I wanted to show you the Halloween wreath that I made for my front door. It looks pretty plain and basic, right? Well, check it out up close!
And even closer!
I got the idea from a Martha Stewart magazine two years ago, however, she used snakes. I used to see packages of snakes all the time at the dollar store and ever since I saw her wreath I have not been able to find snakes anywhere. Last week I was looking for snakes at Walmart when I found packages of spiders. I figured, why not! So I bought a cheap $5 grapevine wreath and a couple of packages of spiders.
I had the black spray paint in the basement so I didn't even have to buy that. Now I want you to know that I am not crafty at all! I want to be crafty and I admire women who seem to find the time to put together fabulous creations using a little imagination and an incredible amount of talent. It's not that I can't do some things; I can knit and quilt but I never have the patience to finish a project. I believe I come by that honestly though. My mother is still working on that baby sweater for my now 21 year old son. Maybe someday Mom!
Anyway, I digress. I hot glued spiders all over the wreath. I started by placing the big ones and then moved down to the medium ones and filled in all the spaces with the tiny ones.
I then spray painted the whole thing black.
One thing that I noticed when gluing on all the spiders was that I was making a huge mess with all the strings of hot glue. Then it hit me that they look just like spider webs. So, after the paint dried, I got out the hot glue gun again and, using a toothpick, I made hot glue spider webs all over the wreath (they were hard to catch in a photograph).
The whole project took very little time and, even better, very little money!
I think it looks lovely hanging on the front door.
Are you crafty? Have you made any Halloween decorations?
Have you seen the Flip Fold Laundry Folder? If not, check out this video.
Before the Flip Fold I had been folding my T-shirts like this:
However, the one sleeve was never tucked in perfectly. And then I found the Flip Fold!
I first saw this awesome contraption on The Big Bang Theory and have wanted one ever since!
I began to look in earnest for the Flip Fold. I checked out several stores here in Canada only to discover that the Flip Fold is not sold here. So I began to check online. The Container Store sells Flip Folds but they are also not in Canada and quite far from where I live. However, I discovered that The Container Store now ships to Canada. Yeah! The Flip Fold was $24.99 but with shipping and handling it came to over $72.00! A bit much just to fold the laundry!
It was time for a cross-border shopping trip. I don't live too far from Port Huron, MI and so Mr. P and I went on a foreign quest for a Flip Fold. We looked all over Port Huron and couldn't find one anywhere. I came home dejected, my dreams of having perfectly organized clothes crushed!
I checked out Youtube where I discovered that I could make my very own Flip Fold out of cardboard. It looked so easy!
It wasn't very pretty and it was really flimsy. All in all I would say it was a complete fail! Back to the drawing board.
Mr. P came up with a wonderful idea of putting together a Flip Fold out of plexi-glass. It's a sturdier plastic and he could drill holes in it for air flow when I was done. I went to the hardware store with all of my dimensions so that they could cut the pieces for me. Thank goodness before they made the first cut they told me that the sheet of plexi-glass would cost $65 plus taxes. I might as well pay for one to be shipped from the US for that much money!
I wandered around the hardware store seeing if I could find something that I could make a Flip Fold out of when I came across this:
This is a 2' x 4' piece of plastic grating that goes over florescent lights in a drop ceiling. It had built in air holes and was made of sturdy plastic. Best of all, it was $15.99! One sheet was enough to make my Flip Fold. I picked up some "Duck Tape" in some bright colours at Hobby Lobby and I was in business.
I decided that the easiest way to cut the plastic would probably be with some pruning shears from my gardening drawer. They were meant to cut through some rather thick branches so I figured that they should work quite well on my Flip Fold. I was right! However, the plastic did fly all over the room when I cut it.
I cut four pieces; two pieces 28 3/4" long and 10 1/2" wide, one piece 13 1/2" long and 11" wide and one piece 15" long and 11" wide. I was able to measure the 28 3/4" along the length of the grate and still had enough length left at the end for the 15" on one half and 13 1/2" on the other. These measurements are rough as I followed the squares and cut in between them.
I then covered all the edges with duct tape so that my clothes would not snag on any rough edges.
Now it is time to join them. Take the smallest square (13 1/2 x 11) and place it beside one of the 28 3/4 long pieces near the top. Fold it over so that it lays on top and tape the outside. Open it up and tape the inside seam.
Now attach the other long piece to the other side of the short one making sure to fold it over first so that the tape has enough give for your Flip Fold to fold easily. Once you have both sides securely attached, attach the 15" piece to the bottom of the 13 1/2" piece. This one does not get attached to the longer, side pieces just the centre one.
Once all the pieces are attached you have a knock-off Flip Fold!
It worked beautifully!
I am really pleased with how it turned out. And, with that bright orange tape, if I get tired of folding clothes with it, I can always use it to direct traffic!
