Clover House: January 2014

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Old Book Page Heart - How to Make Paper Roses

Sometimes when I have an idea or a vision for a project I want to create, it actually turns out better than I expected. This was one of those times!

You probably know what I'm going to say next...I got my idea from Pinterest! First I saw THIS and then I saw THIS and I combined the two ideas....sort of. LOL! I always try and make the projects I see and recreate, "my own". Let me share with you what I did.

You will need the following items to recreate my framed heart:

Old book pages
8 x 8 piece of scrap wood
Hot glue gun and glue
Scissors
Acrylic Paint (red)
Crackle Paint (cream)
Small paint brush
Old fence pickets
Sandpaper

First, you'll need to make lots of book page roses. LOTS...about 40 or so varying in all different sizes. Cut your pages into 1 1/2" to 2" wide strips. Crumple the paper long ways to make it look like the above.

Add a drop of glue to one end and then start rolling, twisting and gluing as you go. The longer your strip of paper the bigger the rose will be. To make larger roses, I glue two strips end to end after I crumpled them.

Keep rolling and twisting and gluing until you get to the end of your strip of paper then glue the end flat. This is very time consuming. NOTE: My hands were tired and my fingers were sore after making all these roses. So worth it though! I'd certainly do it again!

Make several roses in each of the sizes. I think I ended up with about 3 or 4 different sizes. You'll need smaller ones to fill in blank spaces.

This was my test run. I drew a heart on the board with pencil and tried to fill it in with my roses. I didn't like it. So I cut out a heart from one of the book pages and laid it down for my guide. To hide the paper cut out, I made sure to glue the roses over the edge of the paper. You can see it peeking out in the picture below.

Before I glued down all the roses, I painted the board. First coat was with the crackle paint. My crackle paint is several years old and didn't really work the way it should have, but its ok. Next I painted the red coat of paint and let it dry really good. Next, lay down your heart shape, arrange your roses until you like how it looks, then start hot gluing your roses in place one at a time.

The crackle paint worked a tiny bit, but it wasn't enough of a distressed look so I took the sand paper to it to really scuff it up. I can't leave anything alone! LOL!

Here it is what it looked like when I thought I was done. Then I changed my mind and wanted to add more to it! My honey helped me with the next step.

That's better! He made a frame for me using some more of our old fence pickets. I always love when we can use the pickets in one of our projects. They are so rustic, which I love!

After my honey put together the frame, he used his nail gun to attach the heart board to the frame. You could probably use hot glue as well, but since he was at it, he just went ahead and nailed it together. Lastly, I added a hanger to the back and hung it in the dining room.....I changed my mind AGAIN and now its perched on the mantel with a few other little Valentine items. So cute!

It doesn't have to be done all at once. It is a slow process in the works! C-ya next time!

I'm Linking to:
Sunday
Under the Table and Dreaming by Stephanie Lynn
The Self Sufficient Home Acre
The Chicken Chick, Sew Can Do
Monday
Craft-O-Maniac,
Between Naps on the Porch
DIY Home Sweet Home
Keeping it Simple
The Dedicated House
Skip to my Lou
Home Coming
Tuesday
Not Just a Housewife
My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Sugar Bee Crafts
New Nostalgia
It's your Life
BeBetsy
Fluster Buster
Confessions of a Plate Addict
A Stroll Thru Life
Wednesday
Clean and Scentsible
Lady Behind the Curtain
Family Home and Life
Ducks n a Row
VMG206
Herrban Momma
Family Home & Life
Oh My! Creative
Thursday
Bloom
The Taylor House
52 Mantels
Domesblissity
4 You With Love
Sweet Haute
Artsy Fartsy Mama
From My Front Porch To Yours
Friday
Lil’ Luna
Tatertots and Jello
Five Simple Things
Craftionary
Diana Rambles
I Heart Nap Time
Crafts a la mode
Saturday
Angels Homestead
Positively Splendid,
Or So She Says
Your Homebased Mom
What's Cooking with Ruthie
Made From Pinterest

Sunday, January 19, 2014

Healthy Trail Mix Recipe

So its a new year and we're all trying to eat better and exercise more. Right? We all like a little snack here and there, so I try and make sure its something healthy. We normally like something we can take along easily too, this snack is great for traveling.

This yummy mixture probably isn't a perfect snack if you're asking a health guru, but at least its a bit more healthy than some snacks we could be eating. Make good choices, right? Choose dried fruits and nuts over a chocolate cupcake? That sounds healthier to me!

I normally use the Great Value brand from Walmart. Its all good and it saves a bit of money over the name brands. You can basically use whatever you like, but here is a list of what I normally throw in ours.

Healthy Trail Mix

1 - 30 oz Little Bit of Everything Trail Mix $6.98
1 - 18.25 oz can of mixed nuts - lightly salted or no salt is best $7.98
1/2 - a 14oz box of Toasted Corn Cereal $2.42
1 - 5 oz bag of dried cherries $2.98
1 - 6 oz bag of dried cranberries$1.48
Pour all ingredients in a large bowl and gently mix together. Separate into ziplock baggies for better traveling. Makes (8) sandwich size baggies full.

Doesn't it look good? The "Little Bit of Everything Trail Mix" has mixed nuts, dried fruit, coconut and yogurt covered peanuts. It's cheaper and easier to buy this jar than to try and make your own mix of the same items. I always add the cherries and cranberries because we really like them.

All bagged up and ready to travel wherever we go. The lake, camping or just a little shopping spree one weekend, good for all occasions. Try it!

It doesn't have to be done all at once. It is a slow process in the works! C-ya next time!

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Yarn and Felt Valentine Wreath with Loopy Felt Flower How-tos

I've been wanting to make one of these yarn wreaths ever since I first saw them on Pinterest. I finally decided to make one for Valentine's Day.

These kind of wreaths are very time consuming (wrapping the yarn), but I think it was worth it because I love how it turned out!

These are my supplies. I ended up not using the larger heart, white yarn or the red felt. I change my mind.....a lot! I'll find another project for those!

To recreate my wreath, you will need.

16 inch foam wreath
6 inch foam heart
1 skein of red yarn (it doesn't take the whole skein)
2 squares of white craft felt (the softer the better)
3 Loopy Felt Flowers (directions below)
3 crocheted hearts (or any other embellishment you want)
1 small piece of tape
Hot glue gun

Use a small piece of tape to hold the end of your yarn while you wrap. I tried holding it and it just kept unwrapping and getting tangled, so make it easy on yourself and grab a piece of tape.

Wrap the yarn until your arms fall off! Just kidding! It does take some time for this step though. I grabbed a cup of coffee and turned on the DIY channel while I wrapped my foam wreaths. I'm weird and had to wrap mine neatly, some people just wrap until you no longer see the wreath base. It's up to you!

This is how they will look when you're done. The hearts are a bit more tricky than the circle. The pointy parts are very hard to cover....just sayin!

Now I'll show you how to make your Loopy Felt Flowers. I've made a few other projects with these flowers HERE. They are fun and you'll want to keep making them!

To make the Loopy Felt Flower, you will need:

Felt of your choice (I used white this time)
Sewing machine
Sharp scissors
Hot glue gun (use the low setting)
Cut your felt into strips that measure: 2" x 8", 1 1/2" x 4" and 1" x 3" and then a circle of about 1 1/2".

Fold your strips long ways in half and stitch very close to the open edge like this. Repeat for all three strips.

Using your sharp scissors, snip to the stitching being sure NOT to snip the stitching. If you cut small sections, you will get a fuller flower, larger sections, not so full. I prefer the smaller sections.

Starting with the longest strip, take your felt circle and lay down some hot glue on the very outter edge. Glue the strip to the circle like shown above.

Keep adding your strips using the medium lengthed one next and then the shortest one until you've reach the center.

This is what it will look like when you have all three strips glued to the circle.

Now add your crocheted heart (or other embellishment) to the center to cover the empty space. I got my hearts on Etsy HERE.

Here's what they look like all together. I love those hearts and I've just about used all mine up! They are the perfect touch!

Next, I glued my Loopy Felt Flowers to my wreath with hot glue. The wreath looked too plain at this point so I also cut out some leaves and stems (freehand) from the white felt and added that to each end of my flowers.

Again, it still needed something, so I cut (10) strips of white felt about 1/4 inch wide and made the criss-crosses around the empty space on the right. I just hot glued the ends to the back to hold them in place.

It doesn't have to be done all at once. It is a slow process in the works! C-ya next time!

Sunday, January 5, 2014

A Small Pink Valentine Vignette

Normally I love red and black at Valentine's and I have lots of it, but I do have a few pink things so I decided to make a sweet little vignette in our master bedroom. I don't normally decorate will frilly foo-foo in our bedroom, but it's not much! :)

I gathered all my pink items and then added a few things from my dressing table. So sweet!

I found the big shiny pink ball and the little lidded jar at one of our local thrift shops and grabbed them up! The pink ball holds a tea light and its perched on top of another pink candy scented candle.

This sweet little guy, I've had forever. He's been in so many of my decorating scenes he could be considered a star by now! Chenille bears...everyone needs one or two!

Here's a few pieces of my heart jewelry and a little perfume bottle with a pink butterfly. Perfect! It's all sitting on a vintage hankie and some of my crocheted dollies I've collected over the years.

Lastly, one of my vintage china plates with a Valentine XO in pink polka dot vinyl. You can find it HERE in my Etsy shop along with a few other Valentine items.

It doesn't have to be done all at once. It is a slow process in the works! C-ya next time!

Pages

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Old Book Page Heart - How to Make Paper Roses

Sunday, January 19, 2014

Healthy Trail Mix Recipe

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Yarn and Felt Valentine Wreath with Loopy Felt Flower How-tos

Sunday, January 5, 2014

A Small Pink Valentine Vignette