Sunburst Mirror

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I've been seeing these sunburst mirrors everywhere! I realized that I had everything I needed right here, so I whipped one up today.

I had an old mirror sitting around. It was a little chipped around the edges, but nothing a border couldn't cover up. I also had some bamboo skewers in a drawer in my kitchen. Alright, let's get to it!

Most people would probably paint their skewers first. I was too impatient to wait for paint to dry (not to mention, I had napping kiddos), so I did that step last.. lol If you want to do it in the proper order though, go ahead and paint them first.

Start off by tracing your mirror onto a piece of card stock, and cut it out. 

Make a dot in the middle. I wanted 3 different lengths for my spokes, so I made 2 circles around the dot using a protractor. 

Using a ruler, draw lines of where your spokes will go. I figured I would have 16 (I changed this in the end, I'll explain later). The first 4 meet in the middle at the dot, the next 4 meet on the inner circle, and the last 8 meet at the outer circle. 

Hot glue your skewers to the card stock.

Once you have all your spokes on, hot glue your mirror onto the card stock/skewers. This part was tricky because you want to have a lot of hot glue on there, but it cools rather quickly. I did it the quickest I could, slapped the mirror on, and then held a hair dryer to it. Once it was heated, I pressed it firmly together to make sure it was sealed.

I got it this far, and then decided that there wasn't enough spokes. So I snapped a few more skewers in half and made a shorter layer of spokes (16 more half-skewers). These would have sat on the outer circle. 

Now that the mirror is put together, you can add a border. I added one because my mirror was chipped along the edges. I think otherwise it would have looked pretty good without one. I used 2 different sizes of rhinestones that I hot glued to the mirror. 

On the back of the mirror, I hot glued a bent bobby pin to hang it onto the wall.

Doesn't it look FABULOUS! I smile every time I pass the hallway now!

Framed Wreath

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I made this adorable wreath for Emma's bedroom, my inspiration came from House of Smiths. 

I had this white frame sitting around. I had used it in a previous project, but decided it was better fitted for this. I gave it a rough, rustic look by scuffing it up with sand paper. 

I didn't have anything I could use for a wreath, so I made my own. Yeah, yeah, I know you'll laugh when you see what I made it out of! I cut a hoop out of card board, and wrapped it with plastic bags, lol! Then I wrapped it with crepe paper so the "wreath" didn't show through. 

My rosettes I made from crepe paper. I did them the same way I did the rosettes on my Burlap Purse. 

I hot glued them all onto the wreath, added ribbon, and viola! 

I love the way it turned out. :) I'm loving the colors I chose for Emma's new room, teal, pink, and white. I can't wait to get started on the rest of the things I have planned!

Weekend Highlights

I saw some adorable things this past week in the link parties! 

Like this Sunburst Mirror at Ashley White Interior Design. I have all the stuff to make one, I think it might be going on my craft to-do list!

And these Easter Eggs at Emmmy Lizzzy. She used things like grape juice and tea to dye them, and got her designs by strapping leaves and flowers to the eggs! Talk about creative!

And now that I've seen this Ruffle Dress at Utah County Mom, I don't think I can resist making it for Emma! It looks so simple!

This Sunflower Peeps cake at Simply Sweet Home is perfect for a spring or Easter get together!

I keep telling myself that I'm going to make Emma some bibs. Maybe these bibs at Paws and Re-thread will give me the inspiration!

And I never realized a petti-romper could be so easy to make! I've got a new niece arriving this summer, hmm... Go check it out at Women Who Do It All!

Easter Eggs

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What You'll Need:

Eggs

Vinegar

Food coloring

Rubber cement

Vegetable oil

Start out by hard boiling your eggs. It's best to NOT use new eggs. Most times when you buy eggs from the store, they haven't been sitting on the shelf long. So make sure they sit in your fridge for about a week or so. If they're too new and you hard boil them, they won't peel very nicely.

Put your eggs in a pot and cover them with 1-2 inches of cool water. Put them on the stove on high.

Once your eggs have come to a boil, turn them off and let them sit for 15-20 minutes (it really doesn't matter too much, I accidentally left mine for about 40 minutes while I showered, and they turned out fine). 

Fish your eggs out of the hot water and place them in a bath of cold water. You might need to switch it out once for more cold water.

Once your eggs have cooled, you need to prep them for dying. 

Take your rubber cement and a paintbrush. 

This is the fun part! Make all sorts of designs on your eggs with the rubber cement. I zig zagged it across the eggs, swirled it, did polka dots, ect. You could even write names! Get your designs done, and give them at least 30 minutes to dry.

You need to use HOT water for your food coloring, so it's best to boil it. Once your water has boiled, mix your water and vinegar. You need 1 tsp of vinegar for every cup. I poured myself 2 cups of hot water, added 2 tsp of vinegar, and then distributed it evenly into my 3 cups. You don't want to fill your cups too full, because they may over flow when you put your eggs in them.

If you don't have the cool little color tablets that come with Easter egg kits, you can use plain food coloring. I used some leftover gel food coloring from Emma's birthday cake, electric pink, green, and purple.

Add enough food coloring to each cup to get a nice rich color. 

Dip your eggs in your colors, checking on them every 10-15 seconds to see what color they are. When they're the color you want, pull them out with a spoon. 

Lay them on your drying rack or paper towel. I used a cookie sheet with a cooling rack on top.

Once your eggs are mostly dry, wipe off the bottoms with a paper towel, and rub off the rubber cement. To get a shiny look to your eggs, rub them with vegetable oil.

To get the marble effect on your eggs, add about a tsp of vegetable oil to your colored water. When you dip your egg in, the vegetable oil will coat parts of the egg, and keep the color off them. The key here is to dip the egg in, and leave it there, don't check on it! I made that mistake with a couple of my first eggs, and they came out barely marbled. Let dry, and wipe clean with a paper towel.

This was such a fun project to do! I loved the effects on the eggs, and they turned out so CUTE! I actually think I'm going to do some more before Easter, maybe trying out some more effects.

MIA

I'm going to be MIA for a little while. We're moving this weekend, and won't have internet until Tuesday. I'll most likely be having too much fun unpacking, cleaning, and organizing to do any crafting and posting. So don't expect to see me for about 1-2 weeks. I do have an Easter Egg project I did that I haven't posted though, so I might get around to putting that one up between here and there. Happy crafting!