Rosette Name Plaque

I didn't realize how vast and varied Blogland is until I started really getting into DIY projects and crafting. Reading so many creative and interesting blogs is what really made me want to have my own. I've always liked writing and being able to have a record of my thoughts, but when I saw what so many people were doing with their blogs, how they were sharing their ideas and showcasing their talents and achievements (and failures too), the desire to have my own space grew and grew. I could spend hours blog hopping. I often start at one of my favorites, then click on a link to one of their favorites, and so on until I can't even remember how I arrived a new blog that I absolutely love. After all my other posts, I'm excited to finally post something about what got me so interested in blogging.

Crafting has become a huge passion of mine. It's thrilling for me to be able to take a bunch of supplies and make them into something totally different, completely customized and uniquely perfect for my purposes. It's an even bigger thrill if I can do it for cheap! Crafting opens up a whole new world of what things could be. My hubby and I were browsing in Goodwill several months ago and I remember showing him things and getting a face like, "Are you kidding? That's hideous." And, of course, Goodwill has (more than) it's fair share of hideous things. But as he was looking at what was there, I was looking at what it could be. In fact, it's very rare for me to go shopping for things and expect to find something I'll like without any alterations even at non-secondhand stores. When I explained to Stud how I was looking at everything he expressed that, to him, that's a frustrating way to approach shopping, having to imagine what everything could be instead of just taking it as it is and then having to get it home and do work on it. But, aha! That isn't work for me. It's fun! I don't want to display other peoples' ideas of home decor. I want to make my own! Of course, not everything in my house is homemade or altered, but I do find a lot of joy in making something from scratch or finding something that I would like a little bit better if I made a few changes to it.

Another great thing about crafting is that it opens all kinds of doors for giving gifts. How many times have you had the perfect idea for someone but knew that you would never find it in the mall? It's so perfect you don't even know how to look for it. Well, the more you get into crafting the more you can make those gifts that are exactly what you want to give (and hopefully what that person wants to get). Homemade gifts can also really come through for you in a pinch, when you don't have much time and/or money.

Ok, so not everyone is thrilled with homemade gifts, but, when in doubt, try combining homemade gifts with "real" gifts to get them used to the idea. Hehe. For example, I typically wouldn't make something homemade for my brother whose interests (such as music and sound, writing and film, and cars) don't really lend themselves to crafts, but as part of his Christmas present last year, I made coasters with pictures of album covers from one of his favorite bands on them. And since this particular band, Porcupine Tree, isn't super well known, there is a very limited selection of memorabilia for them. There. Homemade, customized, rare and still kinda cool. Right? Check out Porcupine Tree here (they're kinda dark and they're album covers are creepy, but their sound is pretty mellow). And listen to one of my favorite songs of theirs here.

I gotta say one more thing about crafts and gift giving: packing is huge! When I was little we got Christmas presents in the mail from my dad's sister, my Aunt Les, who lives in Ohio. I always knew which presents were from her because of how they were wrapped. They were so pretty! They always had elegant paper and some sort of special bow, or embellishment or cute tag or something. It was like the wrapping was part of the gift. You could tell that extra time had gone into wrapping them. The more that I get set up with my own supplies now as an adult, the more excited I get about spending time on the wrapping and presentation of the gifts I give. It really does make a difference and builds that much more anticipation to open it! Even if you aren't giving homemade gifts, you can express how special the receiver is to you by spending time on the wrapping with homemade tags, bows or even homemade wrapping paper. Plus, in my opinion, putting a ribbon on anything makes it a gift, no matter how small or seemingly trivial. But beware: no matter how much time you spend on a package, it will get destroyed...and that's ok. :)

Ok, blah blah blah. Crafting is fun and useful. Onto the actual craft.

One of the last days before Brandon left to start training in CA, we went to Stillwater, MN to explore. Stillwater has all kinds of cool shops and antique stores and you could probably spend a couple of days there looking around. In one of the shops I found a wooden plaque that spelled, "Bloom." It was so perfect for a friend of mine whose last name was Bloom. On top of that, she just moved and I was on the lookout for a housewarming gift. On top of that, it was on sale! I had to buy it. However, the plaque was covered with some kind of dumb, pastel, polka dotted paper so I didn't want to give it to her like that. Yuck.

This friend of mine is into roses (not only the way it plays off of her last name, but the imagery of them and what the word "bloom" can signify), so I brainstormed how I could incorporated roses into the plaque. Then I remembered a tutorial I had noted for a rosette covered wreath found on a blog called Under the Table and Dreaming by Stephanie Lynn.

I've had this project on my list for awhile. It's made with newspaper but you could use pages from a book or a map or magazine or anything. I've been wanting to make one with paper from the New York Times or something like that to remind us of the wonderful time we spend in New York City on our honeymoon. Anyway, I remembered this tutorial and thought it would be cute to cover the plaque with little rosettes. But I wanted to make it red and give it some texture so I used red felt and, following the instructions from the tutorial, starting rolling up my roses.

It took A LOT of roses to fill up the letters so when I got sick of rolling roses, I would take a break and start gluing them onto the plaque with a glue gun, using different sizes to fill different parts of the letters.

More rolling and gluing. 

Take a break to shoo the ladies out of my bag of supplies.

And after just a few hours of rolling and gluing, I had the plaque covered. 

Sorry, the shadowing makes it kind of hard to see. Here's another: 

Seeing it all done, I felt like it was missing something. I thought about it for a little bit and finally decided to add some little leaves to the corner. I layered some green felt and some green, sheer chiffon fabric to make a little cluster of leaves. The chiffon fabric was leftover from making my lady cats tutus for Halloween. They were not impressed.

 Ana wouldn't stay in it long enough for a picture and Derby wouldn't do anything but sit or lay down in it and try to weasel her pudginess out of it (at which she was quite adept).

Make animated gifs like this at MakeAGif.

I think that sheer fabric helped make all of that felt a little more delicate and feminine. You can't see it real well in these pics, but here are a couple shots. I placed the cluster on the bottom corner of the plaque, off of the "M."

And here is the finished product: 

My friend loved it and actually collects things that say "bloom" so I was super excited to find the plaque and customize it to make it exactly what I wanted to give to her. And, heck, this reminds us to

Bloom where you're planted

and 

Stop and smell the roses. 

Have a great day!