Spring Blog Hop! Keepin’ it Fresh, Clean & Simple for Spring!

Posted on March 20, 2013 by apieceoflifespie

Happy First Day of Spring!

Wow! Throw back the shutters, drag the heavy linens off the bed and put on a pair of shorts! It is spring! Welcome to Every Day is an Occasion Spring Blog Hop! If you came from the most amazingly talented and tough act to follow, Holly from Ribbons and Glue, then you are hangin’ out in the right place. If you just joined me, you will not want to miss this hop, so head over to our lovely and talented hostess, Jill from Every Day is an Occasion and start there.

Spring is full of colored pastels, brightly colored eggs, bunnies and peeps, but to me spring means fresh, new, clean and simple. This is a time where I purge and clean my house from top to bottom and a time my citrus trees are in full bloom and fill my house with sweet fragrance.

Since I am currently in that spring clean mode, I decided to make a wreath the reflects how this time of the year makes me feel. I know, me and my wreaths, but I collect and make wreaths the way some collect shoes! I have to have a wreath for every occasion!

This wreath was so easy to make and is made with 100% all natural crafting products! How fresh is that? I was lucky enough to have Dave from Hemptique pass along some of their A-M-A-Z-I-N-G product to play and create with. Among the goodies, I received some Hemp Yarn and Variegated Rainbow Hemp Spool and just fell in love with the textures and colors!

I made the base by wrapping a flat 12 inch wooden ring, that can be found at Michaels or Hobby Lobby, with the Hemp Yarn. This was easy to do, but a bit time consuming but I did it while watching a movie with the hubs one night.

Then I made these colorful flower blossoms using the Variegated Rainbow Hemp by cutting around 24 inch strands and folding them in half and tie in a bow. I made three bows fro each flower blossom. Once all bows were made, I then used a hot glue gun and attached each bow to each other, one on top of another in a way that formed the flower blossoms. Once the flower blossoms were completed, I trimmed off the excess length and then added a linen button from, Close to My Heart, with hot glue to the center of each blossom. Once all blossoms were complete, I attached each blossom to the wreath using hot glue.

On the top portion of the wreath I cut enough Rainbow Hemp to be able to wrap around the wreath to showcase why it is called Rainbow Hemp.

To finish the wreath I hand-bound together a nice length of the Hemp Yarn and looped it around the top of the wreath for hanging and trimmed any excess length.

This wreath is super clean and fresh and because it is made with the durability of the 100% natural hemp, I have a feeling it will hanging on my front door a lot this year!

Now for the blog candy!

Who does not love mini chalkboards on a stick or should I say 8 chalkboards on 8 sticks? And since I have been gushing about how cool Hemptique product is, I thought I would throw in a ball of the amazing Hemp Yarn! Hey maybe you can make a project combining both these goodies! All you need to do is :

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Subscribe to my Blog
Follow me on Facebook!
if you already subscriber and FB follower, leaving a comment will put you in the running as well!

I will be announcing the randomly picked winner on Monday, March 25, 2013!

Now be sure to head over and check out the sweet and very talented Lisa from A Mermaid’s Crafts to keep hoppin’ along!

Just in case you lost your way . . .

The Blog Hop Line Up!

Jill- Every Day is an Occasion

Holly- Ribbons & Glue

Arin- A Piece of Life’s Pie (You are here)

Lisa- A Mermaid’s Crafts NEXT

Kelsie Ann- Cut Craft Create

Missy- Quick Chick Designs

Court- Court’s Craft Corner

Heather- The Hunny Pot

Shelly- My Paper Love

Jamie- So Much Better With Age

Thanks for sharing a piece of ‘keepin’ it fresh and clean” pie with me! Be sure to head over to my other creative spring idea I have going on for Decorate to Celebrate!

Linking Up To:

Gotta Create: Wildly Original Linking Party

Navy Wifey Peters Aboard the USS Crafty – Submarine Sundays

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Posted in Uncategorized and tagged 100% natural crafts, blog hops, close to my heart, crafting, crafts, DIY, diy gift ideas, DIY hemp crafts, DIY wreaths, gift ideas, hemp crafts, hemp twine, hemp wreaths, hemp yarn, Hemptique, rainbow hemp spool, spring crafting blog hops, spring crafts. Bookmark the permalink.

A Lovely Blog Hop Filled with Good Clean Fun & Blog Candy!!!

Posted on February 9, 2013 by apieceoflifespie

Happy Saturday! Welcome to the A Lovely Blog Hop, hosted by the sweet and ever lovely Jill from Every Day is an Occasion! I am so thrilled to be hopping along with these fabulously talented ladies and I hope you will hop along to see some of the A-M-A-Z-I-N-G Valentine inspired projects! If you just joined us, please click HERE to start from the beginning If you came from Kelsie Ann from Cut Craft Create, you are in the right place!

What I have cookn’ for you today is a two part project! The first part is a super easy and clean way to express your Valentine cheer . . . Homemade soap! If I knew it was this easy, I would have been doing this for years! I actually had the kiddos help in making a few batches. The second is a super sweet and simple two piece box cut from Samantha Walker’s stash of amazing Silhouette designs.

Now before you check out the tutorials below and hop on over to Court from Court’s Craft Corner, up for grabs is some fun blog candy!

To win you need to:

Leave a comment
Are subscribed to this blog
and LIKE my Facebook Page

I will be announcing the randomly picked winner via my blog and Facebook page 2/14/2013! Who does not love WASHI TAPE? These four amazing designs are from Paper Issue’s Esty store and could be yours!

Hot Pink Quatrefoil Washi Tape
Yellow Chevron Washi Tape
Grey and White Polka Dot Washi Tape
Are Those Aqua Birds on That Wire Washi Tape

Now on to the tutorials!

For the soap: I found the 2 lb scored clear glycerin soap brick on Ebay. It is made in the USA. It was around $7, but shipping was about the same. YIKES! However, a little goes a long way, so you get your money’s worth. I found a how-to example on Pinterest, but I decided to document how I did this, since I was using different tools.

First I cut up the glycerin soap only using two scored rows and chopped coarsely (the original tutorial said it breaks apart easily with your hands, that was so not the case with my brick. That stuff was hard as a rock!). I found that two rows makes one batch using my mold. I then added the chopped pieces to a glass measuring cup and microwaved it to melt it down in 3-4 ten second intervals stirring it each time (you really need to babysit this part, but what is 40 seconds of babysitting?).

I then pulled out my silicone heart mold I found at IKEA for $1 and poured the melted soap into the mold at a little under a half. I then added Recollections Berry Red Course Glitter for one batch and then some $ Bin find heart shaped glitter for the second batch. You need to move quickly, because it sets up fast. Once glitter was added, I then allowed for it to harden just for about a minute and then topped off each heart with the melted glycerin.

It takes about 15 minutes to completely set. All you do is pop them out of the mold and they are done! Easy peasy!

For the box: You can find the Pair of Hearts cut over at Silhoutte, click HERE! It imports to your screen with both boxes fitting on one 12×12 piece of card stock (I used the stock size that it was imported in and was super happy with the size- it was nice not to have to mess with re-sizing for a quick project). When doing a test cut I found that I needed to make sure to use a thicker design paper due to needing more structure; I used Crate Paper, Little Bo Peep. I placed the side of the paper I wanted to see on the outside of the box facing up. I did do “multi-cut”. Once cut, I folded the box, using a bone folder. I then inked the edges with Close To My Heart White Daisy stamp ink.

I then formed the box and glued the two flaps to secure it.

Once glue dried, I filled the boxes and closed them up (one box held 5 pieces of Bliss chocolates and one box held 4 heart soaps.) I then attached the boxes together.

Once boxes were assembled, filled and attached, I cut a piece of white tulle that was about 2.5 inches x 12 inches. I then wrapped that around the box and tied a bow at the top. I then made a button chain using Close to My Heart Red Assortment buttons and Close to My Heart Bubblegum Embroidery Floss using the below technique.

I then tied the button chain to the center of the bow and then wrapped Close To My Heart Cotton Candy Designer Ribbon around the middle of the bow to hide the embroidery floss.

I then attached the button on the button chain to the box for more security with Glue Dot minis.

There you have it! A sweet and chic Valentine treat!

Thanks for sharing a piece of “wishing you a very sweet and squeaky clean Valentine’s Day” pie with me and be sure to head over to see what sweet, and I do honestly do mean sweet (I have had the honor to meet her) Courtney, from Courts Crafts Corner has to share!