Tuesday Tutorial

Okay, crafty people!  I like to do crafty stuff. Well, it's more like, I like to think about doing crafty stuff, buy all the equipment, then get halfway through, run out of energy, then shove it aside to be trashed by me a few years later.
This time, however, was different.

I have found Pinterest. This is a website devoted to people that are crazy about finding crap online. You find the crap, "pin" the picture to a board, and you have it forever. It's like a cross between a visual Twitter (people can "follow" you) and a visual bookmark system. You can categorize things into categories, creating as many boards as you like. For instance, I have:

• Products I love
• Crafts I want to try
• Fall ideas
• Stuff I want-hint, hint, honey
• Sayings I like
• Ideas for the kids' school
• Ideas for my work

If I have not explained it to the point of you wanting to be all over it RIGHT NOW, I did a lousy job explaining it.  Anyways, I found some neat things I liked recently. Okay, A LOT of neat things. So I pinned the ones I liked, then fell ill with a crafty bug this weekend.

Here is the inspiration:

So I got a W. Then, I couldn't find twine, so a finally settled on Fall colored yarn. 
W's suck.  I had a hell of a time winding that yarn around, burning my damn fingers with the hot glue, you name it.  So I chilled for a bit, thinking.
I went to the craft store for the fabric for the rosettes. The rosettes I didn't know how to make. While there, I came upon the idea for ribbon, with buttons to cover the glue for the ribbon. Finally happy with the W. Then it was on to the rosettes.
I couldn't find a website I had patience for, so I gathered a couple ideas from a couple places, and figured I would wing it.
I had bought a "quilter's pack" or something-a group of 5 fabrics all with coordinating colors. I figured pattern didn't matter much, because they would be rosettes, not flat fabric. Then, I stripped the fabric by making notches, then ripping the fabric which gave it an unfinished look. The strips were about 1-1 1/2 inches wide, and there is a certain direction to rip in. I tried both, went with what is easier. Google it if you want a more precise description. Hell, Google a real crafter if you want a better description-you're the one taking advice from ME.

Here is a pic of the notches before I got to rip the fabric. Incidentally, ripping fabric makes a very satisfying sound.  It could become a positive aggression outlet....

Notice the fake acrylic nails-these will come in handy when the real gluing begins...

Then, a made a circle out of fabric, to glue the rosettes to. Later, I found that cardboard was better (crappy paperboard from the kids' cereal boxes will be fine-use different sized cups as templates.) And, you wastes less fabric. so I created strips, then scrunched up an end, glued it to the center of the fabric or cardboard circle, and twisted the fabric into a, a, a,   twisted strip of fabric. How else do I say that? My first one wasn't very twisted, and it turned out crappy. I fixed it a bit later....

Crappy first rosette.  I kept winding and gluing, winding and gluing, using my acrylic nails to hold crap in place while the 2000 degree glue dried.
I sat washing anti-depressants down with boxed wine, watching Monday Night Football while I made rosettes until I couldn't stand it any more.
As soon as my fingers were aching, I stopped. Then, I slapped those rosettes onto a grapevine wreath, along with the W and some ribbon to hang it. Glue is the secret to this craft, by the way.
Voila!

the crappy rosette is the bottom one, can't even tell, can ya?

I'm one crafty mo-fo, right?

I might add more rosettes later, when my fingers get their feeling back.  I probably won't, though.