Holiday Crafting at RHW South

Last week we shared a holiday edition of DIYs to Try, and this past weekend try them I did!  I had one of those infrequent, blissful weekends where the days stretched long and my obligations were few – it was the perfect time to crank up the music and do some festive crafting.

I loved the simple wreath we shared and really wanted to create my own, but wasn’t sure where to find a lovely metal ring like the one they used.

I don’t know about your thrift stores, but ours are practically overrun with wreath forms this time of year – huge bins of them tangled among the innumerable broken tree stands.  I just unhooked the rings, pulled the smallest one off, then spray painted it copper.

Red House West || Holiday The form still had floral wire attached (bonus!) and I just eyeballed the placement of eucalyptus and baby’s breath from the grocery store supplemented with some greens and berries my dear aunt brought over.  I’m loving my new holiday wreath!

Red House West || Holiday I loved the advent village we shared last week, and it inspired me to make a couple little house-shaped votive holders.  Instead of the paper they used in their tutorial, I decided to try air-dry clay.  I did not want anything too complicated to interfere with my weekend of leisure and air-dry clay has much to recommend it: It’s cheap, very easy to use, and very easy to clean up.  I started by cutting out paper templates of the houses and, because I decided to make my them three-sided, I cut rectangle templates too.

Red House West || Holiday Cameron showed me a great trick for rolling out a uniform slab of clay – just put a couple strips of wood the same thickness you want your clay to be and set the rolling pin on top of them.

Red House West || HolidayI used a small utility knife to cut the clay around my house templates, and also used it to cut out windows and doors.  I used a teeny-tiny cookie cutter to make little stars in the houses’ sides.

Red House West || Holiday I didn’t worry about making things perfect or even symmetrical – whimsy is the name of this game!  I left the clay to dry on a piece of parchment paper for about 24 hours.

Red House West || Holiday To assemble the houses, I just glued the rectangles onto the sides.  I tried using a hot glue gun, but it didn’t work at all.  I ended up using Gorilla Glue (just something we already had around), and though it worked it didn’t dry completely clear, and I had to scrape some of it off.

Red House West || HolidayI used battery-operated LEDs so I can leave them lit without worrying about setting the booze hutch afire and I gotta say, I’m really liking the festive light they cast.  This would be a really, really easy project to do with little kids and if you used a square cookie cutter instead of the utility knife to make the windows, they could do almost all of it themselves.

Red House West || Holiday These are both easy, inexpensive projects that I definitely recommend trying!  Have a wonderful week!

 

14 responses on “Holiday Crafting at RHW South

  1. Carol Bryner

    Oh Katie. You always make me smile. Those little houses are adorable. Maybe I’ll try to make some with my grandsons for Christmas this year. And the way you hung the wreath in front of the mirror makes it much more festive than the “professional” one. Lovely!

    1. Katie Post author

      Thanks Carol! They would be a wonderful project to do with grandsons – the hardest part for little ones would probably be waiting for the clay to dry!

  2. Susan Glassow

    How lovely are all of your creations together…greens and reclaimed wreath ring..absolutely enchanting houses lit against the darkening days and reflected in mirror and hutch glass, the luminous, colorful tree!
    We want to try making the houses during the holidays with grandchildren.

  3. Jen

    Katie, I think that black ribbon hanger makes your wreath look much more elegant than the inspiration wreath. And I love the addition of the red berries. You’ve definitely improved upon the original!

  4. Arielle

    Um, I LOVE these DIYs. I’ve been searching for just the right wreath and now you’re inspiring me to just try one myself! And those houses are darling. So glad I found your blog!

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