DIY Edition: Paper Wreath

We are less than two months away from our wedding and I still cannot stop crafting. This little beauty of a craft, a paper wreath, caught my eye on Pinterest some time ago. Here's what materials you'll need:

• Ruler, scissors, pencil for marking

• Scrap paper that can be cut into 4"x4" squares and 2"x2" squares.

• Glue gun with extra sticks (I used 3-4 sticks)

• Scrap cardboard (be sure it's sturdy!)

• Ribbon to hot glue to the back for hanging

To secure the petals to the cardboard simply space them apart, add a little glue to the cardboard and press the petal on. As you work farther into your wreath you'll need to glue the paper rather then the cardboard and press it in to the small remaining space.

• Use scrap paper and scrap cardboard

• I splurged and bought a $2  pack of brown paper from the printer paper aisle to add some dimension.

Here's how it's done:
Begin by cutting a circle from cardboard that measures 9 inches in diameter. Mark the cardboard two inches in to serve as your guide for placement.

Cut paper squares for your outer layers (I did three full layers in cream and two in brown) measuring 4"x4".

Cut more paper squares for your inner layers (I did two full layers in cream and one in brown) measuring 2"x2".

To make the petals, hold the piece of paper as a diamond. Grab the left and right corners and pull them in toward one another. Pinch the paper with your fingers and line the outer facing edge with hot glue to seal. Press and hold for 3-5 seconds.

In terms of spacing, I tried to put the newest layer of petals between two petals in the previous row. That way it filled the empty space.

Doing this on the cheap? I only spent ~$2.50.

Thanks for stopping by the Humble Hammock and looking around; do come back!
Cara

DIY Edition: Shedding

When we bought our house last fall we stumbled into a house that I'll refer to as "one in a million" even though there are a few others in our 1970's neighborhood that look quite similar. The gentleman who renovated our home knew the meaning of quality and did a spectacular job on the inside. The outside however was certainly in need of some work and after a full winter of itching to get our hands in our backyard, we were chomping at the bit to keep from lacing it with explosives and starting over.

My better half will tell you that I have a habit of exaggerating. So, tell me, when I say this shed was on the brink of spontaneously combusting, can you really disagree?

78 hours of hard work (divvied up among family and friends) produced this beautiful replacement:

So how did we do it?

• Stayed focused. There are 100 other projects we want to get to, but spreading our money out among them would have slowed our shed project down. STAY FOCUSED and handle one task at a time. It's much more gratifying. Since this, we've made a 'Honey-Do' list to support our future focus.

• Admitted we were inexperienced. Our fathers and brothers knew more than us when it came to cutting, measuring, leveraging, building and general carpentry and electrical work. We let them share honest advice so that we could make decisions with the future in mind. 

• Got educated on exterior paint. Sure, we've painted a billion things, but paint can be tricky. We spent an hour at the Home Depot learning from the paint specialist and getting educated on the tools we needed, the paint that best served our project and technique. After it was all said and done the paint tech even gave us a sweet deal just for being so patient, kind and open to learning. We ended up with Valspar Reserve Exterior paint that was a bit more high end, but only took one coat to cover. According to the paint specialist, that's a rare thing to find!

• Collected coupons. One of our family members is a war vet and gets the military discount at Lowes. They came with us to buy our lumber and we got a really really good deal on it. Additionally we saved up some gift cards and coupons before making our planned purchase. That planning alone saved us $300 the day we picked up the lumber. Our grand total for the shed remodel landed somewhere between $500-$600 after we got the locks, electrical modifications, paint, hinges, lumber, caulking and roller brushes. Not bad for a shed that would have cost over $2,000 to replace brand new!

Have you done something similar to this before? What were some of your challenges/successes? 

Thanks for stopping by the Humble Hammock and looking around; do come back!

Cara