DIY Valentine's Day Wreath

If you were browsing Pinterest in the weeks before Christmas you likely came across a red-and-white pinwheel-shaped wreath. And if you're anything like me, you were so inspired to make this creation that you pinned it twice, once on your Christmas board and again on your DIY craft board, just to make sure you actually made. this. one. thing. But alas, the holidays passed me by and my front door remained without pin-striped cheer.

Until a few weeks ago when my sisters were in town for a bridal shower and we were hanging out in the dining room all cozy-like with the snow falling, when we decided to get a little crafty. I had the $5 box of paper straws from Bed Bath and Beyond and a hot glue gun at the ready, and figured it would make the perfect door decor for Kirsten's shower and could then double for Valentine's Day.

I love cheap projects, and this one does not fail. The straws cost just $5 and I already had everything else on hand, including the hot glue gun and sticks.

First draw a circle on a sturdy piece of cardboard the size you want the opening. If you have a protractor this is a cinch! Then draw a slightly larger circle (my second radius is about 3 inches longer than the first). Cut it out with an exacto knife, using a safe surface. I thought I'd need to make the wreath extra sturdy, hence the double cardboard in the photo, but I only ended up using one of those circles.

Begin gluing down the straws with just a drop of glue. Space them evenly apart and start with the 12:00, 6:00, 3:00 and 9:00, then move on to fill in the gaps in between, always placing the new straw halfway between its neighboring straws.

I made sure the straws poked into the middle circle just a bit to cover up the edge of the cardboard as much as possible. If I were to do this project again I'd consider painting the cardboard red to camouflage it against the straws. 

Once you've filled the wreath with as many straws as you can fit placed all the way to the edge of the cardboard, start a second row that is inched back just a bit. I found that if I kind of slid the new straw into place, I could nudge it up just a little more. The straws are flexible so they can squeeze together quite tightly. Nevertheless, this step was by no means perfect and I definitely have areas of my wreath that aren't perfectly symmetrical.

Starting to get dizzy yet?

Sarah was busy working on a wedding card for a friend

Now finish up with one final ring of straws. As you can see, these are placed about two inches back from the first two rows.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm not sure what I think of the finished product. It looks pretty much like the one on Pinterest, but because of it's size or the contrast against the blue door, it looks pretty ominous to me!

Watch out for the Pierson house, they've been marked!

Not gonna lie, it's kind of scary approaching the house at night. Hard not to look at that red eye pulling you in!

I hung the wreath by threading fishing line through one of the straws and attaching it to one of those window suction cup hooks.

How have you been sprucing up the front door this winter? Anything as scary as ours?

Ice-Ice-Baby: DIY Ice Luminaries

This is the perfect craft for anyone living in a cold climate. Great for a little front-step festivity for your dinner parties or just because. If the weather turns warm and they melt it's not a big deal since they are {practically) free!

Collect some biodegradable items to decorate your luminary. We like to use cranberries because they are bright, festive, easy to glue, and cheap! We grabbed this bag after T-day for about a dollar and threw it in the freezer until the weather was consistently below freezing. You can also use thinly sliced lemons or oranges, pine cones, greenery, etc.

You'll need a luminary mold. You could try doing this in a regular gallon pail but it'll probably work better with one of these nifty molds.

Use a hot glue gun to attach your decorations to the inside of the mold (after your ice sculpture melts outside you'll want to try pick up the glue bits in consideration of mother nature). If using thinly sliced lemon or orange, it works best to dry off the rind a bit and only attach glue to the rind - otherwise they tend not to stick very well. Play around with different patterns, or you can try filling the mold just a few inches, tossing in some decorations (without glue) and freezing just that amount before filling the rest up with water. This will create a layer right at the top of the luminary and you won't have to worry about picking up glue bits from the snow later!

Once everything is firmly in place, fill the mold/bucket with water and freeze for 12 hours. We put our mold in our deep freezer since there's lots of room in there and we know it'll freeze properly, but if it's really cold outside you could try just setting it on the back steps. Make sure you don't exceed 12 hours by too much otherwise you'll end up with a solid block of ice. Since water freezes from the outside first, the goal is to get a nice thick layer around the outside but to let the middle remain fluid.

Now use something thin - like a long, metal icing spatula - to slice down around your mold, making sure you separate all decorations from the mold.

Flip it upside down (which you'll soon realize is actually right-side up) and pull up on the mold. If this is difficult, run some hot water over the top. We do this step in the bathtub.

As you can see, there is a thin layer of ice across the opening. Break this (brrr) with your fist, and poor the water out.

Now wrap that baby up in a bath towel and place him on your front steps!

Don't forget the candle!

These luminaries were made by Evan's mom for Christmas a few years ago. She's the one who got us going on the luminaries and bought us our mold.

Now go make some ice and don't forget to exercise your vocal chords to the tune of Ice-Ice-Baby ... you know you wanna!