Winter Decor: Dollar Tree Duster Wreath

 

This is another project I saw last year and pinned to make this year. Who'd a thunk a few dusters from Dollar Tree would make such a pretty fluffy wreath?

Supplies

• Wreath Form/ I used a wire one but you can use the styrofoam ones they sell at DT.
• For Duster Mops
• Glue Gun and Glue Sticks
• Bottlebrush Trees
• Wired Ribbon
• Ornaments
• Pom Pom 

I was only able to find four of these Mop Pads across a few stores and would rather have had at least five but made it work! Your best bet is to order a box of them online. 

Cut each pad in half. You will get some fluff that falls off but you're going to be gluing these down so it doesn't matter. 

If you're using a wire wreath form, turn it over and work from the back side. If you're using the styrofoam form, doesn't matter. Cut each pad in half then glue each side to your wreath form with hot glue. Keep adding your halves until you've covered your form.

Once you've covered your form, you could stop there but what fun would that be?!

I hit JoAnn when they had a buy one get three free sale on ribbon and found this pretty snowflake ribbon. I already had some silver bottle brushes on hand that went perfectly with the ribbon.

I made a bow and glued down on the wreath. 

I wanted to put the bow on before I added the trees to make sure things were centered. 

To finish, I added two pinecone ornaments and a white pom pom I already had on hand. Once you're done with adding things fluff and hang!

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Sundays on Silverado

Our Hopeful Home

Papercrafting: Paper Bag Snowflakes UPDATED

 

I saw these making the rounds last Christmas decorating season after I was done and definitely wanted to try making some this year. There are a gazillion tutorials on Pinterest and You Tube so I'm not going through a step by-step but rather sharing some tips I learned while making them. 

Supplies: 

• Brown Paper Lunch Bags (Can also use white or other colors but these are easily found)
• Hot Glue Gun and Glue Sticks
• Sharp Scissors
• Scrapbook Papers

The best part of these is how inexpensive they are and the bang for the buck! I already had these on hand from Walmart. Dollar stores are a great place to find them as well. I used 9 bags which was the most consistent number of bags I ran across looking at tutorials. 

I saw some tutorials that said it didn't matter whether your bags were "flappy side" up or down as long as you used the same side. I tried both ways but had success with "flappy side" down. If you are wondering what I'm talking about, the "flappy side" is where the bottom of the bag folds up to lay flat in the package.

Flip your first bag over and run a line of hot glue across the bottom and another up/down the middle to connect and make a T.

I also saw where some people glued all of the bags together before cutting and others that started with three bags, cut your design, layer the next three, use the first three as your guideline then cut, finish with the final three. 

The design possibilities are ENDLESS but I kept it simple so I could get the technique down. Decorative edge scissors and hole punches would also add character. 

I did a simple cut by trimming the edges of the bags to a point and adding triangle cuts on the sides. You can measure or do freehand. 

Once all nine are glued together it looks like this from the side:

Once the nine bags are stacked, glued, and cut, open like a pinwheel and glue the two unglued sides together. I was working to get this done before the glue cooled so no pics. 

You can stop here but I wanted to add some snowflake medallions because I'm extra like that. I chose an image from Cricut Design Space and cut out a patterned layer and a solid white layer, then mounted the patterned layer to the white layer with foam tape and then hot glued to the center of the star/snowflake.

I made these to hang on our fireplace wall. We don't have a mantel but I wanted something festive for this area. I just started decorating (I am an absolutely AFTER Thanksgiving decorator and usually not until December). I got some very cool wood bead garland I'm planning to add here but I needed to know I could do these first! 

They're hanging on the panels that are on either side of the fireplace. Mr. Chocolate gave me one of his "This woman is nuts" looks since I woke up early this morning and did them and he knows they weren't there when he went to bed last night. 

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