November 17, 2015

A (Quick, Inexpensive, Adorable) Winter Wreath

Every once in a while, I take a little bento hiatus. I take a break so that I can come up with new and fresh ideas. However, I still have to craft… one crafty thing! So this week, I checked out some wreaths on Pinterest and I made a new wreath for my door. Something simple, something that took less than a half hour and less that $12! Can you say instant (and cheap) gratification?

For this wreath, I used:

A ready-made grapevine wreath. $4 at Trader Joe’s
Basil-colored Spanish moss. $4.50 (40% off at my local craft store, or buy it online).
7 white “snow” flocked trees in a pack. $2.99 (40% off at my local craft store)
(Optional) Green acrylic paint in case your moss isn’t as green as you would like. (99 cents)

15 minutes: I originally had the idea to hot glue the moss onto the wreath, but instead, I ended up tucking it into the branches. It held pretty well without the glue. I especially tried to tuck it under the largest branches.

Lots of mess, but easily swept away. It might not seem that way but this moss held pretty well like this.

10 minutes: I took my time hot gluing the trees into the wreath (partially because I was watching TV, but partially because I was trying to lay them out before I glued for sure). They each have a little wood base so I hot glued the base to where I wanted and then flexed the tree “trunks” (made of wire) to make them straight, even though gluing them on a curve meant that the bases didn’t go in straight. I tried to not line them up but instead have some in front, some in back so that I could create a bit of depth.

2 minutes: I had a bit of trouble figuring out how to hang this up but then thought of using a split key ring on the back and then hung it up.

And that was it 🙂 It took 3 extra minutes to clean up. It was fun and cute and looks good on my door. I didn’t end up using the paint as I liked the color of the moss, but using a sponge brush to lightly add green might give the moss more depth.

Today I used (Following cost may not reflect the discounts that I found for my materials):

Share on Tumblr

March 12, 2015

Butterflies, Again Bento

I never get tired of creating new butterfly bentos. I love Monarch butterflies… they mean a lot to me because to me they represent California (which I adore), and they overwinter near my home. I love the fact that they are immigrants here but at the same time natives; I love that they fly so many miles and die along the way but something instinctual urges them to keep on the path. They feel magical in the woods where we see them every year.

For this bento, I thought about those overwintering butterflies, clustered with their families and spanning California.

In this lunch:

Main A PB&J heart sandwich with little bread butterflies clustered and glued down with peanut butter. To give them a little bit of dimension to their wings, I used the wrong side of a butter knife to fold the middle inward.
Sides Trail mix, two mandarins with a wing cut out of each mandarin and squished together and almonds.
Also Included but not Pictured Yogurt and string cheese

Today, I used:

Share on Tumblr