Friday, June 27, 2014

Pink & Gray Clothespin Wreath

So I'd been trolling Pinterest for a while looking to find something I really wanted to make.  Then this Clothespin Wreath caught my eye.  It's adorable.  To me, it also looked like the kind of thing you could have up all year round, wreath-shaped or not.  I decided I wanted to make one for my bathroom (had some empty wall space in there), so that helped me decide on the size and color theme before I embarked on what became two adventures to good ol' Hobby Lobby.

Here's my finished wreath:



The original post that inspired me was about a smaller wreath that used only 38 clothespins.  Mine was going to be bigger.  I ended up using 70 clothespins (35 larger ones and 35 smaller ones).  The wreath form was 12" across on the outside and 10" across on the inside.  This made for a finished wreath that is about 14" across.  I made the wreath form itself out of cardboard.  You'll have a compass when you do it because you're smart, unlike me, who was tracing my trash can and other random circled-shaped things.  I covered the cardboard in felt as the original post suggested.

This is also a really cheap project; the materials were under $25 and I had to buy Mod Podge and X-Acto blade refills.  (The refills were my second trip to H.L.)  Without that it could easily be created for under $20.  If you already have Mod Podge, a knife, and cardboard, all you have to purchase is felt, scrapbook paper, and clothespins.  I found the larger size pins at Target and the smaller size at Bed, Bath, and Beyond (neither store had both sizes).

My bathroom is mostly silver and gray, so I chose to stick to black, silver, and add the accent color of pink.  What's great is that I could switch out just the pink pins at any time and replace them with any other color for a new look.  When I got to the store there were tons of papers with musical notes, so I also gave it a music theme.  There are also a couple different zebra prints.  I also really liked using some sheer papers that let the wood-color of the clothespins come through.

Here's a pic mid-craft:



When I got the wreath form done, I put all the clothespins on to see how many I would need, then I decided which papers to use (I ended up eliminating some I had bought), so I could roughly estimate how many of each pattern to make.  I would paint a clothespin with Mod Podge, attach it to the corner of a piece of paper, then cut out the other two sides with the X-Acto knife.  This was probably the hardest part, especially for the larger pins where the metal touched the paper and I couldn't slide the knife all the way across in one motion.  I messed some up along the way, no big deal.  With most of the papers, I also coated the top of the papers with Mod Podge, but on some of the sparkly ones it did not look as good, so I didn't for those.  Trial-and-error.

Once I had all the clothespins decorated, putting them on the wreath was quick and easy.  The whole project took me a day (but a FULL day).  I was at Hobby Lobby at 10 am and hanging this thing up at 10 pm.  I watched two whole movies while glueing and cutting.

Here is the wreath up in the bathroom, and I am really happy with the results:


An Update & Thanksgiving Turkey Wreath

It's been a really long time since I've updated.  Life got crazy and I didn't have much time for crafty things anymore, let alone the blog.  However, I have managed to put together a few things lately, and I wanted to throw a couple posts up to share the results.  Also, I have been thrilled with all the reposts of my Purple and Turquoise Ornament Wreath, so thanks!  (It's still my favorite craft project ever.)

The first thing I want to share is from last November, a while ago, but it's so cool.  I'm sure many Pinterest regulars have seen this post with a great Thanksgiving Turkey Wreath tutorial.  I wanted to share mine and tell you about the couple things I did differently.


For the most part, I followed the tutorial above exactly.  However, instead of using brown string to cover the wreath (that seemed time consuming), I used ribbon.  Also, instead of using a styrofoam cone for the beak, I rolled up some craft foam into a cone shape.  This saved some money because the styrofoam cones only came in bulk packs and were $6, and I didn't have to buy yellow paint.  (The foam was less than a dollar.)

My cat enjoyed watching me:


And my dog tried on the almost-finished product:


Here it is on the wall:


There are tons of these on Pinterest now if you search "Turkey Wreath," which is understandable, they are so neat!