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Tiffany Brooks Designs

Category Archives: Decorating

DIY, Burlap Wreath Tutorial

01 Monday Dec 2014

Posted by Tiffany Brooks in Decorating, Tutorials

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Tags

burlap wreath, burlap wreath tutorial, Christmas wreath, DIY burlap wreath, DIY wreath, wreath

 

Burlap Wreath Tutorial Cover

I have made plenty of wreaths over the years but never with burlap. I researched a few tutorials I came across on Pinterest and decided to try a few of the techniques used. After a few hours and several different techniques I was about to give up on making a new Christmas wreath. Eventually I came up with my own technique that gave me the fluffy looking burlap wreath I was envisioning.

I have made plenty of wreaths over the years but never with burlap. I researched a few tutorials I came across on Pinterest and decided to try a few of the techniques used. After a few hours and several different techniques I was about to give up on making a new Christmas wreath. Eventually I came up with my own technique that gave me the fluffy looking burlap wreath I was envisioning.

Supplies Needed:Supplies

  • floral wire or pipe cleaner
  • scissors
  • wire wreath
  • burlap

 

I believe my wire wreath frame was 24″. Since my frame was so large I used two rolls of 6″ x 10 yd rolls of burlap ribbon from Linen Table Cloth.

 

Step 1

This is one technique I did find in another tutorial that I really liked.

Cut a piece of wire about 10″ long and carefully weave the wire through the burlap. Once you have weaved the wire through the burlap, hold both ends of the wire and slide the burlap towards the center of the wire. Once gathered, secure the gathers by twisting the wire tightly around the burlap.

Step 1 Gathered

Using the same wires you secured your gathers with, you can now attach to the outer edge of your wreath frame. Step 2 Attached to WreathMeasure Burlap

I wanted all of my loops to be a close to the same size so I devised my own method to measure the sections before I wired the loops to the frame. You can certainly eyeball your loops or use a ruler.  I utilized two of the sections lengthwise to get the same length for each of my loops prior to wiring my loops to my frame. Be sure to cut your wire long enough to form your loop and to secure it to the frame.

 

StepsAfter you have your burlap measured to your desired loop size, you will attach the wire used to make your loop to the third section of frame.

You will repeat this process: outer edge to third frame section. I never attached any of my loops to the second or inner frame edge.

In one of my previous attempts I triedto attach my loops to all four sections and my loops were not as puffy as I wanted them.

Be sure not to tie your wire to tight as you want your loops to move freely on the frame. This will not affect your finished wreath.

Finished No Bow

Now that I have completed looping my burlap around the entire frame, I can move the loops around as needed and fluff the loops.

Bow

The best part of making my own wreaths is selecting the ribbon for my bows.

Fortunately, after Christmas last year I was able to get a great deal of Christmas ribbon at Michael’s Craft Store. I had so many different spool of ribbon to chose from I could barely decide.

Finished with BoxFor my wreath I do not want to add anything other than a bow. If I had chosen a smaller wreath frame I might have added berries or holly.

Now it’s time to hang my new Christmas wreath outside and enjoy it!

Christmas Burlap Wreath Finished (1)

I hope you have found my tutorial helpful. Stay tuned for my next tutorial, How to Make A Bow!

Simple DIY Wine Cork Napkin Rings

12 Wednesday Mar 2014

Posted by Tiffany Brooks in Crafts, Decorating, Tutorials

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Tags

cork napkin ring, napkin ring tutorial, wine cork napkin ring

As I set my table the other day I realized just how boring it was with my folded napkins.

Napkin Rings  (4)

So naturally I start wondering what could I make napkin rings out of other than toilet paper rolls. Naturally I start looking at Pinterest for ideas and this is what I came up with…..

Napkin Rings  (2)

Supplies needed

  • Wine Corks
  • Heavy Wire (I used 16 gauge wire found in the jewelry wire)
  • Wire Cutters
  • Something solid to wrap your wire around to get the perfect rounded shape. (I used a plastic meat flavor injector from my kitchen)
  • Tiny screwdriver to make hole for wire. (I used an eyeglass size screwdriver)

Napkin Rings  (1)

Step 1

Soak your corks overnight in a glass of water. This will make it easier to stick the screw driver straight in. They can soak until your ready to make them.

Step 2

Once you wipe the excess water off your corks take your screwdriver and stick in to desired place on corks. Remember your screw driver should not be any wider than your wire. You will not see a hole like you occasionally see with a cork screw. This is good!

Step 3

Take your wire and wrap it around what ever you have found to get your shape. Wrap the wire until it has the desired look you want. Remember to leave enough room on each end of your wire to stick into the cork. I stuck mine in about an inch on each end.

Step 4

Cut you wire and place each end into the cork.

Step 5

Shape your napkins as desired and pull through napkins ring.

Napkin Rings

Napkin Rings  (3)

Be sure to check out the other wine cork napkin ring ideas on Pinterest when you get a chance. Enjoy!

Halloween Decor, Reusing Dancing Ghost

31 Thursday Oct 2013

Posted by Tiffany Brooks in Decorating, Halloween

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Tags

dancing ghost tutorial, Halloween decor, Halloween decorating, Halloween ghost

This year I wanted to reuse my dancing ghost but my daughter suggested I separate them and place the ghost in different areas throughout the garden. Apparently not to a seventeen year old. This was a great idea considering I do not like to do the same thing every year.  I thought moving them from the back yard to the front yard was different enough.

To my surprise the ghost look amazing this year! I might just be able to reuse these again next year just one last time. They are rather cheap and easy to make but I want to get as much use out of them as I can. 

If you would like to make these ghost you can view my dancing ghost blog that will show you how.

Dancing Ghost, Halloween Decorating

21 Monday Oct 2013

Posted by Tiffany Brooks in Decorating, Halloween, Tutorials

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Tags

dancing ghost, DIY ghost, DIY Halloween ghost, Halloween decorating, Halloween decorating ideas, Halloween ghost, trash bag ghost

Last year (2012) I found some wonderful ideas for Halloween decorating on Pinterest. Fortunately, I was able to try one of the ideas I saw. I have since deleted that pin from my Halloween board, but I did notice others have pinned similar ghost although many are dead end links. 

To make my dancing ghost/ floating ghost I used several things I already had laying around the house.

   

Supplies Needed:

  • White trash bags, one for each ghost
  • Clear plastic painters drop cloth
  • Stakes
  • Newspaper
  • Black sharpie
  • Scissors
  • String
  • Sticks from around yard (for bonfire)
  • Candy corn lights (or whatever you like, I already had these on hand)

Directions

  • Cut away the top of your trash bag (side with the draw string)
  • Cut your painters drop cloth into enough pieces for each ghost. I laid mine out without unfolding it all the way, and cut into 5 pieces/ strips, then trimmed as needed.
  • Ball your newspaper up into your desired head size.
  • Take your newspaper head and cover with your plastic painter’s drop cloth.
  • Now place this inside your trash bag bottom corner.
  • Place your stake into the ghost. (I used bamboo type stakes I bought from the dollar store for my vegetable garden and taped two together for my desired height)
  • Tie a string around the base of the head to make neck.
  • Take your black sharpie and draw your faces on your ghost.
  • Now take your ghost to your desired location in your yard.
  • Place ghost in desired position.
  • Cut a 3″ strip on each side of your ghost for their arms.
  • Now tie their arms together to make them looks as if they are dancing.
  • Now you’re ready to build your bonfire from the sticks you collected.
  • Place your candy corn lights throughout the stick pile for a bonfire look.
  • I used a small hook from my garden with a green colored solar light to add to the look of my bonfire.

 

I cut strips on one of my ghost all the way around as suggested in the tutorial I read but I did not like this look so I did not do it to all the ghost. When the wind blew these ghost were amazing.

After Halloween I placed ghost together in my storage area for this year. They were a little weathered but that was okay. The weathered look gave them a great spooky look. Will do another blog on how I reused these ghost this year.

 

Here is my daughter’s sick pumpkin. I thought I was going to die when I saw this. My only thoughts were who was going to clean that up after Halloween, and would it attract bugs. Fortunately, there was no bugs and the cleanup was fast and easy.

Halloween Tree Decorating

13 Friday Sep 2013

Posted by Tiffany Brooks in Decorating, Halloween, Tutorials

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Tags

Halloween decorating, halloween door hanger, halloween tree, halloween wreath

 

 

Normally I do not put up a tree for Halloween but this year as I was making my wreath and door hanger I started thinking of adding a matching tree to the front porch.

The colors I wanted in my door hanger and wreath/ witches broom were purple and orange. From there the wheels in my head began to spin with ideas for decorating a tree.

Supplies

  • Tree
  • Lights
  • Mesh Curly-Q’s
  • Decorations
Fist, add lights of your choice to the tree. I prefer purple lights on my Halloween tree but have seen many different types of Halloween lights. I am sure the candy corn lights would look amazing on a tree. Second, attach the mesh curly-Q’s throughout the tree. If you do not know how to roll mesh into curly-Q’s check out my How to Roll Mesh Blog. Finally, the fun part, decorating.

 

The tree topper is one of my favorite things about any tree. I originally was going to use a witch hat as the topper until I found this owl at Michael’s Craft Store. They add a little color around the owl and mesh I choose a few different colors and style of sprays.

I had no idea what I was going to put on the tree except for the felt witch hats I had added to my door hanger and witches broom. One of the first places I always look for decorations is the Dollar Store. I usually do not find actual tree decorations there but instead I find knickknacks that I turn into tree decorations. I found the cutest shelf sitters: pumpkin, mummy, and skeleton at the Dollar Store. I used my floral wire and wrapped it around their necks to get them to sit on the tree limbs. Another great find at the Dollar Store was the black birds and the fuzzy black owls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At Michael’s Craft store I found the most amazing witches to hang on my tree. I have to say the witches are my favorite part of my Halloween tree.

Once I finished decorating I realized I needed a tree skirt to complete my tree. So I made a reversible tree skirt that I would be able to use on other holiday trees I do throughout the year.

 Happy Halloween! Be sure to check out my other holiday decorating ideas while your here.

Bringing in the Outdoors

31 Thursday Jan 2013

Posted by Tiffany Brooks in Decorating, Holidays

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Tags

Christmas tree decorating, critter Christmas tree, owl Christmas tree, squirrel Christmas tree, woodland Christmas tree

As some of you may already know sewing is my life’s dream. But my second passion is decorating especially for the holidays. At Christmas I usually put up eight to ten Christmas trees. One for every room each tree having its own theme. Some of the trees I do the same every year and the other trees change like the weather.


Sometimes I see one thing and my mind starts spinning with endless possibilities.

Whether I see a something online or just as simple nick nack I think of the endless possibilities of that item being an ornament for my tree.
This year my mind went crazy when I found a few soft fuzzy owl ornaments and a straw squirrel decoration at a local store.

The hunt was on after that for anything and everything that could go on my “Woodland Tree”. It did not take long to fill my tree with everything from cattails and berries to porcupines and other woodland critters.

I very rarely look in the Christmas decoration department when I am hunting for ideas. And I always find it best to look in the most off the wall shops if I am looking at their ornaments.

I used the mesh for the first time in a few of my trees this year and what a difference the mesh makes. Adds a much different look than the ribbon I typically use.

Want to make your own curly-Q’s view our curly-Q tutorial and learn how.

I am so excited to share my love for sewing, decorating, organizing, gardening, and cooking with you. I am a SAHM of a beautiful seventeen year old. Ah... teenagers. I love to do just about anything craft and sewing related. There's nothing better than doing what I love everyday and the best part it never feels like work

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