SNOW Bunting – Laura Kelly Winter Wonderland Blog Hop

Hello everyone and welcome to the Laura Kelly Winter Wonderland Creative Blogger Hop! I’m so happy to be participating in this. Let me tell you a little story about how I met Laura. I have a client who works closely with Laura and so I had been promoting quite a bit of her blog posts on his social media channels. I really loved her designs and started following her on social media myself.

In September, I went to Bloggy Con in Ohio and as I was going through my swag bag, I was excited to see crafting materials in it! You don’t often get that at a conference. There were items from iLoveToCreate and there were items from Laura Kelly herself. I squealed out loud. No really, I did! Now if I was excited about that, imagine how I felt when I found out that Laura was actually at the conference AND that she was leading one of the small sessions that I was attending.  At that session, it was a table of other craft bloggers and we all shared our ideas and asked questions about craft blogging. It was there that Laura came up with the idea for us to join together and do a blog hop and ta da! Here we are!

The supplies that I’m using for my Winter Snow Bunting are: Laura Kelly’s 2015 Ellison Release Die-Cut Hats (available January 2015) made of Kunin Group Felt, Aleene’s Tacky Glue and Tulip Brand Beads in a Bottle (Mica Flakes) from iLoveToCreate, Laura Kelly Buttons for Buttons Galore, some foam letters, yarn, trim,  and sequins that I picked up at a local store.  I also used some felt I had on hand for the mittens and my Westcott scissors to cut them out as well as some string, embroidery floss, and a needle that I had in my stash. A huge thank you to these brands for sending their products for my project and thanks so much to Laura Kelly for organizing this!

When I first saw the little hats, I instantly thought of my days as a classroom teacher, helping the children get their hats and mitts on to go out and play in the snow and then hanging them up all along one wall of my classroom to let them dry. That’s where the bunting idea came from. It’s simple to make – get the whole family involved! I simply used the buttons, sequins, trim, and the Beads in a Bottle to decorate each of the hats. I glued them on and then in some cases, added some stitches with the embroidery floss to give it more of that handmade look. I cut a pair of mittens out of some felt and decorated them as well. I tied a piece of string around the O and then glued each end to the back of the mittens. Next, it was simply a matter of gluing the hats and all of the letters to my yarn. Note: the yarn is quite wide and so simply gluing them there worked beautifully and has held up perfectly since then – because you know, the tacky glue is awesome!!! But if you’re working with a finer yarn or string you might find that you need a couple stitches for extra security. Personally, the glue is is so amazing that I’d try it first and then do the stitching if needed.

Be sure to check out all of the other projects in the Laura Kelly Winter Wonderland Blog Hop below AND scroll right down to the bottom of the post to enter the giveaway! 

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