Note: as I share homemade Christmas gifts, I'll share a little about cost. I firmly believe that the value of a gift is not in how much you spent on it, but in how much love you put into it and how much the person will like it. It's different for every person. There's no sense in making my little brother something homemade even if it's cheaper, because he won't appreciate it. I buy him a sports book. My mom and sister, however, appreciate the value in homemade gifts. I don't believe I'm "spilling the beans" when I share about cost.
This project was inspired by this pin:
So cute, right? My mother-in-law loves tea, so I wanted to make this for her.
I went to Hobby Lobby and picked up 4 sheets of 12x12 scrapbook paper. I don't remember the exact cost (although I do know they were all on clearance or half-off), but it was probably about $2 total for the four sheets. I found fairly cheap clothespins at Meijer, and really don't remember the price, but it was a better deal than Hobby Lobby. Other than the tea, I had everything else on hand.
I grabbed a variety of glue and got started. I picked some cardboard out of my parents' recycling bin and traced two different sized bowls to make a wreath shape. (Yes, I did most of my crafting at my parents' house. That's where all the supplies are because they didn't fit in our apartment. Be prepared to see a lot of their beautiful counter top ) I cut the wreath out with an Xacto knife. I used tacky glue to stick one piece of 12x12 paper to the cardboard. I won't go into detail about the process of gluing down the edges because the original instructions do a really good job of showing that. I did use some Mod Podge to keep a few of the pointy ends down. (And if you don't look at the original instructions, you'll really have no idea what I mean because I didn't take any pictures of the back.)
I then cut strips of the 3 other sheets of paper and Mod Podged them to the front of a lot of clothespins. Chloe assisted me in this project and these are her lovely hands demonstrating how she paints the Mod Podge on. (Seriously, how does she get nails like that?)
Then we got a wee bit carried away and decorated ALL the clothespins because they are just SO cute! (The black/rainbow flower paper is one Chloe bought to use; it was not part of this project.)
Bonus project! Stick a magnet on the back of a decorated clothespin, make a set, and give those as a gift! Chloe and I did that for our brother's girlfriend (and paired it with some homemade bath salts - a later project). I even got a few for Christmas! :)
Next, I laid out the decorated clothespins on the wreath and then spent 10 minutes making them perfect, then hot glued them down in completely different spots.
I have tons of ribbon hand from when I used to make and sell pop-tab bracelets, so finding ribbon was no problem. However, if you need to buy some, you can get the cheap "Spool O' Ribbon" stuff on sale for 3 for $1. It's pretty nice ribbon for what you pay. I tied two strands together in a bow at the top.
For this project, the tea was the most expensive part. I watched the tea shelves at Meijer for several weeks until it went on sale and then picked out 3 boxes I thought my mother-in-law would like. One of them was a variety box, so I was able to get 4 kinds in there. I paid between $2-3 for each box.
Here is the final product:
This project was so much fun to make and it turned out really cute. It made me say, "It's so fun to be grown up and be able to make crafts people will actually want!"
Love and Tea,
Leah Joy
P.S. The only bad part of this project is that it didn't use all of the tea (although it would have been easy enough to make another wreath). My mother-in-law and I have completely opposite tastes in tea, so now I have all this tea I don't like! Cara, come on over and help me drink it!
The wreath turned out great! And I will certainly come at some point and help you with your tea trouble! :)
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