Erin Akin Carroll

My friend, Rachel, came to Columbia recently to visit. We had been planning to have a craft day for a while. We both had projects we wanted and needed to work on, so we thought it’d be much more fun with each other’s company.

I saw this super cute ribbon wreath and tutorial on my friend, Molly’s, blog. (See the original tutorial here and Molly’s adorable wreath.)

I’m co-hosting a really fun baby shower for a special mama-to-be, so I had the perfect excuse to make this wreath. (Mama-to-be, if you’re reading, stop right now!)

Our color scheme is yellow, orange and gray, so I made my wreath in these colors. But you could do any color scheme. Molly did a fantastic Halloween wreath. I’ve already got plans for a cute ribbon wreath using Christmas colors and Valentine’s Day colors.

Materials needed:

14 inch foam wreath form (I accidentally grabbed one that was more squared off with hard angles rather than a round wreath like Molly and Rachel used)

12-15 spools of ribbon in your color choices (I just grabbed all the ribbon I could find in my colors because Hobby Lobby was having a 50% off sale)

Hot glue gun and lots of extra glue sticks

First, choose a color to use to use as the base color. Cover your entire wreath by wrapping the ribbon around the foam wreath form. I used hot glue on one end and then wrapped the whole wreath. I hot glued the other end when I had wrapped the whole wreath. I chose a very soft yellow (it looks white in the photos) as my base color.

Take the remaining spools of ribbon and cut them into 5-6 inch strips. I had a variety of ribbon- mostly grosgrain- but some had wire, some was satin, so the different materials were at varying lengths. (The wire ribbon really did the best, but the grosgrain looks the cutest.)

I didn’t get a picture of the ribbon that was cut in strips, but I kept each ribbon separated in piles. The whole ribbon-cutting step took a good forever. Rachel and I started around 2:00 and it was 4:00 before we finished this step.

Once you’ve cut up your ribbon, fold your ribbon in a loop and glue it together.

Make sure to glue it a little above the bottom. You need some space left over at the bottom as a flap so you can attach the loops to the wreath.

Then look at all of your ribbon strips that are now in loops. Blow the hot glue burns on your fingertips and get some pizza. (At least that’s what Rachel and I did.)

Alternate colors, patterns and types of ribbon and start gluing the loops onto the wreath. I put hot glue on the wreath and the attached the loop to the wreath at the “flap.” Make sure the loop/ribbon is standing up on the wreath. And alternate directions, too, to keep it looking interesting.

When I thought I was finished, I went back in and added some of the smaller ribbons to fill in some of the holes to make the wreath look fuller.

I am going to attach a hook onto the back and use a piece of ribbon to tie a “hanger” onto the hook so the wreath can be hung.

I think it turned out really cute! I worked on this wreath from 2:00 until 8:30 p.m., so it wasn’t a small project from start to finish. Fortunately, all of the ribbon was on sale so it didn’t cost much at all! I was so excited about that.

What kinds of crafts are you making this fall?

Happy Saturday, friends!

I have a couple of fun things I wanted to share with you all today. Hudson and I are heading to Anne’s house for Mac’s second birthday party. Then TC and I are going to watch the Gamecocks beat Auburn… we hope!

Sweet Birdie’s Nest Halloween Collection

My good friend, Nina, and I have been brainstorming for a few weeks about hosting Halloween parties. Not together, but she has great ideas and I like to talk things out with her.

Our friends at Sweet Birdie’s Nest have created this adorable Halloween Party printable collection. The invitation is listed here and the party goods are listed here in their Etsy store. They will customize the invitation for you and then send you the file for you to print it. The invitation is $10.00 and the party goods are $8.00! You just need to get it printed. That is seriously a steal!

Nina and I are both super excited about this and are both using this collection for our respective Halloween parties.

I think they’re pretty stinking cute! And I can’t think of an easier, less expensive way to make your party so adorable!

Check out the rest of Sweet Birdie’s Nest shop and their blog for more ideas and goodies!

Ashley Brooke Designs Tailored Holiday Collection

Can y’all believe it’s time to think about Christmas and holiday cards? Ashley Brooke Designs will be offering photo cards and a collection of tailored illustrated cards in their shop this season.

The tailored collection gives customers the opportunity to customize a pre-existing design for a little taste of ABD custom– without the custom price tag. You can change the card to say Christmas, holidays, or Hannukah. You can change the hair color, skin color, names and even add your beloved pooch!

The shop will also have to-do lists, notepads, and other holiday cards this season, and I am so excited about all of these things!

I also wanted to show y’all the October/November printed calendar from Ashley Brooke Designs. It’s only $10.00 in the shop and it is just too cute!

The Minted Holiday Card Collection

The holidays are getting so close! And Minted is having a preview sale. Minted has some of the most beautiful Christmas and holiday cards I’ve seen this year! Minted is offering 20% off their holiday cards from now until October 10, 2011, so hurry! This sale only happens once per year.

Click here to get 20% off Minted holiday cards with code HOLIDAY20

Many of the designs can be customized to say “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays” or whatever you want it to say. The people are Minted are wonderful and so easy to work with– and the paper is of the highest quality!

Just a few of my personal favorites…

There’s even a collection of non-photo cards in case you want to take advantage of the sale, but don’t have your photo ready. You can just enclose a printed photo with the holiday card in the envelope!

20% off Minted holiday cards with code HOLIDAY20

[Read more…]

We have had a great week around here.

1. My mom got here on Sunday night and we took Hudson to see The Lion King in 3D at the movie theater. It is his absolute favorite movie- we first let him watch him on the eve of his second birthday. Now he knows all the songs by heart! He didn’t want to wear the 3D glasses. I don’t blame him. I wore mine, but hated having them on. He started singing very loudly in the opening Circle of Life scene and we were able to quiet him down a little bit. We managed to get a couple pictures of him before we went into the theater. He had a wonderful time! If he got out of his seat, he just stood in front of his seat and danced around. I’d say the only “down side” was that he had trouble being quiet. He just loves The Lion King!

2. It has been raining like it’s monsoon season here. Every afternoon around 5:00 we get a bad thunderstorm. We’ve had flooding and lots of debris everywhere. Scratch that– we haven’t had flooding at our house, but our town has. I did get a really cool rainbow photo the other night, but in the background you can see how there is about 4 feet of standing water in the street. There was actually a double rainbow. If that’s not a beautiful reminder from God, I don’t know what is.

3. On the way home from school the other day, we passed the fire station. Hudson shouted that he saw the fire truck, so we turned around and went back so he could get a closer look. We ended up pulling into the driveway/parking lot at the fire station and there was a very kind fireman there. He had his little boy with him and he invited us to get out of the car so Hudson could get a close look at the fire truck. He let him climb up in it and then he even let Hudson hold the little hose! Hudson was so stinkin’ excited! I couldn’t get over how unbelievably kind the fireman was. Not that I didn’t expect him to be kind, but he totally understood that little boys love fire trucks. He invited us to come back any time. I’m sure we will!

4. Like I said, my mom was here this week. They live in Indiana now. I used to get to visit them once a month or once every couple of months. It’s not so bad flying alone with one baby. But I’ve been too nervous to fly alone with two babies. So I just haven’t been able to get up there to see her. So she came here for four days and it was just wonderful. She is so helpful and loves to take care of all of us. We cooked and talked and took naps when the boys took naps. She kept the boys while I went to get a shellac manicure– something I desperately needed. I hate it when she leaves, but fortunately she’ll be back in a few weeks.

I wanted to get a picture of her with the boys. Hudson does not like to have his picture taken these days, as you can see.

But Hayes will always smile for the camera. Poor Hayes is constantly wearing a bib these days because the drool is out of control.

5. Did y’all see Glee this week? I do wish they’d start singing more songs during the episodes. More singing, Glee!

I’ve mentioned before that I was Maria in West Side Story in high school, so I was super excited that this was a West Side Story episode complete with “Somewhere” (one of the most beautiful songs ever written) with Lea Michele and Idina Menzel and “Something’s Coming.”  Did y’all watch? Watch the video of “Somewhere” here.

image via here

6. My blog and twitter friend, Hopsy, from Monograms and Manicures posted these adorable Bible verse printables. They are the cutest design and you can carry them around in your purse or diaper bag to memorize while you’re on the go. Or hand to a friend in passing. Or you could tape it to your bathroom mirror to read while you’re getting ready every day. Aren’t they cute? Visit her blog for information on how to print them– and you may want to “pin” them from her blog, too.

I’m going to share some fun finds with you all tomorrow.

Toodles, poodles!