DIY: JOY Holiday Yarn Sign

I have a weird fascination with yarn lately. This is my third yarn sign,and I hear ya, it can get boring. However, I’m terrible at painting freehand words and I need a holiday sign for my front door. Plus, the yarn has a cozy warm feeling and it’s easy…oh and cheap. Yes, I like cheap inexpensive crafts.

I also needed something unique since I needed to match the color scheme of this bell wreath.

Instead of more purple, I decided to go with gray, white and green.

Step 1:

Collect your supplies.

• Cardboard or paper letters
• 3 colors of yarn
• Hot Glue Gun
• Scissors

Step 2:

In my opinion, the letter ‘O’ is the hardest to wrap. Seems easy, but you have to pass the ball of yarn through the letter to wrap it and it’s just cumbersome. To make it easier, I wrapped it in stages. I cut long pieces of yarn and wrapped the entire letter in three thin layers.

Tip: Use a nail stick or skewer in order to push the yarn into the hot glue. It saves your nails and keeps hot glue off your hands.

Step 3:

Continue wrapping all the letters.

Tip: For the difficult areas, glue short pieces in place before wrapping the letters.

Step 4:

Attach Twine for hanging, using glue or a staple gun. I prefer staples, but if you don’t have a staple gun, hot glue should work as long as you use enough.

Project Cost Breakdown (per Ornament):

3 Cardboard Letters (Hobby Lobby) = $4.50

3 Colors of Yarn (Already Owned) = $0

Hot Glue/Scissors/Twine/Staples (Already Owned) = $0

Total Project Cost: $4.50

In addition to the sign, I’ve also changed up the setup a bit. I swapped out the hay bale and pumpkin for fun holiday trees and new Christmas colors. If I could track down an inexpensive white poinsettia, I’d love to add that as well, but I refuse to pay $10 for one since I’ll probably kill it.

SHOWING THE LOVE:

Linking To: Between Naps On The Porch, Craft-O-Maniac, Making The World Cuter, Today’s Creative Blog, Not JUST A Housewife, Ginger Snap Crafts, Blue Cricket Design, Very Merry Vintage Style, Savvy Southern Style

DIY: Creating A Fall Sign With Yarn

On my recent trip to Hobby Lobby I finally found the inexpensive letters that I’ve been looking for all month. I had all but given up on finding cheap letters anywhere and had almost scrapped the whole idea. Everywhere else the letters were several dollars each, and I’m pretty cheap when it comes to this stuff.

Hobby Lobby had these 8-inch pressed cardboard letters for 40% off which made just over a dollar each.

With a renewed sense of craftiness, I stopped past Michael’s and picked up the perfect cozy autumn colored yarn for half off. Each color of yarn was just under $2 each.

On a completely random note…who knew yarn was so expensive these days? Also, Vanna White has her own brand of yarn…interesting.

This project was pretty quick and I did it on my lunch hour this afternoon while watching a Psych rerun on my computer, thank you Netflix.

Step 1:

Collect your supplies.

• 4 different colors of yarn
• Hot Glue
• Pressed Cardboard letters
• Twine
• Staple Gun

Step 2:

Decide which direction you want your yarn to be. For the 1st and 3rd letters, I wanted the yarn to run vertical. The 2nd and 4th letters would be horizontal. I started with the ‘F’ and wrapped the letter around horizontally, using hot glue throughout to keep the yarn in place.

Once it was wrapped one time, I went back over it in the other direction.

Step 3:

Finish all the other letters.

The letter ‘A’ was the hardest since the letter had angles so I had to get creative on how to wrap it neatly. I used a lot more glue on the ‘A’ which helped keep everything neat and allowed me to wrap it pretty quickly.

Step 4:

Using a hot glue gun, glue the 4 letters together. I used lots of glue for this to make sure they would stay together after being hung up.

Step 5:

Connect some twine to the back of the letters using the staple gun. Hang up and enjoy.

The sign is actually meant for the front door post to replace the Halloween sign, but it was too dark outside to share that picture, so my pantry door was all to happy to step in.

Project Cost Breakdown:

4 Pressed Cardboard Letters (Hobby Lobby) = $5

4 Different Colors of Yarn (Michaels) = $8

Hot Glue Gun & Glue (Already Owned) = $0

Twine (Already Owned) = $0

Staple Gun (Already Owned) = $0

Total Project Cost: $13

DIY – Front Door Sign Post

I love wreaths, but I also like fun holiday themed hanging signs. This is a problem because I only have room for one on my door. If I have a wreath on the door, then where do I hand the cute little holiday sign?

Why am I telling you this? I get it, you probably don’t really care about my door/wreath issues.

Well, I finally found a solution and it cost less than $15 to build myself ($30 if you include a set of countersink drill bits that I needed anyway). Now I can hang all the holiday signs that I want and it won’t get in the way of the lovely wreaths.

I don’t have a picture off all the supplies like I usually do since I was kind of making this up as I went. However, I have it all priced out at the bottom of the post.

Step 1:

Visit your local lumbar yard and pick up some basic lumber. I bought the cheapest stuff they had since I knew I would be priming and painting it later. If I had been staining the post, I probably would have picked something else.

• 4 x 4 x 8 (qty: 1)
• 1 x 6 x 6 (qty: 1)
• 1 x 8 x 6 (qty: 1)

Step 2:

Like I’ve done with other projects, I sweet talked my dad into making the major cuts for me. He has all the tools in his garage and can make them so quickly. There are two sets in the picture, because I made a post for my mom. Both posts came from the same boards so we were able to split the costs.

Your exact measurements can vary so don’t worry about screwing it up. We cut my moms post at 3 feet and mine at 3.5 feet.

For the smaller boards, we just cut off 4 squares in each size.

One thing I did need to buy was a Countersink Set (from Lowes). Now I can countersink all the stuff I want; even if I were to break off a drill bit into the wood the first time I used it. Not that I did that.

…ummm moving on.

Step 3:

I took the smaller square and countersinked (is that a word?) 3 screws. [the fourth contains the already mentioned broken drill bit].

I did this on both ends. Usually you would want to fill these holes, but in this case they will be covered with the larger square so you’ll never see them.

Step 4:

Attach the larger square using nails. I used 2 inch finishing nails and then set them.

Step 5:

Fill all nail holes with wood filer.

Then I filled all the other holes, knots, and cracks with wood filler and sanded the crap out of that thing!

Step 6:

Prime the post. I used some leftover interior Kilz since it’s what I had on hand. It took 2 coats on each posts.

Step 7:

Next up, PAINT! I used some leftover interior Satin paint that I had on hand. While the post will be outside, it is shielded from rain, etc. So I wasn’t concerned about having exterior paint or Poly on it.

Each post needed 2 coats.

Step 8:

After the final coat was dry, I added basic black robe hooks. Mine has two and my Mom’s will have just the top hook since her post is shorter.

(I took the sticker off the pumpkin after I took the picture)

Very easy and so much fun. It can be left out all year round and I can just change the decor with the holidays/seasons. I already have a very cute setup planned for Christmas.

Project Cost Breakdown (for 1 post) :

4 x 4 x 8 (Home Depot) = $4

1 x 6 x 6 (Home Depot) = $2

1 x 8 x 6 (Home Depot) = $3

Countersink Set (Lowes) = $14

Black Robe Hook (2) = $5

Finishing Nails/Hammer/Drill/Saw/Sander (Already Owned) = $0

Wood Filler/Primer/Paint (Already Owned) = $0

Halloween Sign (DIY tutorial here) = $0 [the Halloween sign was made out of leftover wood from this door post project!]

Total Project Cost: $28

It would have cost under $15 if I didn’t need to buy the Countersink set, but that will come in handy for future projects. A great investment to my tool kit.

SHOWING THE LOVE:

Linking To: Between Naps On The Porch, Craft-O-Maniac, The Girl Creative, Making the World Cuter, Today’s Creative Blog, Not JUST A Housewife, Ginger Snap Crafts, Blue Cricket Design, Very Merry Vintage Style, Savvy Southern Style, The Shabby Creek Cottage, Beyond The Picket Fence, The ArtsyGirl Connection, The Crafty Nest, Addicted 2 Decorating, The Shabby Nest, Remodelaholic, French Country Cottage, Dear Creatives, Ohh Baby Designs, The Not So Functional Housewife