Guest Post Tutorial: Spring Yarn Wreath

      Hi everyone! I'm super excited to be guest posting at Live.Love.Craft. This is my first guest post so I feel really honored that Alyssa asked me! Here's a little bit about myself. I've been blogging for a few years now mainly to keep in touch with family and friends, but just recently started up this DIY/recipes blog. I love crafting, creating, sewing (check out my Etsy shop, The Turquoise Pear), and cooking so this is the perfect outlet for me where I want to inspire and be inspired. I live in Chicago with my husband but I'm a southern girl at heart (born and raised). I'm a third grade teacher and I love what I do. All right, enough about me. Onto the good stuff! Today I will be showing you how to make a yarn wreath with felt flowers. This is a super easy project, that I recommend doing with some girlfriends, putting on a chick-flick and making a fun night of it. I myself enjoyed sitting outside in the 70 degree sunshine. A rare treat for March in Chicago.
Here's what you'll need: 1 wreath (mine has an 8" diameter)* 1 ball of yarn (You'll use about half) 1/4 yd felt in the color(s) of your choice (1/4 yard should get you about 8-12 flowers) hot glue gun/sticks *I originally made the wreath using an idea I had seen on Pinterest where you buy gray pipe insulation from Home Depot and duct tape it to make a DIY wreath. It didn't work. At least not for me. The wreath began to droop and I was slightly annoyed. Just buy a wreath from a craft store. It's only about $3-$5 more at Joann's or Michael's.
The How-To:
Start by tying a knot around the wreath. This will be your starting point. Add a dab of hot glue to hold it in place. It's best to wrap the yarn in sections using about 4-5 feet of yarn at a time. Any longer and it may get tangled and keeping it attached to the ball of yarn wasn't working well for me. How you wrap is completely up to you and your style, but I wrapped and overlapped. There was really no rhyme or reason. After you finish wrapping your yarn, keep it in place with a dot of hot glue then continue on with the next section. Continue on with this until the entire wreath is finished. This took me about 45 minutes to an hour. Again, it'd be super fun to hang out with girlfriends and chit-chat while doing this to make the time pass. Now it's time to make some cute felt flowers. You can use a DVD or CD to trace a cirle on the felt. I just cut a circle the best I could without a stencil. Start cutting the felt into a spiral. When you are almost to the center, leave a cirle about 1-2 inches wide. You'll eventually glue this onto the bottom of the wrapped flower to hold it in place. Starting where you first cut, begin twisting the fabric around itself tightly. You could add a dab of glue here and there, but if you are twisting it tight enough and supporting it with your fingers well you shouldn't need to. Why risk burning yourself with the hot glue gun anymore than you need to??? As you're spiraling your flower, give the fabric an occasional twist to add depth and texture. This is what I did. Or, you could just keep winding it up without any twists and this is what it would look like. It's just a personal preference. When you get to the end of your fabric with the circle, add some hot glue to the circle and press it against the bottom of the flower to hold is all in place. Do this for however many flowers you like. Usually an odd number of flowers look best together. Figure out an arrangement for the flowers on your wreath then hot glue them on. Finally, add a pretty ribbon and hang it on your door! I'm a neutral color girl but I also love pops of color. I chose more neutral colors for my wreath and decided that I could switch out the color of the ribbons for the different holidays and seaons of the year. I think this wreath would look gorgeous with a burnt orange ribbon for the fall. I would LOVE to see your yarn wreath if you end up doing this project. Please visit me over at Mr. and Mrs. Pear and if you like what you see, follow me. I'd love to have you tag along with me!

Guest Post: Melly Sews Headband Tutorial!

Today we have the wonderful Melissa from Melly Sews here with a tutorial on an adorable headband! The headband can be made in any size and looks super easy! Here's Melissa:

Today I made this headband

from the scraps left over after I made my Tulle Ruffle Skirt

and some 2 inch brown satin ribbon.

I had an 11" left over piece of the velvet ribbon, and about 40 inches of 3 inch wide tulle. Here's what I did. First, I sewed black elastic to each end of the velvet ribbon with a satin applique stitch (basically the widest zig-zag and the shortest stitch length on my machine).

Then I wrapped the tulle around a 3 inch piece of cardboard

I slid the tulle off the cardboard, and wrapped thread very tightly around the center.

I cut through the loops at the ends, and that made the pom-pom pouf part of the headband

I sewed this pouf onto the headband with a few stitches. Next, I made the flower. To do this, sew gathering stitches across the bottom of the ribbon

About every 1 1/2 inches, loop the thread over the ribbon, then sew another gathering stitch

Now pull the thread tight - it will start to pull the ribbon into little petal shaped poufs. You'll have to help shape them a little, and it works better for me if I do it after each time I loop the thread over instead of waiting until the end.

After you have 6 little poufs, cut the ribbon but not the thread. Take one of the end poufs into the middle, folding in raw edges, and take the other end and join it to the rest of the petals. Sew a couple of stitches into the middle, to keep that pouf in place.

Sew this flower into the center of the tulle pouf and onto the headband and you're done.

It could be perfect for you, or you might have a little cutie who needs one, like I did!

Isn't it adorable? {and the baby!!!} Thank you so much for guest posting, Melissa!

xoxo,

Alyssa

Tutorial - Pincushion Ring DIY

supplies:

{and a blank ring base & some cotton stuffing}

super glue this on to your ring base and you're good to go!!

Let me know if you make one! :) I use mine all the time!

Guest Post: Two Tone Cardigan Tutorial from Stacie Grissom!

 I was so excited when Stacie emailed me asking if I'd like a guest post! I quickly checked out her blog and fell in love ;) She has so many whimsical projects it makes me giddy! So without further ado... Miss Stacie Grissom with her 2 tone cardigan transformation!

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Hello! My name is Stacie Grissom and I am so happy to be posting for Alyssa today on Live. Love. Craft. It is so nice to find a fellow crafter on the Internet and Alyssa is one of the sweetest. ;) During the day, I am a writer for Scarves.net where I write about everything from how to tie a scarf to DIY scarf projects. At night, I spend WAY too much time on Pinterest and work on my own craft blog, Stars for Streetlights. I am so excited to share my tutorial on how to make a two-tone cardigan!

And here is the back of the finished product:

 

For this project you need: 

-Two cardigans

-Sewing Machine (Not 100% necessary, you can always sew by hand- but it is SO much easier with a machine. :)

-Double fold bias tape 

-Straight pins

Step 1: First you need to take your two cardigans and cut them both down the middle. The coolest thing about this project besides the fact that you create a funky little sweater is that you get TWO of them! I gave the twin of my sweater to my friend Emily. Perfect gift. ;)

(I got my sweaters from Target. You can always wait for the sweaters to go on clearance, you just need to make sure that you have 2 of the same cardigan so that they match up.)

Step 2: After you have cut your two cardigans apart, you need to hold them together and pin the bias tape open over the seam of the two cardigans. Then you stitch the two sweaters together on that seam. 

Step 3: Next you need to fold the bias tape over the seam and pin it into place. Then stitch that side together and you have your funky cardigan! :)

Voila!

And if you have a dress form, you can totally dress it up in different outfits. Hehe. :)

I want to thank Alyssa for letting me post today! Be sure to also check out Scarves.net's 37 Ways to Tie Scarves-- I love, love, love working there. What girl wouldn't love looking at scarves all day! *le sigh. :) 

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Thank you so much Stacie! I love it and I'm definitely going to give it a try!

Tutorial - DIY wreath form by Maridith

Today we have the lovely Maridith from Strictly Homemade here showing us how to make our own wreath forms, and after that she'll show us how she made hers into an amazing Halloween wreath! I'll stop blabbing and let you get to the real post :)

Hi, my name is Maridith from Strictly Homemade. I am a domestic engineer, married to my best friend and have 3 beautiful children.  I strive to make everything homemade (within reason).  I love sewing/crafting for my children, home, friends, and when I have time myself.  I am a firm believer that homemade rules and pre-fab drools!!  I hope to inspire others to dust off their sewing machine or glue guns and explore their creative side and make something homemade!! It is the best feeling in the world!

If you ask me, wreaths are expensive.  Go to Michael’s Craft Store, Hobby Lobby, etc and you will pay at least $30 for a halfway decent wreath.  Then you say to yourself “I can make that for less then that” then by the time you buy all the pieces you need to make your wreath you have spent $30 and there is no guarantee it will look as good as the professionals.  This whole scenario is the reason I have 2 wreaths. 

Here is a Halloween wreath that I made for my sister the wreath form cost me 50 cents!  Actually the whole thing cost me 50 cents but this is not typical of most crafters. Wanna know how??

TUTORIAL - Lace Pillowcase

All of my pillowcases are so kiddish... I wanted something more plain and pretty for once :) So I made this! Even though no one sees my pillows... oh well :)

For this tutorial you just need some fabric {any kind really... I used cotton I think}
Some lace string stuff {like I used here and here}
A sewing machine
And a premade pillow case for template

I put the simple version of what you do in the images, but I'll explain a little more on each step.

space away from the edges 1-2 inches like this

flip it over so that two pillowcases would fit, as if you cut this pillowcase open and unfolded it.

cut on the far edge and then cut straight down the top edge so that your fabric is 2x the width of the pillowcase and the same length. Leave 1-2 inches all around the edges.

{right sides together} then sew up the bottom and side. flip it out again and put on your pillow!

So... did you like the tutorial? I hope you did!

Any ideas for tutorials? Pretty please email me if you do!


Thanks guys! Please follow and we'll have an amazing blog bash with tons of giveaways when I hit 200! I just need 20 more lovely followers and we'll be there!