Day 6 of the 12 Days of Creepmas with Smeared and Smudged

Congrats if you've made it this far down the hop list!
  I am Lady Brayton.  

If you arrived here from Kat's fabulous blog, you are on the right track.  If you came from someplace else or arrived here by accident and want to start the hop from the beginning, head over to Terra's blog.  After you are done with my blog, your next and final stop on the Creepmas 2013 Blog Hop is the amazingly talented Alison.  Although I am posting early, the hop goes live at 9am Pacific Time.

I have added the entire hop list to my left sidebar.

Today I made a non-digital project.
Gasp!
Here is a tutorial on how to make a clothespin wreath.

Materials needed:
  1. Christmas themed papers. This is a great way to use up your scraps.
  2. A paper trimmer, scissors, or a ruler and craft knife to cut your papers to size.
  3. Wooden Clothes Pins or Clothes-Pegs, the kind with a spring that open like an alligator's mouth.  The amount of pins depends on the size wreath you will be making.  I bought my pins from the dollar store, but if you are giving this as a gift I would suggest spending a little more money and buy a better quality set of pins.  I used 54 clothespins for my 12" wreath (30.480cm).
  4. DecoArt Deco-Page Glue and Sealer in Matte (DS106-64).  I prefer this brand as it does NOT remain tacky after it dries unlike some of the other brands out there.  This also comes in a gloss form DS101-64.  Aside from the links, you can find DecoArt products at Michael's arts and crafts, Joann Fabrics, Hobby Lobby, and many more places.  Click this link to find a supplier near you.
  5. An old flat paint brush to apply the DecoArt Decou-Page Glue and Sealer.  
  6. Any images, craft picks, die-cuts, or bling you wish to decorate your wreath.
  7. Ribbon of your choosing to hang the wreath.  I used approximately one yard or 36".  You may also lay the wreath flat on a table and add pillar candles for a nice tablescape.
  8. A wire wreath form, MDF circle form, or make a form out of sturdy cardboard.  I have pictured each below for your reference.  My wreath is 12" in diameter (30.480 cm) and I used the wire form pictured below.  This was an inexpensive item, costing less than 2 USD,  You can also buy larger sizes.  I bought mine at Michael's Arts and Crafts, but most hobby and craft shops, especially those that carry floral items, will carry this coated wire form in their shop.  
















Step 1:  Choose which wreath form you want to work with.  I would suggest the coated wire frame for ease of use and sturdiness.  If you use the handmade cardboard base, make sure the ring only has about an inch between the outer and inner edges so the clothespins can clip completely over the cardboard. Although I showed the MDF circle form as an option, I would refrain from using it as the clothespins won't clip all the way up to the edge which will leave approximately a 1cm gap in the middle of your wreath.  I only added it for those who cannot find or make any other wreath form.  If using the MDF you can opt to paint the base so the negative space won't be as noticeable and will look intentional or you may glue the bottom of the clothespins to the base to give proper coverage.

Step 2:  Figure out how many clothes pins you will need by clipping them around your wreath form until you get your desired look.  This is the tedious part, but will save you from decoupaging way too many clothespins.  You can choose go rustic and leave the wreath as is at this point or continue on to the decorating part.  As stated above, I used the 12" coated wire form and used 54 clothespins.


Step 3:  Cut decorative papers to fit your pins. The measurement of the clothespins is listed on the box or container for the pins.  I used 4 coordinating papers pictured below. You can use all the same pattern or just a few patterned papers depending on your liking. Heck, you can skip the decoupage and just paint the pins if you want. 



***My pins stated they were 3/8ths" wide x 3 1/4" long (0.9cm x 8.2cm).  Trust me when I say the pins are not all equal in length.  Some may be shorter, but most will be longer.  If you don't want the clothespin to show from under the paper, cut your paper a tad longer and you can always cut the excess away after gluing. 

TIP:  Since my cutter doesn't cut straight or measure in such small increments, I used my MS score board to mark where my cuttings should be.  Cutting can be done with scissors, a trimmer, or a ruler and a craft knife.

You can see my score marks in the picture above.

Step 4:  Apply DecoArt Decou-Page Glue and Sealer in a thin coat to both your clothespin and the back side of your decorative paper.  Apply the paper to the pin and press and rub firmly to assure there are no bubbles and you have good adherence of the paper to the pin.  Wipe off any excess glue. Below is a pic of my Decoupage escapade in progress.  You can see that my paper was not long enough for some of the pins.  


 TIP:  Apply papers to the backs of the pins for a different season such as Autumn/Halloween or Spring/Valentine's Day.  Then just flip the pins around the next season for a new look!

Step 5:  After the clothespins are all decoupaged with paper and  have dried completely, seal your Clothespins with additional DecoArt Decou-Page and allow to dry.  I clipped my pins to pieces of cardboard while drying so the clothespins would not get glued shut by accident.


Step 6:  Clip the previously decoupaged clothespins to your coated wire form or your cardboard wreath form until your wreath is full of clothespins.  

Step 7:  Apply any decorative images, craft picks, beads, or bling to your wreath and add a ribbon for hanging.  Go crazy with it and have fun.  The more festive, the better!

Here is a pic of how I clipped the clothespins to the wire frame.  Look closely.  I clip onto the first two wire circles only.  Easy as can be!


Below is a pic of the wire framed wreath with all the clothespins on, but prior to adding decorations:

Next is the wreath after adding a craft pick and "Gus the Goblin" from RSD's Zibbet Shoppe.

Here is a close up of the wreath's decorations:

I decided to try some cute images on the wreath for those that don't adore goblins as much as I.  I have used the "Joyous Elf" from RSD.  I colored three versions, one was reversed, and I fussy cut them and popped them up with pop-dots.

Of course I must show a close up of the "Joyous Elf".

Lastly, here is the wreath being used on a table with candles to make a tablescape :)

If you have any questions about my project, feel free to email me at ladybrayton at yahoo dot com.

Cheers!
~ Lady Brayton ~


Comments

  1. How cool! What a great idea! Wonderful job!

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  2. REally love this wreath, Lady B and your tut is fabulous! Love how brightly you've colored your images, too. xxD

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  3. Great project, I've visited the tuts and comments and may just try to make this wreath.

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  4. Love this project. I am so making these.

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  5. There are just so many possibilities with this clothespin wreath! They turned out beautiful!

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  6. What a fantastic wreath. Thanks for sharing the instructions on the RSD site. Love everything about it!

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  7. Wow this is so cool. What I especially like about this, is that you could recycle old cloth-pins for this. (And I love recycled projects, although I don't do many of them these days.) The papers you have chosen are so beautiful. Also, awesome colouring of the goblin.

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  8. Love this wreath and those images are really awesome for it!

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  9. Oh my word! this is stunning! A labour of love i'm sure it must have taken ages! A fabulous outcome though - love it! mo x

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  10. LB, I just wanted to let you know that I made 5 of these for Christmas presents this year. Thank you so much for the tut. I made mine so that it could be hung on the wall or laid on the table like yours. I will be posting mine after Christmas because I don't want to spoil the surprise. I will make sure to leave a link to your blog, too, since it was your idea. Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, my friend.

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