Nuala's Way

Last spring I had three baby showers at work. I didn't want to go out and buy something in the stores. I wanted it to be special and homemade. I found online an idea for a flower bouquet made out of baby socks! I thought the idea was perfect. I want sure what any of the girls were having...girl or boy. So I decided to go with bright fun colors that would POP! I chose lime green and bright blue.

I used 12 socks per bouquet, that's 6 pair each bouquet.

I went to the $1 store and bought the rest of the stuff I needed. I needed some greenery, a few other flowers to accent the vase, floral wire and tape, a vase, and that brown grassy stuff to put into the vase. Oh, yeah, Also needed to get wooden skewars.

Then you roll up all the socks to make them look like little rose buds. I made each one a bit differently, as if some "roses" were opening up and some were just buds.

Then get your wire...

I cut each bit of wire roughly 10 inches. I wanted to use just the wire, but it was way too flimsy. That's when I got the idea for the skewers! I gently put the skewers into baby socks and used some wire to wrap the sock to the skewer. then I added the floral tape.

As you can see from the pics above...I tried the wire at first, and by the time I was wrapping the floral wire, I was SOOOOO frustrated. So I had to improvise and use skewers. It worked much better for me. I didn't even take pictures of the skewers because I was crazy frustrated. I had to make 3 BOUQUETS!!!! So please forgive the lack of pics.
Then after wrapping the skewers, I set up the vase with the brown grassy stuff.

After adding the grass, I thought the skewers might fall around so I used the foam flower stuff that I had in the house.

Then I added the flowers.

Hi,

So this is my first post....I had the idea to blog about the transformation (slow) of our new home and all the little details I am putting into our new home and those that I plan to put into it. I did the upstairs bathroom and completely forgot to record the transformation. I never thought about taking pictures and recording it. Well, I guess it is better late than never, right?

Let's start slow...and small.

Faux Fancy Soaps!

I made this particularly for my guest bathroom, to get rid of the unsightly bar of soap. You can use this for gifts, presents, as welcoming gifts, etc.

So, in my guest bathroom, I call it the "Buddha Bathroom" because the inspiration was a Buddha head. Anyway, the bathroom has a soap dish that is pretty but the soap itself, never looks nice. I recently got "Irish-Spring" on sale and the bright blue just isnt working for me, especaily in an orange-red-brown bathroom! I went out on the hunt for a pretty soap, praying to find one with a "Zen" smell. Well, all i found were overpriced soaps. I did see a pretty wrapped soap that would work in the bathroom, but it was $6 !

For a BAR OF SOAP !! "Forget that," I thought. Instead I'll make it!

I wrapped a bar of soap with pretty paper and used jewlery wire and a few charms to decorate it.

First, I got a bar of soap. I used Ivory and I did not unwrap them (if you would like, unwrap it and just wrap the plain bar of saop). There are many other shapes and sizes of soaps that also work. I just had these on hand. For my powder room downstairs, I would like to do this with a bar of Dove Soap...its a pretty oval shape!
I picked a patterned paper that matched my bathroom motif... You can choose anything!!!!!!! OMG, the ideas and choices are limitless. I used scrapbook paper that had a Tibetan "feel" to it. You can use wrapping paper, handmade paper, fabric, tin foil, literally anything!

I use glue dots for lots of craft projects. They are amazing and unnoticable! That's what I like most about them. You can use tape with this, but i recommend glue dots, which can be bought at your local craft store. Either way, wrap the soap like a gift.

Just wrap the soap as if it were a present.

Then I used some wire I had from my jewelry making collection. You can use ribbon, wire, hemp, or twine. It will all depend on your style, the look you are trying to achieve, and of course, what is available to you. For me, wire worked best, and it is what i had on hand.

Am I the only one who has a pile of wire this messy?

Then wrap the bar of soap, again, as if it were the ribbon on a present. You can get as creative with your wrapping as you want. I have already planned to do anotehr soap for a friend. I plan to make a very intricate wire wrapping and beads...lots of seed beads! I plan to attach it to her gift, as a little extra!