Craft Stash Diving: Using Your Stash To Make A Floral Wreath

Today was a perfect day to do some craft stash diving!  I pulled out some decorative embroidery hoop frames, some older Sizzix dies, my button jar and some pretty papers to create a floral spring wreath for my front door.

This front door makes me so happy! When we moved into our fixer upper house a little over 2 years ago, all the doors in the entire house needed to be repaired or replaced.  The previous owners had 2 big dogs that did a lot of damage to the doors and wood molding around the house.  I absolutely love this front door!  It just goes so perfectly with my circa 1950’s house and the mullioned windows.  The little wreath I created works perfectly between the storm door and the front door.  There is not much space there, so I needed something welcoming, but skinny!

I love looking at craft rooms on Pinterest and Facebook.  I belong to a couple of Facebook groups where members share pictures of their craft rooms and craft organizing tips.

I always find myself fascinated by the extremes in the group.  There are those people who have the craft rooms we all drool over.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a contractor come in and design and build the perfect room with beautiful cabinets, counter tops and floors.  The ideal room would have a wall of windows, it’s own sink, and it would have so much storage that it would look like you never actually used it because everything has a home behind a door where nobody can see it.

Then there are the rooms that look stuffed to the rafters with all kinds of fabulous goodies.  A lot of it tends to be in the original boxes or in plastic bins with seemingly no method of organization.  None of the furniture matches and you wonder how anyone could relax and feel creative in those spaces.

I’m in between there.  I don’t have the perfect room.  My room is a mishmash of old furniture that gives me plenty of storage.  My stuff is actually really organized and I know where everything is.

I do however, still have craft supplies I bought in the 80’s.

It’s true.  I used some of it today!

For instance, the decorative faux wood wreath embroidery hoop that I used as the base of this was purchased in the late 80’s I’m sure.  We made all kinds of pretty home décor and used embroidery hoops for frames to hand on the wall.  

I cut out a bunch of paper flowers and leaves from some pretty Altenew patterned paper with some old dies that I had not used in quite some time.  They were all favorites for a long time, but then the newer stuff came in and those things didn’t feel the love anymore.

I’m just not ready to donate or toss that stuff.

I’m going to be retiring in 9 months and I will have time to use my crafting goodies.

It feels good to pull stuff out that you’ve been waiting to use.  I created a bunch of paper flowers and then attached them to the outside of the embroidery hoop frame.

I used my hot glue gun for the first time in a few months.  I love my hot glue gun! I also love the new storage piece I have for it from Totally Tiffany’s Desk Maid line.

Additionally, I pulled out some burlap ribbon and some purple satin ribbon to add to the project for some texture and interest.  I also pulled out one of my two button bottles and added some buttons to the flower centers.  The burlap added a nice texture and natural touch to the wreath.  I just hot glued 3-4 inch strips to the back of the hoop and let the stick out into the middle and off the outside edge below the floral elements.

I ended up with a nice wreath for my front door.

My husband actually liked it!  Some days I just love asking him his opinion! Win-win!

I am going to add this project to Virginia Lu’s Show and Share Challenge.  This seems like the perfect project to share in her challenge.  She starts a new challenge on the 9th of every month to encourage crafty types like us to dive into our stashes and find things we either haven’t used or haven’t tried.  She encourages everyone to share a new skill or just something you’ve created out of all the goodies you’ve purchased.  I think this is a fabulous idea and I love to see what everyone else is creating.  I always try to visit as many blogs as I can and leave some comment love.

This list includes the pretty papers that I used and then some extra links in case you don’t have a stash to dive through and you need some ideas of what might work for this type of project.  I’ve included items from 3 of my favorite companies to purchase from.  They are super reliable, the products are high quality, and they often have coupon codes or freebies.  What’s not to love?