guest posting on Infinite Whimsy

Here's a little something to snag your interest...


Now pop on over to Infinite Whimsy to check out my guest post on DIY doily runners and spray-paint decor!

DIY: PAPER WREATHS

A good holiday wreath can do a lot to make your home feel just a bit more festive. And I'm all about making the home feel festive, readers. So, in response to the curiosity surrounding the wreaths you've been seeing hanging on the wall behind me lately, here is a quick little DIY for the two paper wreaths I've made.

these wreaths!

Or rather, just links to where I got the ideas from, ha! To see my yarn ball door wreath, CLICK HERE.

For both wreaths, you just need these things:

- a book you don't mind ripping pages out of

- tape

- hot glue

- a foam wreath for the backing and shape

- skinny ribbon that can be looped to hang the wreath with

- wreath decor, like ribbons and fake plants

******

WREATH ONE: the paper cone wreath

in its naked state

fully dressed

I got this idea when I saw this listing on etsy. And here's what you do:

1. Carefully tear out pages from your book, keeping them as intact as possible with no rough edges.

2. Fold these pages into cones and secure with a little piece of tape so they don't unroll.

3. Hot glue the pointed end of these paper cones onto the foam wreath. I personally glued the cones to the inner circle of the wreath. For the base layer, I made sure the cones were sticking out a lot, and for the second layer, I made them stick out less, and for the last layer, I made them stick out even less by gluing them further back into the wreath. Does that make sense? I wish I had taken pictures of the process!

4. To keep the last layer of cones lying flat over the other cones, I glued the open ends of them to the other cones already secured on the wreath. Once you get started, I'm sure you'll understand what I mean.

5. Make a loop with a ribbon and glue it to the back of your wreath. This is what you'll use to hang your wreath on.

6. Decorate it! I wrapped mine with ribbon and glued the flowers to the cones.

******

WREATH TWO: the paper loop wreath

in its naked state

fully dressed

Thankfully for you, this one came from an already well-written tutorial, courtesy of Razzle Dazzle Crafting! WHEW! I followed all of her instructions, except I obviously used pages from a book rather than fun paper. After I was done, I used the same ribbon loop technique to create a "hanger" for the wreath and also wrapped it with a raffia ribbon and glued some fake holly to it.

Both of my wreaths are secured with thumbtacks in the wall and are hung the same way you'd hang a picture.

******

Well, there you have it! I know my instructions are just about terrible, but I hope that those of you who are interested in making your own paper wreaths can make sense of it all! As always, you can email me if you have any more questions.

why I'll never be ANTM

I am not completely enamored with how my photos turned out today, so you're only getting one -- the least blurry-faced, drunken-eyed one. Consider yourselves lucky. Maybe one day I'll assault your eyeballs with the "deleted scenes" from this particular shoot over on Lisa's "Reader Outtakes" feature on Respect the Shoes, haha!

dolman top, f21 [x]

toothpick cords, j.crew [x]

stone necklace, f21

cocktail ring, f21

silver 'liv' flats, j.crew

You know it's a bad set of photos when the "best" one is the one where you look like you're massaging your brain with one hand and uppercutting some invisible opponent with the other.

So, to make up for it, here is a photo of the Christmas door wreath I finished this Monday!


It took about two weekends to finish, just because it took me a while on-and-off to finish all those yarn balls. If you're interested, I got the idea and instructions from Life Through the Lens. Mine is not as gorgeous as the blogger's, but I don't think it's a bad effort, either. I may end up bulking it up some more with additional ornaments and yarn balls on the inner circle of the wreath.

diy: heart flats

Ask and you shall receive! I got a surprising amount of interest in my humble little heart flats, so here's a "guide" on how I DIY-ed it. I put "guide" in quotations because it's ridiculously easy.

So, in order to make something like this:



You just need these things:

- flats you don't mind messing up. I recommend suede-finish kinds because it better matches the felt texture of the hearts. (you can find cheapies at GoJane)

- hot glue

- stiff felt

- scissors

And here's what you do:

1. Cut out the shape you want from the stiff felt. My shape of choice were hearts, obviously.

2. Hot glue the shape to the flats. I only used one big dab of hot glue to anchor the entire heart and it hasn't proven a problem yet.

That it! See why this is more like a "guide" rather than an actual guide? Haha! I don't know how waterproof these are, but I have worn them in the rain a few times without incident. It shouldn't matter much anyway if they get ruined since it's essentially a $20 project, depending mainly on how expensive your flats were. Even if the hearts do get weather-damaged, you can always rip them off and glue new ones in their place.

You can see me sporting these here, here, and here.

Have fun!

can't stop, can't stop

I took my cousin and his girlfriend out today for a really late birthday celebration dinner (my cousin's birthday was the day before Halloween), and it was delish. There's nothing quite as satisfying as having a really awesome dinner... except having a really awesome dessert. Mmm... dessert...

Honestly, readers, with the amount of food I consume, I don't know how I am not a) 6000 pounds and b) completely broke.

Grey cami, Cotton On
Navy tee, GAP
Tipped cardigan, New York & Co.
Pants, Delia*s
Patent Joley flats, J.Crew
DIY bow tie necklace

I don't wear this cardigan too often. I bought it on a whim because it was on some sort of super sale (and I can't pass up a good sale), without really thinking about what I could possibly pair it with. You can't really tell from the photos, but this thing is tipped in neon yellow. Not that I have anything against neon yellow. It's just not the most versatile color out there.

hearts all over

I am feeling 200% better today. 200%! That's twice as much as 100%, which must mean that I now have super powers or something. That reminds me of one of my go-to ice breaker questions whenever I meet someone new: If you could have any one super power, what would it be? So tell me, readers, what's your super power of choice? (please no one say flying. YAWNS-ville.)

Kimchi Blue sweater dress, Urban Outfitters
Opaque red tights, American Apparel + Satine tights, Modcloth
Soda suede flats, GoJane
Grey wrap scarf, H&M

As the ever-observant e. from i'd wear it noted, I successfully DIY-ed my black flats with red hearts. I mentioned before in another post that I had a pair of cheap black flats with flowers on it, which I decided were too "meh" for me. I ripped the flowers off and hot-glued some stiff felt hearts where the flowers used to be. I love the result! The entire process took approximately 5 minutes, the bulk of which was simply waiting around for the hot glue gun to warm up. SUCCESS!

I am not liking this "getting dark at 6 p.m." thing that autumn Daylight Savings brings. Not liking it at all.