bout of the stomach flu in the house helped this process along. ;)
*fabric pom pom lantern - status: paper lantern purchased.
*crayon letter - collecting free crayons from restaurants to create this masterpiece. it will be somewhat of an ode to eating out. might as well get something out of spending all our money in these restaurants. maybe i'll call it ode to amicis-red robin-tomatinas.
*felt wreath -- i actually don't know what i'm going to do with all these wreaths, but they are just too freakin' cute NOT to make!

mini pie pops

i LOVE crafts and cooking, problem is, i'm just not very good at it. i think my main problem is that i tend to just jump into everything with 2 feet. i always think, "it looks easy enough!" and then disappoint myself when it doesn't turn out the way i had hoped. then i just give up all together. maybe i should just keep at it. *sigh* regardless, i'm not really good at crafts or cooking...but i do it anyway.

today is superbowl XLV sunday! braden is napping now as i get all their veggies steamed and prepped for next week's lunches before we head over to our friend's house for the big game! it's some nice quiet time for me too. so i was in charge of bringing tater tots over and realized i didn't have any tater tots @ home so i rushed out this morning and fought the crowds at safeway. good thing i wasn't looking for beer or chips or else i would have been mowed over by some superbowl ragers. i felt a bit ambitious and decided to try my hand at little lollipop pies. you know how kids think everything tastes better on a stick, well, i do too! HA! i thought i remembered seeing some recipes and it seemed easy enough. (famous last words). ran home anxiously with some refrigerated pie crust and apple pie filling. i didn't use a round cutter, instead, since it was for the superbowl, i decided to make them flower shaped. hey, every football party could use a little feminine touch, doncha think? they were totally easy and came out so cute! i never taste my creations so i'm not sure how they taste, but they turned out looking better than i had expected.
mini pies
mini pie lollipops
aren't they so cute? i'll have to see how they taste later @ the party.

(ghetto) cupcake photo holders

my cousin made some cupcake ornaments for xmas and i got to thinking....these would be great photo holders. and once i get this in my head, fawgettaboutit...off i went to figure out how to make these. they were relatively easy...up until the frosting part. it just took a lot of time because you have to wait for each phase to dry. expansion foam...wait to dry....paint...wait to dry...etc. so it took me like 3 weeks since after each stage, i'd wait a week or so to be able to work on the next step. honestly, i was just dreading the frosting portion of it. and for good reason!! epic FAIL! i'm not good at frosting cupcakes to begin with and i've only used a pastry bag to pipe on frosting like ONCE in my life. so you can imagine my nerves. well, of course, i was all set up and psyched myself up for this part and...1). forgot to purchase the right tip! no problem, dug out an old one that would just have to do. although it's not from a disposable pastry bag, whatevs...it'll do for now. i get all the spackle into the pastry bag and..2). POP!! pastry bag popped! Uggh..OK..now what? i quickly grabbed a freezer bag and thought i could just drop in the tip...not a good idea. ask me how i know. *sigh* 3). tip busted thru the bag and ruined the ziploc. umm..O...K..eff it. i'm just gonna have to ice it by hand..ghetto style. so..that's how my fake cupcakes became ghetto cupcakes. i also wish that i used plastic cherries instead of using little pom poms. but..what's done is done...we live and learn...que cera cera...it is what it is...yada yada yada
the only good thing is - don't they look REAL??!!