DIY Modern Yarn Wall Hanging

My sister sent me a picture of one of these wall hangings she found on Etsy a while back and I was immediately swooning. I love modern home decor--especially of the hand-made variety. 

So when my 5 year old and I had a movie night together and she chose Disney's original animated Peter Pan (which I love, but could enjoy without my eyes glued to the screen!), I sat next to her on the couch and cut yarn for my wall hanging! 

What is fun about these is that no two will ever be the same--especially if you use a branch as your anchor! Many I have seen on the interwebs use a wooden dowel at the top. I don't have rustic style, but I do like adding natural elements where I can.  I definitely prefer the look the branch gives my hanging to a plain dowel. 

I will walk you through my process of making one of these hip yarn creations. Other methods exist, but this way worked well for me, and I think you will find it easy as well!

You will need: 

• A sturdy stick or small branch 
• Yarn
• Scissors
• Optional: Iron and spray starch

1. Cut yarn in several lengths that are double the length you want your hanging's height to be.  I won't give you a number here since it varies so much according to the size of your stick. 

*Tip: I pulled out 20-30 lengths of yarn at a time in long, even loops, then just cut the ends off one side to get several equal strings cut at once. 

2. Make a plan for how the colors will be arranged on your stick. I decided to do a bit of an ombre fade.  

3. Tie the yarn on the stick as shown in the pictures.  Push the tied-ends right up next to each other to really fill in the wood. 

4. This is optional, but is nice if you want your yarn really straight. With the proper heat setting for the type of yarn you are using, iron the yarn to get out any little unwanted wrinkles. Spray starch is also helpful for making the yarn nice and stiff before you cut it. 

5. Use sharp scissors to trim the bottom of the yarn to your desired shape. I found it helped to hang it the way it will go on the wall to make sure all the threads are in place. 

6. Tie another piece of yarn to each end of your stick to use as a hanger, and you are done!

These are great additions to gallery walls. They add nice natural texture to any room and can be made in whatever color and size you want! 

Sharing at these link-ups. 

Fall Feather Garland

Living in the Pacific Northwest makes saying goodbye to summertime hard.  What we are really saying is "Hi, Rain. You are here for the next 5 months (at least)." 

I am embracing Autumn, though, and all that comes with it.  I love the colors. I love opening my blinds more often to let the (somewhat cloudy) sunshine in! My birthday is in the fall. So is Halloween and Thanksgiving!  And I love decorating my house with fall decor!

After putting together a wreath for my last post, Yarn Feather Tutorial, I decided to change out my Summer Flower Garland for a Fall Feather Garland! I am loving how it turned out!

I started by making a bunch of feathers using my tutorial.  I decided to trim most of the feathers, but leaving some un-trimmed also looks great. 

Each feather takes about 15-20 minutes. Put your feet up, put on some Netflix, and you'll have enough whipped out in no time! These represent about 2.5 hrs of work. 

Here they are trimmed up. Sharp scissors are key.

I used gold craft paint on a few, and I sprayed them with an acrylic sealer (not essential, but I'd like these to last!). Finally, I bent their stems (which is a covered pipe cleaner, so easily bent), and attached them to some bakers twine. So easy!

Participating in these link-ups.

Yarn Feather Tutorial

I recently saw some gorgeous handmade feathers on Pinterest and decided I HAD to learn how to make them! It was time to change out my 4 Season Wreath, and feathers were my big idea for fall. 

 I learned from this excellent tutorial at Infarrantly Creative, but also came up with some additional ideas during the creative process that added to the ease of this exciting craft! I am thrilled to share! 

Here are the main items you'll need: 

• Pipe Cleaners (in colors that correspond to your yarn); Mine are 12 inches long.
• Glue stick (the kind used in school--not hot glue)
• Yarn, embroidery thread, baker's twine, or other thin, flexible string
• Liquid Starch (I found mine at my grocery store in the laundry detergent aisle--cost $3-$4)
• Good scissors
• Craft paint (optional)
• Not pictured: Shallow tray for soaking (I used a disposable lasagne pan lid), Cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil/ gallon zipper bags

1. Take a pipe cleaner in a color corresponding to the yarn you are using. Coat one end and a couple inches of it with the glue stick. I used some scrap paper under me to protect my workspace from stickiness.

2. Beginning at the glue end, wrap yarn tightly and closely around the pipe cleaner. When you get past the glued area, add a few more inches of glue, and continue wrapping. 

3. Once the pipe cleaner is all wrapped in yarn, cut off the end, and add a dab of glue to hold the tail in place.  Set this aside.

4.  Cut about 12 feet (needn't measure--basically a LONG piece) of yarn. Fold it in half, then fold the doubled length in half again. Continue folding it in half until the length of the bunch of thread is about 8 inches (give or take an inch).

 5. Cut the folded edges off to make several equal-sized pieces of thread.

6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 to get 60-80 pieces of yarn the same length.

7. Now take the covered pipe cleaner and secure the end of it that doesn't have tail (the end you began covering) with something heavy (I used a weight).  Beginning at the other end, tie a single knot around the pipe cleaner, placing the knot in the middle of the piece of thread. Repeat this with the rest of the yarn, tying each knot right under the preceding one. 

8. I wanted long feathers, so I only left about 3 inches of stem.  I was pleasantly surprised how quickly the tying went. Each feather only took about 15 minutes to tie. 

Here are my three incomplete feathers for this project. The white one is made with baker's twine. The other two are acrylic yarn.

9. Pour some liquid starch in a flat, shallow container. Set each feather in the liquid one at at time, pressing down to make sure all the yarn is immersed.  Remove from liquid and gently squeeze excess (but don't wring out).  Once you have soaked each feather, pour leftover starch back into the bottle to save for future use.  You can clean up the soaking container in your kitchen sink with warm soapy water. 

10. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil or heavy, smooth plastic (I used zipper storage bags, but will use aluminum foil next time).  Form the feathers into the shapes you desire. Be particular here because once the dry, they can't be re-shaped without re-soaking them. 

11. Place the cookie sheet in a warm (170 degree F) oven.  Don't go hotter this (you don't want to melt the acrylic thread or plastic bags). I let mine "cook" for 15 minutes at a time, then turned the oven off and left them in the oven with it off.  Drying time will vary--yarn takes longer than twine-- but using the oven is MUCH faster than waiting on the feathers to air-dry.  The oven method will take 2-4 hrs. Air drying will take 24-48 hrs.  

12. Once feathers are dry and stiff, you can trim them to the shape you desire. Use strong, sharp scissors to get through the stiffened yarn. I trimmed the blue and brown feathers, but left the white one as is. I liked the shaggy look of it for my project.

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13.  Acrylic craft paint can be added to the feathers.  I LOVED this part of the process. I have all kinds of projects swimming around in my head to make feathers and paint them now!

Adding a final coat of acrylic sealer is optional, but will improve the longevity of the feathers, especially if you are using them in an outdoor setting. 

I added the feathers to my 4-Season Wreath (tutorial found here). I wanted a new look for fall, and I am LOVING it!

Participating in these link-ups. 

4 Season Wreath

I have had wreath envy lately.  A friend and neighbor of mine has had the cutest wreaths throughout the year, and so I finally asked her if she made them. She said she did, then she showed me her big, BRILLIANT secret. She has VELCRO on the wreath and changes out the flowers! I asked her if she would mind if I shared her genius on my blog, and she was gracious enough to allow me to. 

What you'll need: 

• 1 wreath form
• sewing pins
• 1 skein of yarn (something that will go with each season/holiday you plan to do)
• Flower making supplies: Felt / fabric; needle and thread; beads/buttons; fabric/hot glue
• Velcro--preferably something close to the color of your yarn
• hot glue gun and glue sticks

1. Tie a knot in one end of the yarn. Put a sewing pin through the knot and into the wreath form.

2. Wrap and wrap and wrap. Here's what I learned that sped this process up: (1) Wrap several loops around the form without trying to keep them close together, then stop every 10 or so loops and push them together; (2) As the skein starts getting more small, it will get looser. I would pull out several feet of yarn then wrap it around the center of the skein in tight loops. Then I held the wreath form between my knees and used both hands to wrap the yarn more quickly around and around. 

3. Once you have covered the form, cut the yarn off and tie another knot in the end. Use another pin to secure it. 

4. Hot-glue Velcro to the wreath where you will be placing flowers.

Now to make some flowers.I will share one tutorial for felt roses. 

Here are some links to other flower tutorials: 

Looped felt flowers from Infarrantly Creative

Circle petal flowers from The Fickle Pickle

Felt poinsettia tutorial from Stone Gable Blog

Rolled fabric flowers from Little + Lovely

I decided to share this  rose tutorial for one reason: I avoid using hot-glue whenever possible, and the method of flower making I will show uses a needle and thread. Why go to the trouble, you ask? Isn't a hot-glue gun easier?  I say NO. It is hot and messy. And using a glue gun to put something together that could be done with a needle and thread is asking for it to fall apart over time. A needle and thread is quick, clean, and secure. No glue clumps to pick at or hide. 

1. Begin with a square-ish piece of felt. Round or scallop the edges. 

2. Cut a swirl from the outside in. The larger you make the width of your cut, the deeper the rose will be. If you want a rose that is more wide and flat, make a skinnier swirl. This was a deep, small one.

3. Beginning at the center of the swirl, start a tight roll and work outward.  **For the roses that I did a wavy/scalloped skinnier width cut, I started on the outside and worked inward with my rolling. Both ways work and achieve slightly different looks. 

4. Continue rolling. Felt is great for these because it kind of sticks to itself as you go, so holding the rose in place as you work is easy.

5. Once it is all rolled up, turn it upside down. Using a needle and thread with a knot in the end, push through all layers of the base of the rose. On larger roses, I pushed through half of the layers to the middle first, then worked my way around.

6. Continue sewing back and forth through the bottom of the rose, working your way around the whole circle.

7. Tie off the bottom once it is as drawn in and secure as you want it.

8. Hot-glue (yes, it has it's purpose because it is a PAIN to sew through Velcro by hand) small squares of Velcro to the bottom of the flowers you make.

9. Arrange and re-arrange over and over again on your wreath! 

I did a blanket stitch around some felt to make the leaves for this Spring/Summer wreath. 

My neighbor let me borrow her Fall flowers to show this (I haven't made my own yet). Aren't they pretty? I was lucky they matched my yarn!

Participating in these link-ups.