Have a few people still on your list? Yea, me too. Its ok though, because today I have a project that will simultaneously check them off your list and let you take out all of your holiday stresses on a hunk of clay! Win win!!
To make this project you will need:
Clay (we Amaco Air Dry Clay from the craft store ) The clay takes about 24 hours to dry
A marker or something to make a hole.
Magnets
Acrylic Paint
Tools to smooth and cut (if you have a set of Cricut tools, they are AWESOME! if you don’t you can totally use a butter knife and a credit card!)
Here is how we did it:
A few things to note:
If you let the clay dry for a few hours before you start cutting the geometrics off then you will get harder corners (which is a good thing!)
If you are using Air Dry, you have to paint it to be able to water the plants (otherwise it will just remoisten the clay) If you want it to be clay colored you can buy the type of clay that gets baked.
Need more handmade holiday gifting ideas? Go here.
You guys are in for a treat today. You’ve adequately stocked up on Cocktail straws from your wreath making I hope? Today we are making a gift topper AND trying out a new video format! (so let me know what you think!)
Mandilicious Christmas is a series that I started a few years ago for inexpensive handmade gifts. This year, we are adding a few holiday festivities to the mix and I could not be more thrilled about it!
Hey guys!! Just wanted to reshare this awesome geometric wreath tutorial from last year, it is still one of my favorite projects of all time!!
This wreath. This wreath saved me.
You know when you are so inspired by something it is all you can think about!? I want to Himmeli everything.
Lets back up. You are probably saying “Himmeli?” Lets. discuss. Himmeli is a traditional Scandinavian art. They typically make them at Christmas time and they are the most gorgeous mobiles that you have ever seen (Google it!!)
I was in a decorating funk and for the life of me couldn’t find any holiday inspiration. So I started googling things that I love. When I googled Geometric Wreath I found HRUSKAA. It is an etsy shop that makes amazing Himmeli projects. Melissa’s Himmeli wreath is made out of Brass or Copper tubing and worth every cent (I priced one out in brass supplies and the cost alone was $60.00) not to mention that you have to cut 105 pieces. You should totally go and check out her shop, it is going to shoot to the top of your sugarplum dreams. And while my wreath is not exactly the same as hers, it was totally inspired by it.
The wreath and how to make something similar lived in my every thought for days. After trying my hand at making simple Himmeli ornaments, I felt like I understood the design process a lot better. Looking at a 3 dimensional object 2 dimensionally is enough to give you an aneurism. After trying a few techniques I feel like I came up with an extremely easy technique to make a geometric wreath.
(And when I say easy, I mean my 10 year old can do it. So you can totally do it too!)
Tutorials for this type of project are notoriously confusing and make you want to give up on life completely. I am doing everything I can to combat that problem. Please don’t give up on life.
I even made a video because, lets face it, sometimes it is just easier to learn things in person.
But of course I had to do a regular tutorial too. So lets get to it!
To make a Himmeli Wreath you will need:
1 Package of Cocktail Straws
1 Spool of 30 Gauge Floral Wire
Start by cutting your straws down to right length. To make a wreath that is 19 inches at its widest point I cut the straws to 4 1/2 inches.
The fastest and most efficient way to cut 105 straws is to use a rotary cutter and a guide.
Before you get started I have a few tips:
When you are connecting the wire you will only need to wrap it once (unless you are finishing a line, then you will want to wrap it a couple more times.)
Tuck in as many of the tails as you can (I talk about this a little bit more in the video)
Handle this like it is a newborn baby flower. VERY carefully. Straw is not the strongest material on the planet.
Now is the fun part.
Measure out 2 1/2 arms length of wire.
You are done with your first piece!! Now you just need to make 7 of these PacMan/Pentagon shapes. After you have done that, this is where you pick up the tutorial.
Clip your wires and you are done!
One little tip, if you are planning on spray painting your wreath string a small piece of wire from one of the outer points so you have something to hold while you are painting! (I used this gold to paint mine!)
**Just an FYI the center wreath in this picture is a different design. The 2 wreaths on the outsides are from this tutorial. You can see the tutorial for the second wreath here.
And because I am obsessed I have one hanging in my kitchen too…
So what do you think? Is this a project that you are going to try?
I have the simplest tutorial for you today!! Since we are still wrapping up The Nugget series, and this baby couldn’t be missed! (Don’t worry, the light tutorial is coming next!)
I obviously wanted a shelf above this little window because that would be adorable, but I also needed to be able to store things in it while we were travelling.
This simple box shelf is what I came up with. It would be SO cute in a bathroom!!
Here is how we made it.
Start by cutting premium pine to the width of your shelf (the long pieces) and the height of your shelf (the short pieces)
Using wood glue (I love Titebond III) and finishing nails, attach the long pieces to the tops of the shorties.
When our box was built, we measured in 1 3/4 and 3 inches on both sides for the brass rods.
Then I drilled out the holes.
To attach it to the wall, I used basic L brackets, and attached them to the studs in the trailer.
Attach the brass rods into the holes, and ta da! you are finished!!
Hey guys! Man this week has flew by! We had the timing stars align for a project and have been hitting it full force (think staying up until 3 am every night). Some of you may know that Court’s family owns an awesome restaurant in St. George called Durango’s. It has become really successful over the last almost 14 years (because it is so good!!) so we thought it was about time to step the decor up to match the food.
This is what we’ve been working with. The building facades are very quintessential Durango’s, but also a little outdated and sort of impossible to replicate exactly in other restaurants for future franchising options.
So to fix all of it, we are completely updating every single nook and cranny of this place, and the first step is the facade wall.
I turned to my favorite graphic designer/assistant/dance partner Jamie to replicate the facade into simple 1 dimensional line art.
She took this:
And turned it into this:
So cool right?!
Demo took just a few hours and was relatively painless.
After the holes were patched and everything was cleaned up, it was time to prime. I had my guys at Sherwin-Williams tint the primer as dark as they could to minimize the painting as much as possible. When you paint with paint, the color dries darker than it goes on, well primer is the opposite, it dries lighter. Just a little piece of random info that no one will ever need. You’re welcome.
I sort of over compensated the size of the wall when I was buying paint. It only took 2 gallons to paint the monster (I bought 4) We used Sherwin-Williams Emerald in Iron Ore (just like here and here!) The reason that I love Emerald (and why I pay the $65 /per gallon price tag) is because it.is.the.best. The coverage is awesome (1 coat with a few touch ups on the heavily textured areas) and the durability is amazing.
Then we spent the next 3 days chalking and painting.
We wanted it to look a little sketchy and imperfect, so we exaggerated points where 2 lines met by dragging them out, or stopping it short.
I LOVE how it turned out (totally worth the 4 hours of sleep a night) and we are officially 7% done with the renovation! Hooray!!
So I had a MASSIVE moment of self awareness this weekend.
1. Not all ideas are good ideas (thought I knew this one but, I now know it harder.)
2. Given creative constraints I will self implode and leave fake snow and denial in my wake.
You know how there are those people that you can give a small number of random things to, and they come up with something AMAZING?
Well that is not me.
Give me free reign of all of the things and I can come up with something that seems MacGyver style creative. In all reality? Its usually born out of not knowing where I put the supplies that I already bought. There is a big difference folks.
In case you missed last week’s post, I have teamed up with a few really talented bloggers to have a Chopped style ornament-off.
In true Chopped fashion, we all had to use the same ingredients (clear round balls, fake snow, sharpie paint pens, and ribbon) to create an ornament.
“How hard could it be?” she said. “Blogger interactions are good for you!” she said.
Let me tell you about these Chopped Ornaments (more like Chop Your Own D*mn Head Off Ornaments of Actual Pain and Fury.)
This year for Christmas, we are memory building. Which means that a tree that’s on trend is out, and homemade ornaments by the Gubler girls are in. But I thought that a few blog worthy ornaments on the little tinsel tree would hurt no one. Do you know what memories were made? Memories of Mom yelling “That’s it! Christmas is CANCELLED!!” when I walked in to see Dylan singing “Let It Go” and throwing fake snow into the air in my living room.
But back to the task at hand. Lets take a step inside my brain and I’ll show you the thought train.
(Swirly clouds and harp music)
Simple.
Cactus inside a globe inside a himmeli shape (its like an ornament turduckin of 2014 trends) BAM!
This thing is going to be cute and easy.
What about the ribbon, sharpie and fake snow that you’re required to use?
Crap.
Um…does leather count as ribbon?
I can draw something on the front of the ornament.
…The fake snow is going to be a problem.
Yes it is.
I mean there is a lot of fake snows in the world, it doesn’t have to be this giant
plastic crappy kind. It could be something pretty like — salt?
Leather, cactus, fake snow/salt, himmeli, and drawings?
That’s a lot of crap to put on an ornament.
Ok. New idea.
What if we have a little silhouette scene with a black paint pen on the front of the ornament and fill it with fake snow?
Way to be an over-achiever. Filling it with snow and drawing on the front?
Pretty sure that Martha perfect that concept in utero.
It needs to be BETTER! BIGGER! and NEVER BEEN DONE!!
I hate you.
Ok. New idea.
WHAT IF I make a cool geometric shape out of velum and draw on the edges with a sharpie paint pen THEN put a glowing balloon light and fake snow inside the velum shape to disperse the light all while being suspended by a ribbon inside the ornament?!?!?!?!?!?!?
(Heavy breathing, also crazy eyes.)
….This is not going to end well.
(Cue swirly clouds and harp music)
So here are all of the project attempts. Try to contain your judgments.
The cactus idea actually turned out really cute if you don’t count the microscopic cactus needles in Jamie’s fingers (because she thinks that she is invincible and can manhandle a cactus with her bare hands?) and the one that I have stuck in my chin (like I am ever going to find that with the chin hair.) Also the hot glue gun burns.
I glued the teensiest cactus that you have ever seen to a water bottle cap and then glued it to one side of the ornament half. Then I add salt and x’s with the paint pen.
I have a feeling that the cactus might not do so hot sitting in a 1/4 cup of Kosher Salt, but you know, I already killed it with the hot glue gun so NBD. I also made one with an air plant. Again, it looks cute but that amount of salt has got to be a death sentence. I bet that white sand, or small plastic beads would work if you wanted to recreate it.
The little silhouette guy turned out pretty cute too, and was definitely the easiest to make. And in case you were wondering, in Vintage Revivals land, leather does count as ribbon.
The lighted geometric sphere on the other hand is literally the worst thing that I have ever made. Jamie picked it up and said “Awwwww, it looks like a little Christmas wish.” which made me silent laugh and cry for 7 solid minutes
That is when I decided that a dead cactus, or a simple doodle is significantly better than something that looks like it came from an novice sorcerer from the lower left realm. (It looks WAY worse IRL than it does in this picture. Trust.)
So. the moral of the story is. Never buy fake snow. Wear gloves while manhandling cacti. And Christmas wishes are wonderful, unless they are a Vintage Revivals Christmas wish, then you should run far and fast, because who knows what curses might lurk inside.
You guys I am SO FREAKING EXCITED!! For the last few months we have been working like crazy people behind the scenes to cross the next dream off of the Vintage Revivals bucket list, opening a shop!
Finding artwork is easy. Finding inexpensive artwork? Hmmm. Less easy. Finding inexpensive artwork that blows your socks off? (You get where this is going right?) Now the easiest thing ever!!
We are also selling the Geo Grizz print that so many of you have emailed me about!
So for right now, the shop is made up of great prints, but guess what?! We aren’t stopping at just that! We have lighting kits (!!!), Himmeli LETTERS, SVG files for your Cricut Explore (or Silhouette) and about a million other ideas that we are turning into things!
