Grapevine Topiary

Okay so I'm not sure if that's what these are called, but I love decorating with 'em. I have seen these made with larger branches and love it as well, but the grapevine I had on hand was this smaller size.

Here's a quick tutorial on making these. They come together pretty quick, but if your vine is prickly WEAR GLOVES! This vine was fine without gloves, but to be safe and splinter free put on the work gloves.



I like how versatile it is to decorate with these. I just put them on a candle holder or large vase. They just bring nature to a scene and complement the design.

The first step is to SOAK. I let them bath in the water for about an hour. Don't worry, the water maybe swamp like looking, but there weren't any bad odors.

After soaking it pull some of the branches apart. This part is probably the longest step and the most annoying, but this depends on how spindly your branches are.

Next wrap a branch around your finger, like making a yarn ball. First you twirl it around two fingers.

Then take another branch and twirl it around the the circle of branches. Keep adding branches and you will see the ball start to form.

Like this...just keep adding more branches to the ball, and it will get bigger and bigger just like a ball of string.

As you go along put the ends back inside the ball. This will keep the shape.

The last step is to put all the ends back into the ball. Just weave them back into the ball.

Viola!

And there you have it!

I bought the grapevine at the thrift store for $2.00, I have made four balls so far and used less than half of the total vine. Always keep your eyes peeled for a good deal on vines, because the possibilities are endless with a little vine and creativity!

A Renter's Wall Art

I have been wanting some wall art for a while without doing something permanent. I rent so I need to take it down when I leave. I wanted it to be less than five bucks to make. Well the total cost of this project was less than $2.67! I am so happy with this and even happier with the price.

The first step is to find some wrapping paper or contact paper. I looked everywhere for black contact paper, but when I came across this black wrapping paper at IKEA I knew I could make this work. So I used Sticky Tac ($1.00), wrapping paper ($1.67), and scissors on hand for this project.

It is time consuming for me to cut out a perfectly made flower, so I have a process. To make the flowers cut various size circles. I like to trace around canning lids.

Then fold over and cut out the circles.

To create the petals cut small triangles around the circle.

Keep doing this all around the circle.

How easy was that!

Now you have all these scraps. I use these to make the small branches.

See...

I cut out a large branch and stuck it to the wall.

Sticky tac goes a long way. use lots of small pieces all around the shape.

And place the flowers on the small branch.

See it coming together! I extended the large branch with another piece of wrapping paper cut to size.

Make little starts using scraps and place it onto the main branch.

This is the main branch and you can see the cut. To cover it up use ol' reliable Sharpie.

The corner needed something. A little chair would be perfect, but I didn't have one that was quite right.

So my night stand will do. It didn't fit well next to my bed, but perfect here!

Pretty great look for only $2.67!

LOVE IT!

Thrift Store Finds

I went to the thrift store a few days ago and found some steals, white dishes, decorating ideas, diaper bag, and an update on my media bookcase.



I absolutely love this magazine. They have the greatest ideas and they are filled with information. Whenever I buy one, I treat it like a book, and look through the pages over and over. So these babies are about $4 each, but at the thrift store only $0.25. Plus they gave me a free one, so four for $0.75 I found four inspiring books that I will read until the pages curl.

I have a huge bookcase that has DVD's. We have hundreds of DVD's, it is really an obsession, but I hate them staring back at me. I want to add some doors to hide the clutter. It's really easier than it seems to add a pair of doors to a bookshelf. I ended up paying $0.50 for the lot of them. There are eight good hinges, so I can make at least three doors. I am SO excited I found these.

Don't you love the look! It's Ralph Lauren, so you know its worth hundreds. I bought it for $4.00. I have needed an update on my diaper bag. The poor thing is peeling and stained. Well I got a lot of use out of that old bag, but I'm excited to get to know this new stallion of a bag!

Lastly are the white dishes. I love this style. It may not be a complete set, but it sure is a great update on my current white plates. Think 90's diner plates. For 7 dinner plates, three ramekins, and two salad plates it was $9.50. This was my big buy of the day. I was actually in there a few days before, but I wasn't sure I wanted to spend the money. But when I saw that most were still there, I knew it was meant to be!

At the end of it all I spent $15.00. Pretty good for all those finds!

Before and After

Yes I know I am a renter, but I just don't want to sit around and keep my surroundings frumpy. My mother has always said, beautify your life no matter where you live. I have permission to change my surroundings for the better, so I will take advantage of that. Here is a small, sad, abused cabinet. I decided to give it a face lift.
You see the veneer shining through? It has been like this since the day we moved in, and I have been bothered by it for four years now! Time for change.

I repainted some hard wear, sanded, primed, and painted. Now look a the difference!

Even though it is completely the same piece, it looks like it took a day at the spa.

Loven the new hardware! I really do enjoy the chrome finish. I will have to look into other metal colors. So exciting!

Easter Topiary Tutorial

A little egg, leaves, grape vine, moss and kazzam a sweet and economical (REALLY CHEAP) Easter topiary!

I first saw an Easter Topiary like this at Freddy's, and I fell in love. I knew I would be able to make it for much, much less than the retail price. So I went next door to the dollar store and looked for goodies that would help me make the topiary. Total cost for this was $5.00. I was so excited when I was done that I decided to do a tutorial. If you have any questions just let me know!

1. Use a sphere of foam and cover it with moss. Joys of Home has a great tutorial here.

2. Stick three wooden long bamboo skewer on the bottom of moss ball. Make sure it is centered. As you can see there is still foam poking through my ball. It okay, you will cover that up with other things.

3. Now before you stick the tree into your floral foam, cover the skewers with green floral tape. I didn't do this and I had to use a new floral foam cube. If it doesn't seem very secure glue it in place with a glue gun.

4. The next few steps use the glue gun a lot. So plug that bad boy in!

5. Glue on your eggs. Now I recommend using the mini eggs for this project. They fit better with the size of the moss ball. These were $1.50 for 24 eggs. I will probably put up a tutorial for making these eggs. Yes I know I'm cheap, but a girls gotta be right now. I place them around randomly and used about 20 eggs. The first time I made the tree I used ten eggs, which turned out badly, so I recommend using at least 20 mini eggs.

6. The next step is optional. I took some branches from outside and spray painted them brown. I then cut the branch into smaller sticks and used it as a filler. I wanted it to be very full and tangle. I then took little green balls and glued them to cut ends to make it look like tree buds on the branch.

7. Then I added some regular old leaves and glued them right onto the tree to make it even more full.

8. This is what I ended up with.

9. The last step is using floral picks and tacking grape vine to the tree top. I first used a hot glue gun, but the grape vine wouldn't stick to the tree. If you don't have floral picks, just use a toothpick and wrap one end with some wire, leaving a tail of wire to wrap around your grape vine.

9. Wrap the wire around the end of the vine securely, and push it into the tree top. I like to place it in the bottom. I had to push this pretty hard, but don't worry your sticks shouldn't break.

10. Here is a pic of me pushing it through the tree top. I did this several times, for a full effect.

Viola! A way fun inexpensive Easter Topiary!

f you have any questions just leave me a comment and I will get back to you. Thanks for reading!