Pom Poms Part 2 or Valentine's Day Pom Pom Wreath

So, my obsession for pom poms cannot be stopped. I googled pom pom art and found pom pom wreaths and became crazed over figuring out how to make one. I googled pom pom wreath tutorial and found a ton of ways to do it, but I have learned that the type of wreath that you use is really up to you to decide. Some people want a wreath that will hang flat so they use cardboard. Other tutorials suggest to use Styrofoam. And still others use a wire form. I ended up using a straw form that I kept the plastic on and then wrapped in tulle. If I do this project again, which I want to do for a spring time wreath, I will try something else I think.
For this project, I used:

the clover pom pom makers, if you want to be cheap you can make your own out of cardboard
I used all four sizes of pom pom makers and I watched some YouTube videos on how to use the pom pom makers, that helped a lot!
yarn- I used three different colors, all bought on sale at Michael's for about 6 dollars total
tacky glue ---fast drying! I used almost a whole bottle
white tulle
straw wreath base

I lost track of how many pom poms I had to make, but it was around 50 or so, in various sizes. Then I just glued them all on in a random pattern and used the tiniest ones to kind of fill in the spaces the best that I could. Making the pom poms was time consuming, and took me a few nights. To hang it up I tied yarn around the wreath. I think next time I will use ribbon. Overall, I love how this turned out. It was really easy to do. I want to make one for every season now. I am working on a tutorial for the next one I make.

Pom Poms Part 1

Lately, I have been obsessed with pom poms. I don't know why, but i have been.  I wanted to hang them on the wall in a way that was colorful and fun. This piece of art was very easy to make. All you need is:

a shadowbox or deeper set frame-- I used an 8x8 frame
some black paint or black scrapbook paper
pom poms, I bought medium sized in various colors
tacky glue

So you start with a shadow box frame. I used my coupon at Ac Moore and I think it was maybe 8 dollars. I put a piece of black scrapbook paper in the back of it.

 

This was the pom poms. I bought about 4 packets, which was way too much. However, I wanted to get as many different shades of purple, blue, and pink that I could so I bought all that I could find.

 

 

Then I just kind of put them in the frame and made a pattern. The possibilities are pretty endless. You could do stripes, or ombre, or probably even an initial if you wanted to. I just wanted something that kind of faded into each of the colors I chose.

 

 

 

This is what I came up with. I just started at one end and glued up and down the rows.

 

 

I like the close up shot. It looks pretty cool.

 

 

And here it is on my gallery wall. It came out just the way I wanted it to.

 

 

 

This was so easy and I think it took me maybe 10 minutes to do. I kind of want to do a giant one next!

 

 

 

 

West Elm Porcelain Stripe Tray

 

 

This is my porcelain stripe tray from West Elm that I have fallen in love with. I have it in my bathroom as a way to display my flowers. I really love it. Its very simple and classic.

 

Vintage Country Mason Jar Cupcakes

I made these vintage country themed cupcakes for my cousin's birthday. They were very easy to put together and make a great gift for your guests to take home.

What you need:

Vanilla Cupcakes - I made 24 cupcakes, and used 1 and a half cupcakes per jar
Apple Pie Filling
Vanilla Icing
Streusel Topping
Mason Jars
Fabric
Pinking Shears
Twine or String
Hole Punch
Scrapbook Paper for Tags
Letter Stickers

First, make your cupcakes. I used good old fashioned Vanilla, but Spice Cake would be great too. The recipe that I always use for Vanilla Cakes and Cupcakes is this one. It's dense and moist and has tons of butter. I love this buttercream recipe from AllRecipes.

My recipe for streusel topping is:
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup flour
1-2 tablespoons of water
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/4 cup of softened butter

Mix all of these until crumbly. It should look like this:

 

Here's the apple pie filling I used:
 



 

I put the apple pie filling into my food processor and chopped it up some more. You don't have to do that if you want to do big chunks of apple.  I also cut my cupcakes in half.

 

 

 I laid everything out on my counter and did kind of an assembly line of cupcake- filling-strussel -icing- strussel. And repeated until the jar was filled.
 

 

Here's what they looked like:

 

 

 

Next I worked on the tags and the fabric.

 

 

For the fabric squares I cut 4 x 4 squares out of Fat quarters that I bought on sale for 60 cents at AC Moore. I used pinking shears.

 

 

The next thing to make is the tag. I just used scrapbook paper that I had laying around and some initial stickers that I had bought for a project and never used. I punched a hole in the tag and slipped some twine through that. Then I put the fabric under the lid of the mason jar and the tied the tag around that.

 

This is what the final jar looked like.

And here's a couple in a vintage cheese box that we had found in my Grandpa's barn.

Martha Stewart Starburst Mirror REDO

I've wanted a starburst mirror for a long time. Since I own a 1950s home I figured that one would go along with the decor very well. I didn't want one that was gold ( see my last post for the brass overload). So I looked online for a few months and everything that I liked was so expensive that I thought that I'd never find what I wanted. On one of my numerous trips to Home Depot, I spotted the Martha Stewart Starburst mirror for 35 dollars!

Sure it was gold, but for 35 dollars I would live with it. So I took it home and then realized it didn't go with the greys in our living room. So I decided to change it up.

 I painted it with Rustoleum Hammered Nickel and as it was drying I painted the edges with some glossy white Rustoleum paint to give it a nice fade or ombre kind of look.

Now it really fits with my room.

 

 

Painting the old brass fireplace screen with heat resistant spraypaint.

So I have been in my house for about three months now. Its a wonderful 1950s ranch with lots of character. But it also has a lot of brass. I was born in 1980 so I am very familar with brass and glass and smoked glass and all that. Many Saturdays of my childhood were spent windexing all of the glass and brass. Let's just say I don't like brass. So we have been slowly removing the brass elements of the house. This was a very simple project to do. We decided to repaint the brass fireplace cover to a matte black. We will not be using the fireplace on a regular basis but I used the Rustoleum High Heat Enamel Spray Paint in BBQ Black. The color is a bit more matte than a gloss, just to let you know. This was the look I was going for, so I was happy with the end result.

 

Before:

 

And After:

The black goes along much better with the brick now and since we aren't going to be burning any fires in it (except for maybe at Christmas), we got rid of the fireplace tools and put in some flameless candles. This paint was very easy to use. We applied a new coat about every 10 minutes. Make sure your coats are thin, that's the key to good spraypainting!

Chalkboard Frame for the Coffee Station!

So I had this old frame that I was going to do something with. Its original color was brown, and then I painted it pink. I was going to make a sign that said "Peace, Love, and Cake" but it never got finished. I would look at this frame and just get sad because it didn't turn out right. So I just stuck the frame in the garage and forgot about it until my boyfriend came up with the idea to make a chalkboard for above our "coffee station". We got the idea for a coffee station when we were going to look at open houses. This one home that was out of our price range had a little set up that was so inviting. All it consisted of was a Keurig, and some coffee. But it was so homey and welcoming that I filed it away in the "things I want to do in my house" file of my brain. So here is ours!

Before:

 

After:

 

I used Rustoleum Chalkboard Spray Paint which was very easy to use. It was easier to use than the kinds of paint that you brush on. I find that the brush on paints take longer to dry and you can see your brush marks which I don't really like. You just sand your piece of wood and then you can prime it if you want to. We didn't prime it but that was okay.  Then you apply thin, even coats of spray paint about every 10 minutes. I did about three coats to get the desired coverage. Then we let it dry over night. We rubbed chalk onto the board to condition it and we were ready to put the board into the frame.

 

 

Here's the Coffee Station.