DIY tinsel garland wreath

I saw this wreath by Creature Comforts featured on Apartment Therapy and knew I had to make it! It was easy, unique, and gave me something to do with at least two of all those tissue paper flowers I made for the wedding (and never used!). If you want to make some too, check out Martha Stewart's easy directions.

Ez at Creature Comforts used embroidery hoops for her base, but since I didn't have any and didn't want to spend the money on one, I just used aluminum foil to create a circle. Tip: Reinforce the joint with a couple pieces of foil, or else it'll come apart while you're wrapping garland around.

Then, I started wrapping a couple strands of skinny green garland I bought from Target around the foil circle, and got little shiny green garland pieces everywhere.

Ez made paper flowers out of wax paper, which has a nice sheen, but since I'd already made a bajillion out of tissue paper, I decided to give mine a holiday sparkle with silver spray glitter from Michaels. To avoid a mess inside, I took the flowers and spray outside. It was about freezing, and since I was hurrying to get inside where it was warm I didn't take any photos. But I just held the flowers out by the floral wire and sprayed them as evenly as I could with numb fingers, and let them try for a couple hours.

I attached them to the wreath using the floral wire that holds them together, and added a little sprig of fake berries I pulled off some garland I have -- and voila! A pretty little wreath that cost me only the money for the garland and spray paint (which really is optional).

Here's a close-up of the glitter on the paper flowers:

I used some red ribbon to hang it from the door.

There really are a million ways you could personalize this. How would you make it your own?

DIY = MIA

I've done it. I've gone and broken the cardinal rule of blogging: Thou shalt not abandon thy blog. Yes, it's been months since my last post, and I can't shake the shame. It's kind of like not going to the gym. At first, you have a good excuse -- major work deadline, a cold -- and it's only a couple days. Then, it's a week, two weeks, and still you justify. Hey, after meeting that big deadline, I deserve some down time! Next thing you know, it's been three months and you're too ashamed to show your face again, because you can't just walk in there and pretend like it hasn't been weeks. I suppose, just like the work deadline and the illness, I could claim a legitimate reason for my absence -- planning the biggest and most expensive party of my life.

I was never that girl who played wedding with her Barbies. Instead, I usually sent Barbie and her buddies on a wild ride down the stairs in her pink Corvette, on their way to rescue Ken, who was usually tied up and being held prisoner in the basement. I never got married on the playground, or put a pillow case on my head like it was a veil.

So I was kind of surprised when I got so into the wedding planning process. Favors, escort cards, centerpieces -- I loved them all, and I wanted them to be unique, to reflect our personalities and our relationship. I spent hours researching ideas, talking to other brides on theknot.com, clipping pictures and putting them in a giant red binder (it's now too heavy to carry with one arm). With every new idea, the Fiance (now the Hubs) kept me in check: "How much will that cost?"

Wanting to make things unique and to stay in budget, I did something I've never done before. I turned to Martha Stewart. I started making things, being crafty. I spent lots of time at Michael's picking out card stock, ribbon and floral wire. I perfected the art of making pomanders out of tissue paper, I cramped my fingers tying tiny ribbon around 120 pink bubble tubes, I fed over 100 pieces of card stock through my printer -- twice -- and folded each one in half. I became best friends with a rotary cutter, an Exacto knife and a quilting mat. I even got the Fiance involved, turning birch trees into an arbor and table name holders.

I might have saved some money, but I lost all my free time.

In the end, all the finger cramps, paper cuts and hot glue burns were worth it. We had a fantastically fun, perfect day full of personal touches that I think our guests really appreciated. Everyone said the wedding seemed like "us." Which is really what it's all about, isn't it?