Bow-Making Made Easy!

Hi guys! I hope everyone had a great Christmas and that Santa brought you everything on your list! For those of us procrastinators who are doing our gift exchange a bit later, here's a great bow making solution that will save you so much time, while keeping your gift wrapping skills impressive. 

All I did was use the Bow-Dabara and some wired holiday ribbon about an inch wide!

First thing you'll want to do is cut a thin ribbon that will be what you use to tie your bow together. I used 8 inches of very thin white satin ribbon. Insert this piece in-between the two plastic panels that stand up from the Bow-Dabara board.

For this next part, I'll leave my decorative wired ribbon of choice still attached to the spool as I weave it back and forth. The length you weave on each side will determine how big your bow will be. The bigger the loop, the bigger the bow!

When you begin to weave your ribbon, make sure you twist it once before pushing it down to the board. So the motion will look like: out, in, twist, push down. Repeat this technique back and forth on each side of the Bow-Dabara as if you're making infinity symbols. When you have about four or five loops on each side, you're all done!

At this point pull up the skinny ribbon from the board and tie a knot tightly around the mid section of your bow.

So good! All you need to do is fluff the loops and cut the tail! The Bow-Dabara is great in a pinch. A perfect bow every time!

Bethany @Enchanted Lake

Have a Happy New Year everyone! 

Holiday Wood Designs

 

Happy Holidays! I hope everyone out there is having fun getting their Christmas craft on! I'm really enjoying painting fresh new home decor and digging into card making and cookie baking. So many favorite things. Here are a few samples of some pretty wood decor pieces I decorated. My favorite thing about these is that the shapes are cute, pre-cut, and that the wood surface allows you to do almost anything to it! So many possibilities!

 

 

 

Supplies:

wooden word or Santa or ornament shape

acrylic paint (dark green, green, dark burgundy, red, ivory, white, tan) 

bristle brush

1/2 inch wide nylon brush w/flat end

jute/twine

hot glue gun/glue sticks

buttons 

First, paint the front of every other letter with a very dark green. Use a brush that will give you even and smooth coverage. This will be your base coat for the distressed and rustic look. Let the letters dry for 20 minutes, and paint diagonal stripes on your remaining letters using your 1/2 flat tipped nylon brush and Ivory acrylic paint. I like to use this brush for stripes because if I hold it at an angle, it is exactly the direction and width of the stripes I want to make. Wait about 10 minutes for the stripes to dry before painting the red stripes. After this next layer is dry to the touch, take your bristle brush, light red and lighter green, and "feather" light strokes over the painted areas. The idea is to keep your back and forth strokes in a horizontal movement and to not coat too thickly so that you can see the layer underneath peeking through.

 

 

 

Hot glue jute and buttons on to your letters as textural elements! They just add to that rustic charm.

 

 

Ben Franklin is carrying a few other cute holiday sets as well, including the word "Home" and a Santa face and ornament shaped photo stand. 

 

 You can use Mod Podge and sheets of patterned card stock paper to  cover larger flat areas, and then cut out with an X-acto blade. Even layer some textured/gritty Snow Tex on there to create realistic looking snow. Dry time would be about an hour or so depending on how thickly the Snow Tex was applied. E6000 glue can be used to put all the Santa pieces together. Ta Da!

Cute home decor!

 

Bethany @Enchanted Lake

Happy Crafting!

Pocket Winter Wonderland

    Hello again, fellow Crafters! This week, I have an adorable little project that

can capture the beauty of the Christmas landscape into a cute little box.
This is a great activity for kids and make a great gift for fairy garden and miniatures
lovers alike!

 

All you need for this project are:

 

1. Small Wooden or Paper Mache Box

2. Mini Christmas Trees

3. White Air-dry clay

4. Moss

5. Paint (I used Delta Americana)

6. Snow-Tex & Twinkle Flakes

7. Your Imagination!

 

For those of you who have made fairy gardens before, this is basically the same concept.

Anything goes!  Picture the scene you want, start with the inside coat of paint and then start

gluing your pieces of landscape in!  Here, I pictured a winter scene taking inspiration from the scenery in Rankin Bass' Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer.

Be creative and have fun!

 

See you next week!

Erika @ PC



Get on the Shabby Chic Grapevine

I've seen a lot of fall decorations made with grapevine wreaths lately; especially, I think, because the woodsiness of grapevine can really enhance the feeling of autumn in your home. However, once we move past fall, you shouldn't put those decorations away; you can easily update your grapevines for Christmas. Here are a few Christmas grapevine decorations for you to peruse:

First, a simple and wondrous, wintry wreath. The shades of blue and gray and the glittery, icy, frosted accents make your "winter wonderland" easy to achieve. If I could, I would do up my whole house in these vintage hues, they give me such a feeling of calmness and serenity, like a quiet, winter morning.

Next up, here's a fun idea for a tall window or door; how about making a grapevine snowman? The homely and rustic grapevines are spray painted white and then wrapped in lights for extra appeal. A pretty piece of ribbon then becomes our snowman's scarf. Our "Frosty" catches everyone's gaze without going overboard.

And last, here's a beautiful grapevine chandelier to hang in your home. Again with this piece we've taken the rustic grapevine and added some glitz in the form of glittery ornaments and a deep, teal color. The end result is a chic and playful hanging that has hints of a primitive, unsophisticated style.

I hope you enjoyed our grapevine, shabby-chic Christmas ideas. Only 29 more days to go til everyone's favorite time of year!

Puna @ Enchanted Lake