When Life Hands You Lemons...

Make an amazing wreath!

I know it's obvious: my favorite color is yellow. I love decorating with it and I love the burst of energy it automatically gives me. I wanted to bring this pop of color and welcome spring with a lemon wreath!

These babies are selling from $80-200 online... and as tempted as I am to justify buying one, the DIY'er in me had to do just that- figure out how to take on the project of doing it all by myself! (Worth the hassle? Of course!)


Linking up to: http://www.thenester.com/2011/09/you-made-a-wreath-out-of-what-a-linky-party.html

I'll attempt to share how I did this since there isn't a proper tutorial on blogland (SHOCKER!) and I had to practice myself so I figured I might as well save y'all the mistakes!

Now- no laughing... no judging... haha it takes a lot to do a tutorial (like ignoring any sense of pride or dignity...haha) I just really wanted a tutorial that actually went through the process and not just an after picture wondering how they got there... but yes, basically all I did was use my hot glue gun to stick lemons on a wreath :)

All you need: 

-Wreath form (mine's from the dollar store) 

-Dark green ribbon

-Fake leaves

-Lots of lemons (I bought more than I needed. I think 1 box of large lemons (that come with big and medium assortment) and 1 of mini lemons would be enough)

Here we go!  

Take your ribbon and wrap it around the wreath...

Secure the ribbon on by hot glue gunning after each twist around the wreath

Keep going...

and going...

until you run out of ribbon. Ok, not part of the plan- but like I said, I've never done this before and as I was doing it I decided I would keep on- imperfections and all! (It was really hard for me not to give up and go get more ribbon... but I only had 35 minutes until class and was determined!) 

Measure out spacing. Decide if you want your lemons to go in a certain direction or not. I'm pretty OCD and quite the perfectionist-I think it helped during the planning stages. 

I made the mistake (missing ribbon) my starting point and started gluing the LARGE lemons on

I alternated between large and medium lemons (both came in the pack of lemons I bought from Tj Maxx). Not using the mini lemons just yet!

You can start to see the size difference here. Large, medium, large, medium, large... you get it. 

Keep going around the wreath with your gluing and sticking on... (Is it just me or is that ONE really ORANGE lemon bugging you??!)

It was just me? Oh well. I took the "bad lemon" out anyway because I knew it would bug me! (this isn't a step hahaha but I'm just sharing my thought process)

Ok! Now we've glued our "base"... this is the core of our wreath! WHOOHOO! almost there... 

I honestly liked it enough when it was this simple! But you know we couldn't stop here. *This step is optional and I ended up not going through with it but I tied twine here to make it easier to hang without the lemons completely on the wreath* 

Take your MINI lemons and start using the same clean line (close together, one way gluing) on to the wreath under the large/medium line you just did. 

The package of mini lemons comes with a lot of odd shaped lemons, almost like kidney beans. Save those in a separate pile. They make PERFECT "filler" lemons for tricky spots. For now, used the most "normal" mini lemon to complete the inner part of the wreath.

Here's what it should look like halfway filled in...

All filled in! Now to make it "less perfect" and organized looking and more "natural" !

Take your fake leaves and cut them off the stem they came on. Play with where you might put it and decide on a size you need.

I decided to cut my leaves in half to match the size of my wreath. 

Start placing your leaves RANDOMLY in holes that you see. I say random because we're going away from the perfect manicured look to the more natural...remember? (Who am I kidding, I only had to remind myself that as I tried to stick to a pattern and go all the way around...OCD) 

Here I am almost done sticking the leaves in...Oh, hello phone. Glad to see you could make an appearance in the tutorial :) I wanted mine more leafy and green so I kept sticking leaves in. You can stop whenever. 

Time for the "reject" lemons (the misshaped kidney-bean looking ones) and ALSO time to break away from the organized look. Start filling in the gap between the first layer you did and the second with these odd mini lemons. Stick them in any direction. Up, down, sideways... have fun with not having to think about where they should go.  

Finish scattering your mini lemons in to fill in the spaces... 

And you're done! That's it! EASY PEASY! 

And to see all the pictures in a slide show real fast {like a flip book}...

For under $25, I'd say it looks JUST as good as those expensive ones out there!!! And I had fun crafting in my new office!!!
For now I still have the recent moss one on the front door (click for that tutorial)

but it's tempting to put this up there NOW!

Linking up to the usual parties!
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Guest Post
A Girl and a Glue Gun
A2Z

Centsational Girl's Best of the Blogosphere! 

Miss Moss

Remember the amazingly beautiful and talented Kat from Lush Cakery? I blogged about her when we went to her gorgeous wedding in November... One night at GNI, she mentioned wanting to get these moss initial letters off Etsy for her wedding... after she told me how much they were I BEGGED her to let me help her so we can tackle the craft together! I had never done it before but I was DETERMINED to help save a bride some cash! (Plus, who doesn't like a good DIY project??!)

Unfortunately, the night we did the letters on my living room floor, we failed to take step by step pictures- and you probably wouldn't have wanted them anyway! We were just guessing and gluing {and making a massive mess along the way!}... I must say... We did a pretty good job... look for yourself in this month's Atlanta Wedding magazine...!

Here are some more pictures...

SO cute and SIMPLE! 

Love it. So cute. 

 The moss letters were on the chapel doors. Simply precious. It was the perfect touch to their wedding! 

This craft is so easy I'm almost embarrassed to type captions. All you need to know is cut moss, glue on letter. Done and done. 

Moss Letters

You will need: 

Cardboard Letter (size is up to you)- found in most craft stores. Ours are from Joann ($3.99 1/2 off coupon so $2)

Glue Gun + Glue Sticks (had at home)

Moss Sheets-also found in most craft stores. Ours are from Joann ($4.99- but I got for 1/2 off with a coupon!) 

Ribbon for the top- your choice of fabric/color/texture (had at home)

"Guesstimate" the size to cut so your letter fits on the moss sheet

Before we go on... I just have to show you where I'm crafting from... HOW awesome is this view... you think I could stay cooped up inside in 74 degrees??? HA! 

Ok, moving on! Cut slits in the curves/nooks of the moss so it'll be easy to bend (an Xacto knife would be great to use!) 

Glue the sheet onto the letter... put pressure on to help it stick

It's starting to take shape and look greeeeat... right? 

DO NOT worry about imperfections or coming short on some corners. The great thing about moss is using scraps to fit and fill in the gaps... Super easy and you can't even tell! 

Seriously, that's that... that is ALL you have to do!! 

I feel like I should be on Sesame Street...brought to you by the letter "A" !

EASY PEASY! Now go customize your front door and welcome Spring with a fresh moss letter!!!

If you want something more "fresh" and 'wow factor' check out my step-by-step lemon wreath tutorial!

Linking up to the normal parties! Go check them out!