St. Patrick's Day Deco Mesh Door Wreath

I have fallen in LOVE with dove tail ribbons on my wreaths! 

While browsing YouTube for inspiration on wreath making, I happened upon several FREE tutorials from Southern Charm Wreaths. After watching her tutorials I came up with my St. Patrick's Day Wreath.

• I used 2 types of green foil deco mesh, which I bought at Hobby Lobby's after Christmas sale. $4.99 each! 

• I bought 5 different types of ribbon, a 3" wide sheer with polka dots, 2 different 2" shamrock prints and 2 different 2"sheer greens. 

• 1 wire wreath form

• Dark green pipe cleaners 

• Hot glue gun

• 5 floral spays ( I have not idea what the technical name is, but you can see at the bottom of the first photo) I bought these for .10 cent each last year at Ole Time Pottery's after Christmas sale.
•  Gold foam balls. I picked them up again, at the after Christmas sale from Hobby Lobby for .80 cents a bag!

 


Cut your deco mesh into 9" pieces. I used 40 pieces of deco mesh, 20 of each color.

Rabbit trail: I bought an all purpose self healing mat for easier measuring and cutting. Hobby Lobby and Micheal's have 50% off coupon fairly often, I picked this mat up for $32.00, worth the investment!!!

Learn from my mistakes! For quicker cutting I laid one deco mesh over the other. DON'T pull tightly on the bottom deco mesh, doing this will cause it to cut at an angle. Make sure it is laid flat without tension.

Once you have them all cut out separate them.

Attach the pipe cleaners to the wreath form. First, fold your pipe cleaners in half. Then, starting from the outside use a dab of hot and twist at the to of the support. Work your way around the form. Now, skip a row on the form (this will be the 3rd row from the outside.) In the center of the 3rd row attach a pipe cleaner. I will look like the 2nd photo when completed.

Attaching the deco mesh.

I used a method that adds more texture to the wreath.

• Take a piece of your mesh and roll (not to tight)
• Attach to the wreath about 5-6" in on both sides.

You will end up with a bubble in the middle.

• When you start your next piece attach it to the end of the previous piece. They will overlap each other. Alternating your colors work your way around the exterior of the wreath.

 This is one layer on the exterior.

• Add a 2nd layer to the exterior, again alternating your colors.

After you have added your 2 exterior layers move to the inside pipe cleaners and work your way around.

I used 3 layers on the interior pipe cleaners.

 (This photo shows 2 outside layers and 1 interior layer.) You can see how full it is getting.

You will have plenty of pipe cleaner length.

After the deco mesh was attached I added the ribbon.  I cut the polka dot, and 2 shamrock prints into 14" lengths, and the 2 sheer green into 12" pieces. I did this for 2 reason. 1st the sheer greens were only 9 feet in length and I needed enough to make it around the wreath. 2nd, I thought it might add a little more texture.

For the exterior row of ribbon. (I wish I would have taken photos) I used 2 ribbons per pipe cleaner. 1 sheer green and 1 shamrock print, I alternated the shamrock print and sheer green per pipe cleaner. Again, working my way around the wreath.

The interior row. I used 3 ribbons. The polka dot for each pipe cleaner and alternating the shamrock print and sheer green.

After this was completed I added the gold balls. 

There are 2 different styles and textures. the "sequined" balls are about 1/4" round I attached one to the end of each exterior row of pipe cleaners. The pipe cleaner simply pushed right into the ball. For the interior row I took the 1" ball and pushed it onto one of the pipe cleaner. The other end of the pipe cleaner I simply wrapped around the back of the wreath.

I found the 5 floral sprays and decided to add them at the last minute.  They are a little difficult to see in the photo. I need a new camera!!!

And this is the finished product!

 

You really should check out Southern Charm Wreaths and see her beautiful wreaths! (FYI, she does not know me nor I her, I just like what I see!)

Homemade Laundry Soap

I know I am in a very unique situation here... How is making laundry soap unique? Well, it's not, but I don't do laundry... Yep, you read that correctly I DON'T DO LAUNDRY. My wonderful hubby is the laundry guru in our house.  My BFF groans every time we talk about it, LOL;)

When I found the recipe for laundry soap about a year ago, he wasn't gung-ho about trying it, so I let the matter drop (you believe that right!?). In between taking photos of houses today (I'm a REALTOR) I stopped by Wal-mart to pick up soap for the dishwasher. I just so happened to see BORAX, the heavens parted and angels started singing. The wonders of having a Droid Razar and the Pinterest App on my phone I found the recipe on my phone in seconds. You can see the original here. The recipe is for a small amount at a time, "Ain't Nobody Got Time for That" So, in true form I improvised.

Ok, enough of the story you really wanna know about the soap, right?!

FYT, I found everything I needed at Wal-Mart in the isle with mops (I remember seeing mops).

 

1 Box of Borax

1 Box Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soap

3 Bars of Fels-Naptha

 

You will need

 

A bowl

Cheese grater

Blender

 

Step 1:

 

Shred the 3 Fels-Naptha Bars

 

 

2nd

 

Get the blender out

Take a handful of the shredded Fels-Naptha

Add some Borax

Pulse/Blend

 

 

I just kept adding the shredded Fels-Naptha

 

(It works best to make this in small batches at a time)

 

Dumped the shredded mix it into a bowl

 

 

3rd

 

Dump the Borax, Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soap and the bowl of pulsed up Fels-Naptha into a container with a top. 

 

We are using 2 TABLESPOONS PER LOAD

 

Other's have said 2 tsp per load, but the hubby says it just isn't enough

 

I'll update this page every once and a while and let you know how many loads we got out of this batch. I've read from 100 to 256 and it lasts a year or longer!!! WOW, that would be awesome!!!

 

I've gotta make this container a little cuter;)