A Craft a Day...

There was a time when I worked on making something almost every day. Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about huge, extravagant productions. But I did have several projects going and a little time to work on them. The last 6 months have been strangely barren of crafting. There has been no pearl designing and knotting with my bestie at a coffee shop; no knitting or crocheting with my buddies in the cafeteria at church; no card making with kids; no new hats, scarves, blankets, clay creations, pictures, cozies, or grape vine wreaths.

This isn't working well for me, and it's time for a change. Enter Pinterest!

One of my Besties "strongly suggested" that I join Pinterest, and after months of ignoring, refusing, kicking, and screaming, I did. She's persistent that way. :-) You can now find me there: http://pinterest.com/mdragan42/. Despite insisting that I don't have time for another crafty website, I have to admit, that Pinterest has ended my crafting dry spell:

The Kansas Tea Party - Around and Around

One very cool craft that I found on a friend's Pinterest account is the very giftable Tea Wreath. I especially love this craft because I already had all of the supplies!

Supplies:
Cardboard
Scrapbook Paper (or other pretty paper)
Coordinating Paper (or magazines)
Clothes Pins
Ribbon
Low Temp Glue Gun and Sticks
Mono-adhesive (optional)

Make a wreath shape out of cardboard, with the wreath part about the width of a clothespin. Using low temp glue, cover the wreath in scrapbook or other pretty paper. Cut strips of coordinating paper or magazine pictures the length and width to cover one surface of your clothes pins. Using mono-adhesive or low temp glue, cover one surface of each clothes pin with a strip of coordinating paper. Use low temp glue to attach clothespins evenly around the covered wreath, with the front of the clothespin facing OUT (to hold the tea bags). Attach coordinating ribbon to form a hanger for your wreath. Finally, slide a nice, individually wrapped tea bag into each clip to finish the look. 16 - 20 standard sized clips seems to be about the right number for a wreath.

Tinsel Town or Don't Sweater the Small Stuff

Tis the season for festive, holiday cheer, lots of eating, and of course, those ugly holiday sweater contests. My husband and I thought we had it made with our entries at our December Herbalife leadership training, but shockingly, were truly and honestly beat by an even greater atrocity to sweater-dom. Still, I gave it my best shot, and there's still the company contest this week:

For your viewing pleasure, I present you with a homemade XL sweater vest made from sparkly red and black yarn (thanks, Mom!). For added glam, I've attached a fringe of tinsel, tinsel draped glitter snowflakes, and glittered foam "Christmas lights" strung on green and yellow ribbon. Perhaps despite the liberal use of tinsel and glitter, it's just too well organized to be an "ugly" sweater. Who knew?

Now that I'm moving forward with crafting again, the flood gates have opened! I have LOTS of ideas that must be tried, and soon. Can't wait!