Kira Grogg · this is what i do

And Happy New Year :)

Click on the tree below to decorate. Choose from the colors on the top right.

Click play to enjoy some festive music

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Apparently wreaths are my new craft thing.  In particular, seeing how little money I can spend while making a decent looking wreath. I was originally going to get a wreath frame from Michael's and add things to it, but they wanted $6 for a small ring of flimsy styrofoam. And $12 for the sturdier kind.  Just a plain styrofoam ring.  No thank you.  

Fall leaves

I wanted a wreath for fall, and was looking for some sort of leaves I could put into a wreath shape.  I found some cheap coasters at Bed, Bath and Beyond: three packs of 4 maples leaves for $2 each.  Score.  They came in nice muted fall colors, just what I was looking for.

I decided 12 leaves with a little overlapping would make a decent size for my door.  I cut out a cardboard annulus from an old shipping box, making it thick enough to hold the leaves and its shape, without showing too much of the cardboard beneath.  (As usual, I did not take step by step pictures.)

Then it was a matter of spacing them evenly, alternating colors, and hot gluing them in place. After they were all in place, I added a few extra dollops of glue to make sure they stayed connected to the cardboard. I tied a dark green ribbon behind one of the leaves and around the carboard, so I could hang it from a hook on my door.  Not too bad for a $6 wreath.

White winter snowflakes

I have already made two Christmas-types wreaths, but I wanted a general "winter" wreath for after the holidays. 

For this one, my cheap materials came from the Dollar Tree.  I bought a 12 pack of simple foam snow flake shapes in white and silver sparkles. Then I got two packs of frilly snowflake ornaments with more sparkles.

Again, I cut out a thin annulus from cardboard (size was dictated by the size of the cardboard I had laying around).  I arranged 8 of the foam snowflakes onto the cardboard with just a little space between them, trying to maximize coverage of the cardboard. 

Hot glued those, then hot glued the frilly ornaments between them with lots of overlap. I took off the silver strings meant for hanging the ornaments, and used one of them for a loop to hang the wreath by.  Because the whole thing was so light, and the strings were short, I simply hot glued the string to the back of the ring.  A little of the cardboard still shows, but I didn't want the ring to be thinner and thus too flimsy. It works okay for me because it blends into the brown of my front door!

Easter time!

Including egg and chick cookies and pear bunnies.

Bunnies were made with love by Luke (been doing it since the 3rd grade!) from pears, raisins, cashews (should be almonds), dyed coconut, and cottage cheese for the fluffy tail.

Dyed eggs

Done with food coloring. Results turned out mixed.

I should probably just concede that my posts will consist mostly of crafts and baking. 

Football party brownies:

It probably would have been nice to make the stripes prettier (made from melted white chocolate chips), but I ran out of time.  I also didn't have a football shaped cookie cutter, so I made one from a soda can (similar to my mario kart cookies).  However, brownies are tricky to cut, especially around the edges, and the aluminum wasn't quite up to the task.

I also made chocolate covered peanut butter balls shaped into footballs.  Those weren't very pretty, since I was still putting them together when people arrived.  But at least they were tasty.

Valentine's Hearts:

These are the usual cutout cookies I make, as explained in this post. I think valentine hearts are my favorites.

I found some purple sprinkles from a Halloween pack, so that was nice to have some variety from the pink and red.  I suppose I could make purple icing, but I have trouble getting the proportions right.

I've been looking for ways to (cheaply) decorate my apartment for the holidays.  Right now it is covered with colored lights from walmart and dollar store tinsel garlands.  I have two paper-based wreaths that have miraculously survived (with just a little touch up) to be displayed for their 3rd Christmas.  Both I got from pinterest links:

Toilet paper roll wreath and Tissue paper wreath

So much hot glue.

This year so far all I've made is a little snow man coffee cup:

 Back to pinteresting!

UPDATE!

After a trip to Michael's craft store, and the purchase of some clear plastic balls, I have more crafts:

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I made a few Halloween decorations for a party, but no carved pumpkins this year :(

Decorations include ghost fridge, Frankencandle, and a ghost bag (which held spare costumes for people too lame to show up in one).

These simply involved markers, paper cutouts, and lots of double sided tape. I love double sided tape!

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I made a little "gingerbread" house, but because I'm lazy, it's really more of a graham cracker house. The kind you make in 2nd grade. I don't think I have a problem finding my inner child.

I'm on the hunt for costume and pumpkin carving ideas. But for now I will showcase my past efforts :)

Cannibal pumpkin

Minnie in a mouse trap

Jack O'Lantern 

Bwahahahaha