Easy Fabric Strip Wreath - St. Pattys

Original Pinterest pin: http://pinterest.com/pin/250090585527164272/

I love wreaths. I stick one up on my front door and it suddenly feels more like home. This wreath idea is great because it's cute, and so easy and inexpensive. It only cost about $6 to make!

 Pin Me!

With St. Patrick’s Day around the corner and no wreath to mark the festivities, I picked out coordinating green fabrics and ribbon. No pinching in our house this year.

What you need:

• A wire hanger (just go look in your closet)
• Fabric and ribbon
• Scissors (good fabric cutting shears work best)

How to:

Untwist the wire hanger and mold it into a circle. It doesn’t need to be perfect, just round. 

Cut a BUNCH of strips out of your fabric. Shoot for about 7 inches long, and about 1 inch wide. I thought I had plenty of fabric and cut over 100 strips, but it was only enough for HALF of the wreath. Originally I bought 1/8^th a yard of three different fabrics, but I ended up needing about twice that amount.

Tie the fabric/ribbon on the wire, one at a time. Push the tied strips close together. And you want to angle them so that the wreath fills out. I went in stages of three - one tie in the middle, one tie pushed to the left, one tie pushed to the right. And repeat. Make sure you are in a comfortable position because it takes a while. But the monotony is soothing if you like crafts - wreath therapy.

Once the wreath is filled, take another piece of long ribbon and make your hanger. Tada!

It's so easy, you could do this with your kids. You could even cut the wire hanger in half once it's straight, and make mini wreaths with the kids (use shorter strips).

Mason Jar Soap Dispenser

Original Pinterest pin: http://pinterest.com/pin/250090585527164886/

My finished project

Mason jars are just fun. Fun for drinks, fun for storage, fun for parties. There’s something about them that’s simple, wholesome, and yet a little fancy too.  This pin was the perfect excuse to buy an antique Mason jar and tell my husband it’s a practical way to dispense soap!

What you need: 

• Mason jar with a lid
• Soap dispenser top (which I pulled off a bottle of Dial soap)
• Hot glue gun
• Something to poke a hole in the top – I used a sharp-tip screw and a hammer
• Needle-nose pliers

How to:

This whole project only took me about 20 minutes to do. But first you need to get your Mason jar. I used the opportunity to purchase a jar from a local antique store. Pretty much any antique store will have a Mason jar floating around somewhere. The old Mason jars have the advantage of the cool galvanized lid. I suppose you could do this project with a new Mason jar and either add an old lid, or use the new lid and do something cool with it, like antique it. I may try that soon myself!

So using an antique Mason jar, take a hammer and a nail or sharp screw, and hammer it in the middle of your lid until it pokes through. The white ceramic stuff under the lid will crack and you can just pull the pieces out (I used a fork to wiggle the pieces out).

Take your needle-nose pliers and bend back the edges of the hole so that it’s big enough for whatever dispenser you are using. Make it just big enough to slide the dispenser in. 

Add a little hot glue around the edge of the hole on the top of the lid, and slide the dispenser in. Flip the lid around and put a nice gob of hot glue around the edges of the hole underneath the lid. This will help secure the dispenser and cover up the rough metal edges so you don’t cut yourself later on.

Put the top on the jar, fill it with soap, and that’s literally it.