Monday, July 4, 2011

Happy 4th of July

Don't you just love the 4th of July? Picnics, sparklers, watermelon, patriotic bunting & flags. I love it all. If you think your town really knows how to rock out a patriotic holiday, you should try living near a military post! My husband & I have collectively served more than a couple decades & feel that we're perhaps just a tiny bit of a couple of experts in the celebratory matter. My husband is the master chef grill-man extraordinaire while I am the planning decorating shin-dig startin' guru. Pass me the microphone, & I'll get it kickin' in no time! This year will be a bit quieter since my sweet hubs is deployed, but I just had to do a little decorating anyway. I was inspired by wood shavings for this project. Yes, those left over things from when you sharpen your pencil. Anyway, my pencil didn't make big enough shavings, and since my sweet carpenter hubs wasn't here to help me out, I decided to create my own. Let's get started...

Step 1: Pick out your patterned papers.

Step 2: Wrap ribbon around a foam wreath so that your pins will have something to anchor to & to create color blocking guidelines.

Mine looked like this when I was done:

Step 3: Punch out circles, scalloped circles, or even both from your patterned papers. Cut them in half, & roll them into "shavings".

I folded the tips of mine flat to give me a place to put the pins.

Step 4: Start sticking them to your wreath.

Keep going...

It took a while, but I ended up with this:

It looked a little plain, so I went on to
Step 5: Apply white paint or ink to some Chip Art stars, punch holes in them, & adhere them to your wreath.

Finally, here's what I ended up with:

Patterned Papers I used:












13 comments:

Lynn said...

Laura, This is absolutely gorgeous! I don't think I would have the patience to make this! Happy 4th to you and your family but more importantly THANK YOU for serving so that we may all be free!

Sharon Marie said...

Very cute and clever! Hope you and your family are doing well. Take care.

Gina Lideros said...

Hi Laura, I really enjoyed seeing this on the GCD studios blog. What a cool technique!

Arlene said...

Laura, this is gorgeous! Just beautiful...wow! :) Hope you had a great 4th.

Arlen.

mamahasspoken said...

That is awesome but looks oh so time consuming especially since you have a wee little one at home. Hope he took some extra long naps for you while you worked on it ;o)

Jenn Christman said...

SUPER DUPER CUTE!

Estivalia said...

that looks like a lot of work, but totally worth it. I think it's genius that you drew inspiration from pencil shavings for this one :)

Barbara said...

What a wonderful project!! Fabulous for those patriotic days. How many sheets of background paper did you use? If I were to make one, I'd need to get how much paper in?

Paige Taylor Evans said...

Oh. My. Goodness. This is soooooooooo cute! I LOVE IT!

AmyInKy said...

Wow...I just love your wreath! It's stunning!

Bee's Zen Garden said...

This is absolutely gorgeous!! :-D

gbinion said...

What an amazing wreath!! I am so curious about how many 'shavings' you made! I think I might try those little guys on a card!

Thanks for sharing all your beautiful work! I LOVE your blog! And thank you to your husband for his service!!

Melanie - The Paper Retreat said...

OMG! This is breathtaking! Great project! Just found you thru Creative Charms.