This post is sponsored by Hobby Lobby. All thoughts, opinions, and ideas are my own.

I say this every year, and I'm sure everyone else does also, but where did this year go?! Can you believe Christmas is only two months away? I feel like July was yesterday. As much as I miss and love Summer, I do love the coziness and warmth that Christmas time brings. 

I've been using the same Christmas wreaths in my house for a couple of years now, so I was excited to partner with Hobby Lobby to create a new one. I have been loving the trend I've been seeing all over Instagram lately using embroidery hoops as decor. They are so simple and elegant when used as a decor, so I decided to jump on the bandwagon and make a Christmas wreath using one. 

Supplies needed:

Embroidery hoop: Any size you wish, they come in lots of different sizes. I used an 18" for the wreath I'm sharing today. You'll see the smaller ones used later in my home with the same idea. 

4 Pine Stems

Pine Cone Stems

Gold Corkscrew Christmas garland

"Let It Snow" plaque 

Hot glue

 Step 1: Take your embroidery hoop and secure it tight. I decided to keep mine natural, but if you wish to paint or stain it, this would be the time to do so.

 Step 2: Using imaginary lines, separate the hoop into four quadrants. You'll want the top of the pine stems to fall below the mid-line, and equidistant from the middle vertical line. Slightly curve the stems, and hot glue into place.

 Step 3: On the last two stems, cut the majority of the wiring off. You can just bend it back and forth a couple of times, and it should do the trick. If not, use some wire cutters.

 Step 4: Add one of these cut stems on top of a stem you already glued. You'll want to glue it closer to the center vertical line, so it's overlapping, but not completely on top of the already glued one.

 Step 5: Do the same thing with the last stem, placing it on right side. You'll notice I have about a two inch gap between my sprays.

 Step 6: In this gap is where you'll add your pine cone stems. I used the stems that have a little frosted snow on top of them, and a bundle of wood. Hot glue these into place.

 Step 7: To make the piece fuller, I added additional pine cones to the sides, hot gluing in place.

 Step 8: Take the gold garland, and roughly measure the distance between the end of where the pine stems start and then where they end. You'll have this garland hiding behind the stems, so don't go any higher on either side. Hot glue the garland on the underside of the embroidery hoop, just right behind the pine stems. Make sure to glue the "backbone" of the garland, and not the little sprays coming off of it.

 Step 9: Slightly open the hoop on the top, slide some jute into the gap, and around the claw on the back of the "let it snow" wood plaque. Knot the jute. Tighten the hoop back up.

 My favorite part of this whole wreath is the gold corkscrew garland flowing down. Reminds me of snow or icicles. It gives this otherwise simple woodland wreath some elegance also.

 This gets me super excited for Christmas, and can't wait to use the other embroider hoop wreaths above my living room mantel this year! Since the embroidery hoops are so simple, it's easy to add more than one above a mantel without it looking too busy.

I linked to a few of these items in the supply list, but you can find all of them at your local Hobby Lobby! Be sure to bring your 40% coupon with you :)  Happy Holidays!

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This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Hobby Lobby. The opinions and text are all mine.

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Now that Fall is in full swing, I am knee deep in pumpkins at my house. Awhile back I took my traditional Fall decor and switched it to neutral decor using lots and lots of white paint. One of my favorite pumpkins that I continue to use are my curly jute stemmed white pumpkins. They are also the most asked about decor item I have. So, I thought I would share the tutorial again with you all. They are crazy easy to make, and so much fun!

 Supplies:
Craft pumpkins
White acrylic or chalk paint
Hot glue
Jute
Fabric Stiffener
Pencil

Step 1: Find some mini pumpkins either at a craft store, dollar store, or wherever. I found this box from Walmart a few years back for a little under $5.

 Step 2: Paint your pumpkins. Chalk paint works the best on these for quick, full coverage. Spray paint works the worst :) So, save yourself the sanity and skip to the acrylic or chalk paints first.

 Step 3: Start at the base of each stem, dab on a small bit of glue, and place your jute on it. Continue to wrap the jute up the stem, placing small amounts of glue along the way periodically. Be careful not to burn yourself :)

 Step 4: Once you are at the top of the stem, leave about an extra 8-10" of jute hanging.

 Step 5: Coat the hanging jute with some fabric stiffener; then curl around a pencil or pen. Keep it on the pencil/pen until the jute is hard. Then pull out carefully. This usually takes a couple of hours or overnight to harden.

 The direction you placed the the pencil, the tightness of the curl, the time you let it cured, etc will give you a different result and look of the curl. I made the tighter curls by twirling the jute around the pen and not leaving any gaps between the curls, then secured the tip with a clip.

 I made these 6 years ago and they have survived beautifully :) The curl is still there on each one of them.

 As I said before, they are my favorite piece of Fall decor, and a great addition to any vignette.

 Every year they find themselves in different rooms of my house and used in different ways. :)

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 Neutrals have been a huge thing for Fall decor the past few years, but sometimes it's fun to add a little traditional back into the mix of things. I decided to do this will some firey metallic wall art for my mantel in my front room. This is a great project if you are a neutral lover like me, but want to add just a little pop of color to your decor.

Supplies needed:
4 canvases
DecoArt Satin Enamels in Pure White
DecoArt Metallics in Old Gold
DecoArt Metallics in Classic Black
Alphabet Stencils
Paint Brushes

 Step 1: Lay out the canvases in a grid, touching each other. Paint the top two canvases with the Pure White. Don't let it dry just yet, continue on to the next step.

 Step 2: Take the Old Gold and dip it lightly onto a coarse brush and start about half way down the top two canvases, mixing the white and the gold on the brush as you move down.

 Keep moving down the canvases, adding more and more gold paint as you continue on down.

 Step 3: Now paint the top two thirds of the bottom two canvases with the Pure White. Don't let dry.

 Step 4: Add some more Old Gold onto the brush and do a few layers back and forth as you work your way down the canvas. Once again, continue to add more and more gold paint to get a richer color as you go down.

 Once you get to the bottom portion of the canvases that don't have the white, the gold will show through beautifully. Do a couple of layers here to get great saturation.

Step 5: Do the same method with the edges of the canvases.

Step 6: In the bottom right hand corner of each canvas, use the stencils and the Classic Black to spell out Fall. One letter per canvas.

Once everything is dry, hang it up! My inspiration for the ombre effect was like leaves falling off a tree.

The Old Gold shows beautifully especially when hit from light. It looks like a sunset! I just love how it adds so much warmth to this mantel.

For another tip, paint cheap fake pumpkins using the Pure White too!

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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