Flip Flop Wreaths

I love warm weather months - I love the sun and being out in the sun.  I love wearing shorts and flip-flops and not having to worry about bringing a jacket wherever I go.  And if you've had the type of winter that we've had (up here in the Mid-Atlantic), you'll probably love the warm weather months a little more this year like I will!

For the past two years, I've had a nice 'winter break' down to the Florida panhandle.  A friend of mine has a house in the picturesque little town of Seaside - also a part of Santa Rosa Beach.  I've taken part in the Seaside Half Marathon the past two years and have enjoyed every moment of just being in Seaside.  Everything is so beachy and scenic.  You might be familiar with Seaside because the movie 'The Truman Show' was filmed there! It is really that picturesque!

My friend's parents, who also live down in Seaside, were nice enough to host us girls for dinner one night.  That's also when I found out that my friend's Mom LOVED anything flip-flop.  She had flip-flop decor that included a flip-flop fly swatter!  What I didn't see, however, was a flip-flop wreath.  After my trip, I decided that I was going to make her a flip-flop wreath to show my appreciation for making us dinner and possibly the most awesome pie on the face of this planet - Khalua pie!

When I got back home, I immediately started pinning ideas for flip flop wreaths.  I also started a mad search for flip flops. 
First - the flip flop wreath idea...I settled on this one from the 'A Little While' blog:

It has a great tutorial that showed how to line up and stack the flip flops and how to get them all to stick together (E-6000 really does hold EVERYTHING and then some).

After I got all the flip-flops glued together, I dried them for 36 hours. 
I actually added a wood sign (size was 1" x 12") that I purchased from Michael's and painted it into a color that coordinated with the flip-flops.
As the flip-flops were drying, I painted the wood sign and used my white Sharpie paint pen to write the word 'Welcome' on the sign.  I let that dry overnight.
Once dry, I used the E-6000 to stick the sign onto the wreath - laying heavy cookbooks on top and letting that dry for another 24-36 hours.

What the wreath looked like after all the glue was dry.

When I was ready to embellish, I only used colored stones with a sticky back - in all different sizes.  I only made designs on the solid-colored flip flops...I didn't want to go overboard.
After placing each stone where it needed to be, I used Outdoor modge podge to work as a glaze, protectant and adhesive on the sign and the rhinestones. You can see the 'shiny' sheen over the sign in the pic below.

And voila - you're finished.  The last thing you need to do is tie some ribbon on the back (I used the flip flop anchors) so the wreath will hang nicely.
I actually made two flip-flop wreaths - one for my friend and one for her Mom - I think they both turned out great! And both were pretty durable as I had to carry these babies onto the plane and put them in overhead storage!

I had the 'pink' wreath hanging on the inside of my house to get a look and feel - the look was great; the feel was that this wreath really belonged on a beach house and not a regular, old Colonial in the 'burbs of DC.
The most time consuming part of this craft was waiting for the E-6000 to dry and designing with the rhinestones because some of those suckers were small!
Where to get the flip flops?  Jo-Ann Fabrics had these flip flops available as of three weeks ago.  I had to wait, patiently, for their 'summer camp' craft materials to come in. Thankfully they came in before my trip!  I also read that people have purchased flip flops from Old Navy or the Dollar Store.
This is definitely a fun craft and both recipients loved them! Hope you're able to make one for your beach-loving friends!

A Fun Baby Shower Gift

I recently attended a baby shower for the sister-in-law of a really good friend.  When I found out that she was going to be having her baby shower the same weekend as a half-marathon I was running, I couldn't wait to make something homemade, for their nursery.  This is their first baby - and a GIRL! (I tend to go a little crazy when I know someone's having a girl...it's pure jealousy.)
So I quickly went online to get some ideas of what would be a cute, homemade gift - an original.  I came across this sign and thought, 'PERFECT!'

Although I couldn't find the exact baby girl image that was in the sign, I improvised and ended up making this:

The fabric and fiberfill you see to the right of the sign was just to show you that I actually added filling under fabric behind the sign so the wood wouldn't make noise if banged against a door or crib...I thought this was a moment of genius.

Here are the materials I used:

• A piece of carved wood from Michael's - it's unpainted and they come in all different sizes
• Wooden embellishment - instead of the baby image on the original sign, I found the little princess crown at Michael's and thought it would be perfect.
• Ribbon for hanging
• Martha Stewart Craft Paints - for any surface - color of your choice
• Pink Sharpie Paint Pen
• Hot Glue Gun
• Scrap of fabric (optional) - I got a quilter's square from Jo-Ann's fabric
• Polyester Fiberfill (optional)

I had my husband drill two holes on the top of the carved wood - with holes large enough to be able to push ribbon through with a toothpick. I don't like excess hole space to exist after the ribbon is in.  After sanding the holes down, I painted the carved wood in the glittery purple. Martha Stewart has so many colors and shades of craft paint, it is just so hard to decide some time!

After drying, I pushed the ribbon through the holes and glued the crown into the corner to give me an idea of how much room I could work with for the words.

After the crown dried, I wrote the words, 'Shhh!  You wake her, you take her!!!'

I let that dry for a spell and then flipped the sign over to start on the padding on the back.

This is where it all becomes optional.  I was in a store, this past weekend, that had similar signs for sale and those had no padding on the back.  I think the padding adds a nice touch so it's not knocking on everything and making noise.  I basically cut an outline of the carved wood with 1/2 inch - 1 inch of margin.  Then I folded three 'sides of the material under the fabric and onto the wood and glued it on with my glue gun.  I stuffed the poly-fill in there until there was a nice cushion and just folded the rest of the fabric (what you see on the right side of the picture) underneath itself and glued it to the back of the wood.  It looked like a nice pin cushion.

Depending on where the Parents-to-be plan to hang the sign will help in deciding whether or not the padding is needed or not.

But the Mom-to-be seemed very pleased with the sign and I was glad I was able to make it for her.

In hindsight, I wish I had asked for their nursery colors - cause I could have made it match that OR just did a classic cream base with pink writing or pink polka dots - all using the Sharpie Paint pen.  I'm sure there will be more babies to do this for in the future.  This was a relatively quick project - the most time consuming part was waiting for the paint to dry!