Artwork with my BFF!

A couple of weeks ago, my BFF RuthAnn was able to come visit with her daughter Gracie and niece Sara. We have had a lot of scheduling issues (sick kiddos, uncooperative vehicles, etc.) in trying to get together before, so this was quite an achievement! We decided to just have a fun weekend. We played games, watched movies, and did some crafty projects. Then after she left, I got pulled in tons of other directions. I never had the chance to go back and finish up a few final details and post anything. So... drum roll please... I FINALLY got back to a couple of the projects, did some last minute tweaking, and took pictures!

The first project is using our brand new Chantilly Textiles along with the coordinating Chantilly paper packet with an inexpensive 7" embroidery hoop. The sentiment was from the stamp set C1503 The Best Things.



RuthAnn started the project and did most of the work; I just did a few final touches at the end. Didn't she do a great job?  She also taught me a new fabric trick: yo yo's.  If you are like me, and have no idea what or how to make one, I found a nice tutorial online on Sewing Fabric Yo Yo's.  There are several yo yo's on our project, along with buttons, embellishments and some pieces from the Cricut Artiste and Art Philosophy collections.  She even did some stitching along the edge with the Smoothie color from the Baker's Twine Paradise Assortment.

Here's a close up of some of the embellishments, including a closer look at some of the yo yo's:



And the other project I am sharing today is a non-CTMH project.  It is just something that I saw on Pinterest and wanted to try, and I had even picked up some stuff on clearance to make it after the holidays.  Here is the Pinterest posting that I wanted to try -- an ornament wreath:



Delaney and I did some after-holiday shopping at Target, and I had quite a lot of ornaments.  So while I was starting on another project, RuthAnn went to work on this one too.  The directions in the original posting said to hot glue the ornament metal cap to the ball.  The ones that I had didn't seem to want to come apart, so we skipped this step.  In the long run, probably not a good idea.  After a lot of ornaments were on the hanger, there was more and more pressure pushing on them.  And yep, some started popping off.  UGH!  Then we had a little incident with a small little four year old, and some more popped (and broke) off.  So, I kind of had to go back to the drawing board with this one.

I ended up taking off all the broken bulbs and all the metal caps without ornament bulbs off of the hanger and starting over.  I used my piercing tool and flipped off each and every metal cap and hot glued them back to the ornament; then I started stringing everything back on the wire.    By the time I was done, I had glitter ABSOLUTELY EVERYWHERE... but it is finished!





Now, I have a wreath all ready for the next holiday season!  We did yet one more project that I can't share, as they will end up being gifts for the next holiday season too.  (Now, if I can just remember that I made them and where I put them.)  And I still have several ornaments left!  I have a few more projects that I would like to try, so I'll share when I get to them.

Dani