Happy Thanksgiving AND How to Make a Bow

Wouldn't you like a wreath like this one?                                            You can make one.  Yes, you.  I have two columns in my living/dining room, and I got enough supplies to make a wreath for each of them.  I bought the supplies several years ago, and never got around to making them.  I finally made them on Saturday, to hang at my mother-in-law's house for Thanksgiving.  Next year, they will already be made, and I can put them up in October.

I used a medium-sized grapevine wreath, a little scarecrow, 4.5 feet of wire ribbon, and some silk flowers in fall colors. I bought long stems of fall leaves, and then I took the short stems of leaves off of the long ones.  

First, I arranged the leaf stems where I thought I wanted them.  

I tried to think about a "cascade" type of arrangement.  I put the larger stems of leaves in the back, and the shorter ones toward the bottom of the circle, in the front.  I also put the lighter color leaves in the front, so that they were more noticeable. 

On the opposite side of the circle, I arranged two small bouquets of fall flowers, and put one slightly lower than the other.  I also positioned my scarecrow in front of the flowers.

At this point, look at your wreath.  Do you like the placement of your components?  If not, this is the time to shift them around.  If you do like the way your wreath looks, then it's time to secure your leaves and  flowers.

I like the idea of being able to redo these wreaths if I get tired of them, and sometimes a glue gun can be messy.  To secure the stems and scarecrow to the wreath, I used craft/beading wire.  I cut a long piece and wrapped one end around the leaf stems and a grapevine stem, and when it was tight, I cut the long tail off.  I used craft wire through the loops of the scarecrow's overall straps (in the back) and wired him on, too.

 Next, I added the bow.  My aunt showed me how to make a beautiful small bow, and I modified that technique for a large bow.  I made a video for you, showing you how to make the bow.  Watch below!

This is the bow that I made on the video.  If it doesn't look as perfect as you want it to, just keep rounding out the loops and straightening the tails.  These bows are quick and easy, and they look great.


I put craft wire through the back of the bow and then used the wire to secure the bow to the wreath where I wanted to place it.  

I used craft wire to make a hoop on the back of the wreath to hang it.

Here it is:

I hope you all have a great holiday and enjoy time with your families and loved ones!

Invitations

 The weather cooled off last week, with nice breezes and all, and so it seems that everyone is looking for fall.  Fall decorations, fall food, and who wouldn't be excited about a party?

My husband's parents host Thanksgiving at their house every year.  As families grow, it seems that people get more spread out and disconnected.  In an effort to increase attendance this year, I suggested written invitations instead of phone calls.


I wanted to make sure that I allowed enough time to get these made and mailed, but I didn't realize I had started quite so early.  The good news, though, is that you will have plenty of time to make some, too.  Mine are for Thanksgiving, but these could easily work for Halloween, and if you got a different stencil and themed stamps, you could use them for any occasion.


You will need a leaf to make a pattern for your invitation shape.  I also used: leaf and pumpkin stamps, a fall colored stamp pad, and white and colored paper.  I used rubber cement to stick the layers together.



A word about rubber cement:  it's great, because it doesn't wrinkle the paper.  It's not great, because it doesn't hold up in heat.  If you're making these in the summer, or mailing them to the tropics, you may want to use a glue stick.



Start by scanning your leaf.  I then pasted mine into a word processing program so that I could control the size.  Size is important here, because if you make the invitations too big, they won't fit in your envelopes.  My envelopes are about a half of a sheet of paper, but my leaf was bigger, so I shrank it on the computer.  Print a copy of your leaf template. I also used the word processor to type up the text for the invitations.

Now, for the stamping.  I did this once, and it was too dark to read the text over the stamping, so here is my "new and improved" version.

Ink your stamp and then press it once onto another sheet of paper.  I used a tissue.  Then stamp on the copy paper you are trying to decorate.  I was able to get 2-4 images each time I inked the stamp.

This picture is actually the darker version of my stamped background.  You will want yours to be a bit lighter, so that your text will show up.






After you stamp your background page, print your invitation text onto the paper.  Make sure you know how the paper feeds into your printer!  I had to put my paper in upside down to get the writing on top of the stamps.









Now, cut out the leaf template you made, and lay it over the text of your invite.  My leaf was actually a bit too small, so I free-handed part of the outline to include all the words.  Once you cut it out, no one will ever know.

After you cut out your shape, place your leaf on a solid color piece of paper.  Cardstock would work quite nicely here, but I only had regular paper, so there you go.  I attached my leaf cut out with rubber cement, but a glue stick or photo splits would do quite nicely.  

 

 After you attach the cut-out to your solid color paper, free-hand cut about 1/4 in. around the patterned paper so that you just have a solid outline.







I then chose to use a cute little pumpkin stamp in orange.  I stamped three of them, and cut them out of the white paper.  Then, I used rubber cement to attach them to a piece of green background paper, and I cut that out wih a 1/4 in. border.  I used more rubber cement to stick the pumpkins to the leaf.

And here you are!

Bonus:  I pictured the recipients of these putting them on their refrigerators, and I remembered a "save the date" magnet that we received from someone once.  I used a promotional magnet we got in the mail and made the invitation into a magnet.  I just cut the magnet into little rectangles and used photo splits to attach.  

I will use the little pumpkin to decorate the envelopes, too.  What shape or theme will you use for invites?  Leave a comment and tell us about them.