American Crafter Season 4, Round 1: Joy

Okay, everyone, here's my submission for Round One of Nap Time Crafters' American Crafter Season Four.  Click HERE to see all the amazing submissions...there are some incredibly creative and talented people out there! 

American Crafter is based on American Idol:  the viewers vote on their favorites and their votes decide who moves onto the next round.  For round 1, each view can vote for their 3 favorites (and believe me, there are some amazing projects to choose from).   Anyone can vote:  not just bloggers.  Click HERE  to see Amy's post with all of the projects and to vote.

Background/Tutorial of "JOY"

When I heard that the theme was "Hardware Store Gems" I had a million ideas running through my mind.  I decided to go visit some hardware stores for inspiration.  After visiting 3 stores and wandering around Home Depot for 2 hours, I decided to take a spin on "the decorative wreath" while keeping costs down:  focusing on purchasing items that can be re-used for other projects

Here's what I picked up at Home Depot:  vinyl tile samples (free), fiberglass screen (I need this to fix my storm door), stencils (that will be used for many other projects), brown/white/gold glitter spray paints (the extra will go in my stash for future projects), and decorative picket fence style garden boarder (just $4.57).  I already had some 24 gauge wire and frog tape in my personal supplies.  The only non-hardware store items used include fabric strips and yarn, leftovers from other projects.

The first step was to spray paint the fence with the white paint.  I then taped the stencils onto the tiles with frog tape and spray painted the letters J-O-Y with brown paint.

This ribbon flower tutorial inspired my screen flower (I used wire as thread).  The flower was then spray painted brown on both sides with a light spray of gold glitter paint added for shimmer.

I cut 1" wide fabric strips and tied them to a string of yarn to create a garland.

Then, I attached everything to the fence and glued the yarn and tiles onto the fence directly to give the impression that the tiles are threaded onto the string.    And TA DA!  My trellis wreath!

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