Tulle Ballet Wreath - Dance Teacher Gift Idea

I adore my daughter's ballet teacher.  Jennifer is the owner of the dance studio and the director of the Ensemble Dance Company for which my daughter dances.  She has been a role model and teacher to Emma for five years now.

With another dance year coming to an end, we wanted to give Jennifer a gift to show our appreciation for her and all of her hard work.  You can't see these tulle wreaths that are everywhere in bloggyville without thinking of a dance tutu.  And when I found some miniature pointe shoes at my local dance shop, I knew that I wanted to make a Tulle Ballet Wreath for Jennifer.

It was a quick project that you can make for your favorite dance teacher or even for your favorite dancer!

Here's what you'll need:

• 8" metal macrame ring (I got mine at Joann Fabric & Craft store, but you can also find them here on Amazon.com)
• Light pink tulle - (2) 6" wide spools (again, I found mine at Joann's in the wedding section.  I used a little more than one spool for the wreath.)
• 2 pointe shoe keychains (I got mine at a local dance store but I also found them here on Amazon.com)
• scissors
• decorative ribbon for hanging (I used a 16" piece of pink ribbon with brown polka-dots)
• white craft paint (if you want to cover the label inside the shoes)
• needle and thread   

8" Metal Macrame Ring

Tulle

Minishooz Pointe Shoe Keychain

Cut the tulle into 12" strips and tie a lark's head knot around the ring with each strip of tulle.  This is what a lark's head knot looks like:

source

If you need instructions on how to tie this type of knot, you can find them here.

Once you've gone all the way around the ring with the strips of tulle, take the ribbon that you're going to use for hanging, and loop it around the ring.  I then hand-stitched the ribbon ends together  at the point where it meets the ring.

Next, if you'd like, you can paint over the wording on the inside of the shoes.  I simply used basic white craft paint and just put a couple of coats to cover the inside.

Then I tied the two shoes together and hand-stitched them to the back of the ribbon so that they hung the way that I wanted them to.

Easy, right?  And such a beautiful gift for a dance teacher or dancer.  Thank you for stopping by today!



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Easter Tulle Wreath and Easter Canvas

Yesterday I told you I had one more Easter craft to share with you, but really I have two.  :)

The other day when I went to print a Michael's coupon from their website, I found a tulle wreath tutorial and thought it was so cute and looked easy (I just can't pass up a cute, easy craft!)  I followed their directions but I cut the tulle to 22" instead of 30".  And I added the little egg ornaments (found at Michael's for 40% off) that I hung with some hemp yarn that I had.  The letters are just stickers that I stuck on the eggs!

I was planning on only making the Easter wreath but I got carried away when I saw this gorgeous canvas art on Pinterest.  It sells at an awesome online store for over $300.  Really.  I love, love, love the idea of the white, raised letters on a white canvas.

So this is what I made.  A simple, understated piece of Easter canvas art.

My canvas version only cost $11!  I already had the spray paint and the other items were on sale plus I used a coupon.

It was simply a matter of gluing the wood letters to the canvas and spray painting the whole thing white.

It's been a fun, craft-filled day!  Thanks so much for stopping by!
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St. Patrick's Day Decor

     I usually don't decorate for St. Patrick's Day.  Oh, we'll wear green on March 17, and we wouldn't refuse a pint o' beer.  But I haven't had decorations to go with this holiday until this year!  It all started with my This + That Lucky Kit from Kerri Bradford:

     Kerri has a kit for every holiday and they're all just as adorable!  I was perfectly happy having my Lucky frame as my March/St. Patrick's day decor, and then I saw THIS project featured on one of the blogs that I read:

     This is just about the cutest wreath I've ever seen.  I decided I'd make one, so I followed Jenn's tutorial and made my own (I made mine with artificial greenery because I wanted it to last longer).

     Then, just when I thought I was done with March decor, I stumbled upon this FREE printable from Landee See, Landee Do:

     So, as you can see, one thing led to another and now I have a full-fledged St. Patrick's Day thing goin' on here at home!

     What about you?  Do you decorate for St. Patrick's Day?

May the road rise up to meet you,

may the wind be ever at your back.

May the sun shine warm upon your face

and the rain fall softly on your fields.

And until we meet again,

may God hold you in the hollow of His hand.

-Irish blessing-

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Front Door

     Today's photo prompt for the February Photo-a-day Challenge is "front door."  

     I had no winter/Valentine's Day wreath to hang on the door.  In fact, nothing has hung there since I took down my Christmas wreath.  And there was no way I was going to take a picture of my unadorned front door for this challenge.  If there were ever a time to show off my front door, it would be now.  So...I went looking for a wreath.  I ended up making my own and writing a little tutorial about how I put it together.

     I was looking for a new wreath for my front door and wanted something that I could use not only for Valentine's Day, but also for the coming months ahead.  Wreaths are so darned expensive, so when I can find one that'll last for two or three months, then I'm satisfied.

     After searching the stores and not finding one that I liked enough to spend 40 or 50 dollars on, I decided to make my own. I really wanted something very simple.  I LOVE how it turned out!

Here's what you'll need:

• A plain greenery-type wreath I got this one at Tai Pan Trading here in Utah.  With my 25% off coupon, it was $30

• A decorative element for the center - look for something that has parts that can be wrapped with floral wire and then attached to the wreath like this bird's legs and curlicue thingies on it's head and tail The little bird came from Hobby Lobby. She was $6.99, but the 40% off coupon made her $4.20

• Wide ribbon I used 2" wide grosgrain ribbon that I already had.  You can buy some at Hobby Lobby or Joann's for about $4.00 for a 4-yard roll.  And if you have a 40% off coupon, you can get the roll for about $2.40

• Floral wire

• Grip-It Rubber Shelf & Drawer Liner I have had this roll forever, but it's available here for $2.99 a roll.  This stuff  is great for putting under a cutting board to keep it from sliding around, or using as a jar grip, etc.  Handy to have around!

• Scissors
• Staple gun
• I also needed wire cutters to remove the bird from it's pedestal (see below)

The first thing I do is create little bumpers for the back of the wreath so that my door doesn't get too scratched and so the wreath doesn't sway too much with the wind.  To do this, cut three 10" x 2" strips of the drawer liner. Fold one in half like this:

Then thread some floral wire through both layers of drawer liner then through the wreath (in this case, through some of the grapevine) and back up through both layers of drawer liner.  One end of the bumper should now be attached to the wreath.

Twist the two ends of wire together to secure.  Repeat at the other end of the bumper.  Do this 2 more times at the top and opposite side of the wreath so it looks like this:

Then I held the wreath up against the door to see if any of the drawer liner showed from the front.  A couple of places did so I just trimmed them a bit, like this:

Next, the bird was attached to a small wooden pedestal that I wanted to remove, so I simply cut the wire legs at the base with wire cutters:

 I then took some floral wire, doubled it up 

and attached it to the bird's legs and curlicues on the top of its head and tail.  After placing the bird at the base of the wreath, I then twisted the wire around the wreath to attach the bird to the wreath.  The nice part about the floral wire is that it just blends right in with the greenery.

Take your ribbon and hold it up to the door, holding the end of the ribbon at the top of the door, and unroll it to the point where you'd like the wreath to hang, like this:

Take that length of ribbon and double it over so that you have twice that length.  Add about 5 or 6 inches to this (to allow for some leeway), then cut.  The length I cut was about a yard.

Find the center point of the top of your door. Fold an inch of ribbon over and staple the folded part of the ribbon to the door:

Loop the ribbon through your wreath and adjust the height.  I used masking tape to hold the ribbon just for a minute while I stepped back and checked the wreath height.

When you're satisfied with the height of the wreath on the door, fold over the ribbon end and staple it to the top of the door, directly over the first stapled ribbon

Trim the ribbon end,

remove the masking tape, and step back to admire your beautiful wreath!

 It's exactly what I wanted: simple and appropriate for Valentine's Day with the red ribbon and the bird's heart-shaped wing.  After Valentine's Day I will change the ribbon to a blue that complements the bird's body and my wreath will stay on the door through the Spring months (except at Easter-time when I'll have an Easter-themed wreath. But this bird wreath can go back up after Easter.)  And that's it!

 Have fun, and let me know in the comments if you tackle this little project.  I'd love to see your custom wreath!

♥C

UPDATED 02/17/12:

Here are a couple of photos of the wreath after I changed the ribbon color (I only wanted the red ribbon for Valentine's Day)

To remove the ribbon from the door I used a flat-head screwdriver to pry the staple up a bit, then needle-nose pliers to pull the staples out.  Piece of cake!

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