So I made some stuff this week. Time consuming and fun. Kept me sane while Lance was gone, but also is sort of cute. People asked for directions. So here they are (and if you think I’m cleaning my craft area of getting the dirt from out of under my fingernails to make the pictures more aesthetically pleasing you don’t know me at all):

So the fun thing about this is you can use the paper you already have. Just go through and dig out the fall colored ones- even if you don’t think the print will work. Or just use plain colored paper. I used Bazzill on the wreath. Bazzill paper works the best because it’s way stiffer plus the texture looks nice. I’m not just saying this hoping that someone from the Jones family will see this and send me a box of Bazzill goods. Bazzill really is the best.

http://bazzillbasics.com/

I copied the garland idea from this site: http://tatertotsandjello.blogspot.com/2010/10/thanksgiving-project-make-thankful.html
But I used paper flowers and different types of stuff so it’s really not the same at all. I just want to give credit for the original idea, which you can use, if you want to be dead to me.

Onwards. Buy a grapevine garland thingee. The only place I’ve found them is at Michaels. They’re $10, so bring your coupon, which you can print out from here:

http://www.mycraftcoupons.com/

I just saved you four bucks. You can use it to buy me a big gulp. Thanks.

Unwind the garland. You’ll see that it’s curled into circles. I hung mine from the wall and sprayed it down with water and then worked to uncurl it the best I could. There will still be some curl to it, which is good, but not too much. Too much of a blah blah blah blah.

Okay. Now take a ribbon and starting at one end wrap the entire length of the garland with it. Tie it to the other side. Now get some of those berry twig thingees. I got them at Michaels as well. They didn’t have other better kinds of twigee things, but these worked out well. Jab the twigee things into the grapvine starting at one end and going to the other end (you want them all going in the same direction). Hot glue where necessary. You can see the twigee berry looking things in this picture.

NOw to make the cute little rosettes that you see in the picture and on the wreath. They are easy and they are fun and they take a long time. You can offset the time spent doing these by not doing laundry for a week. It worked for me.

First, cut a circle from your awesome Bazzill paper. If your uncle doesn’t own Bazzill, don’t worry, you can buy it at Michaels. Or even if he does. Because he TOLD you he was going to send you a box of it two years ago and every single day since then you’ve skipped out thinking that today was definately going to be THE DAY…and it’s never come. Anyways. Buy the paper at Michaels.

Now cut a swirl into the paper. It doesn’t need to go around more than once, really. The more you do, the more full your flowers are going to be- but they’ll be smaller in height and take you a lot more time.

Now start rolling at the end of the paper. Not the middle. If you start at the middle you’ll be sorry. I do the first roll kind of tight then the rest loose. Roll it until you get to the end- the flower part will sit on the middle of the circle.

Get out your hot glue gun. Oh yeah, you need a hot glue gun. And A LOT of glue sticks. Glue the flower to the base. Hold it tight for a couple of seconds. You can play with the flower, making it bigger or smaller by how tight you wind it. It doesn’t matter. It’ll be a happy little flower no matter how tightly wound it is. Just like me.

If your glue gun doesn’t get hot, check the outlet. It’s probably not plugged in because even though you did plug it in, the outlet is all stripped out from the kids jamming stuff in it. And even though your husband has a degree that talks about electricity or some junk, he has yet to use this skill in fixing the outlet. Or you just forgot to plug it in.

I’m still waiting for my glue gun to get hot. I’m holding Abby at the same time. She’s cute, huh?

Now you’ve made your first rosette. You CAN do hard things.

You will need many of these in differing colors and patterns.

Then you glue them to the garland over the twigee things. I bunched mine in groups of three or six or something. It’s good to actually put the garland up whereever you’re going to have it when you do this part so you can cover the right areas.

Now cut some leaves. I did all of the basic ones freehand. Not hard. I did the other ones on my cutter, but I had a hard time pulling them off the cricket sheet thing, so I gave up. They’re not necessary either.

I also made the little clothespin things with my kids. They loved it. Glue glitter on one end of clothespins. See the tatertot and jello post. You can clip on what they’re grateful for later. I won’t, because I don’t finish anything, but it’s a nice thought. You can get the little clothespins in the wood area at Joann’s.

Now just glue like crazy until you’ve got it looking the way you like. If it doesn’t look the way you like, hide it in the garage, telling yourself that you’ll fix it next year, which you won’t, but at least you’re not being wasteful.

I made a bow on each side with the ribbon I used all the way across. I also put a bunch of other ribbons on the ends because I had a bunch that I didn’t love, but would look cute on here.

Do you want to make the wreath now?

Get a green styrofoam wreath thing at the dollar store. If you want a larger one, you’re going to have to get it somewhere else. Not for one dollar.

Make many rosettes. These are the ones that are really important to have good paper for. You want the stiffest paper you can find. Bazzill works the best, but whatever, I’m mad at them. I did one with the Bazzill dotted and some of the Bazzill textured, it turned out SO CUTE! But then I ran out of paper. Sad emoticon.

Then I just glued the rosettes on. I used rosettes of different sizes, from 3″ circles to 5″ circles. It looks more dimensional to have them placed at random. Just keep filling them in making sure not to have any same colors touching each other. I also faced mine in different directions, as you can see in the picture. And then, because I’m lazy, I just put a nail in the wall and stuck it right into the back of the wreath. Worked like a charm.

If you want to come over so I can show you I will. Begrudgingly. But only because I do everything with a good amount of begrudge.