Eden's Christmas Gift

Okay, so I've been waiting since October to be able to share with people what I gave to my niece for Christmas this year!  She'll be 5 months old this week, so it's not like she can truly appreciate this gift.  BUT, it is something that she can love for a very long time [at least that's my hope :)].

So, this gift originated from my love for Pinterest - does this surprise anyone? HA!

I found some yarn-wrapped letters here, and the idea was born!  It's an etsy shop, but I didn't want to just buy the letters - I wanted to make them!  I wanted to create something for her.  Little did I know, back when I started this project, that it takes FOREVER to wrap things in yarn.  This is something I learned on Thanksgiving Day, with my yarn-wrapped wreath, but, again, I started this little project for Eden in October!

Okay, so here's how it went down:

I saw the post on Pinterest that led me to that Etsy shop.  I thought to myself, "Hmmm. That's kinda friggin' adorable.  I'm gonna do that for Eden. Let's go get supplies, self!"

So, off I went to Hobby Lobby. **Sigh, I love that store.**

The supplies I bought:

- Chipboard letters - E-D-E-N ($1.99 a piece)
- Yarn - I bought pink, not expensive
- Felt
- Hot glue gun (no I did not have one prior to this...this blog is called craft ROOKIE for a reason, ya'll!)
- Extra hot glue sticks

Things I should have also bought, but, sadly, did not:

- Bandaids
- Burn Cream

Alright, then I started wrapping. I'll show you the process with the letter "N" as in "Now let's get started" or "No, I don't think this project will take that long to complete" or "Na-na-na-na, Hey, Hey, Hey, GOODBYYYE!"

So, to start wrapping, I hot glued the end of the yarn on to the back of the letter.  Then, I just kept wrapping in straight lines.

Once I got both vertical pieces of the "N" done, I did the cross-section. I only did the part of the cross section that could be done before I ended up hitting the vertical sections with my yarn.

Then, I started wrapping in the opposite direction - horizontally.  This is HUGELY important. Every section of the letter should be wrapped twice - once each direction, horizontal AND vertical.  If not, you end up with some pretty major gaps where the chipboard shows through.

Just keep wrapping...
                    and wrapping...
                                and wrapping...

                                             and wrapping....
                                                        and wrapping...
                                                                   and wrapping... :)

The last section I worked with was the cross section, again.  I just wrapped around that center piece once more to cover up the other layers that all converged on this section of the letter.

Okay, once you've got the letters wrapped...then comes the embellishments (aka the "decorations").

We'll go in letter order this time :)

"E" for Eden!

Here's the first "E" before the extra love was added..

This is the flower that I ultimately put on the "E"...

 

Here's how to make it:

1. Cut out 3 different size circles with curved edges all around. 

 2. Hot glue them together in a stack.

 3. Add a button of any color.

4. Glue the final product on to the letter.

 

5. Make as many as you'd like.  Glue them on, too!

"D" for Den!

Here's the "D" before the pretty additions...

 

Here's the flower I put on the "D"...

Here's how to make it:

1. Cut out a REALLY big circle...or do your best to make it a circle.  I'm not exactly a "Measure twice. Cut once." kind of girl :)

2. Cut in a spiral pattern, starting from the outside towards the center like so:

 3.  Start from the center of the spiral that you cut, and wind it around itself.  Hot glue at every point! Remember, though, "A dot of glue is a lot of glue!"

4. Add button(s) and glue it on to the letter...

5. Add as many flowers as you'd like with the same pattern.

"E" for EN!

Here's another photo of the "E" before the pretty stuff...

 

Here's what the "E" looked like when I was done...

 

Here's how to make the flower:

1. Cut out 6 leafs - exactly the same.  To do this, I cut out my first one, then used it as a stencil to cut out the others.

2. Glue them in a pinwheel pattern

3. Add a button in the center, and glue it on to the letter...

4. The rosette flower was something I made a while ago. My "How To" can be seen here.

"N" for, well, N!

Okay, so I don't have a photo of the "N" when it was done getting wrapped and before the pretty-ness, but here's a photo of it all wrapped but with one little addition...

Here's what it looked like when it was all done and such...

Here's how to make the pretty things...

1. Cut out small circles - a lot of them.  I did 6 of each color.

2. Take the circle... and fold it in half...

 3. Then, fold it in half again, and hot glue it in the center to hold it that way FOREVER :)

 4. Repeat this step for all of the mini circles that you cut out. Then, glue them on to your letter as you'd like! Be careful not to burn yourself on this one.  I think I burnt my fingers about 5 times...you would think that I would have learned after the first time!

 Now, sit back, and observe your beautiful creation :) 

Then, wrap it up, and give it to your cute little niece to unwrap...

And take pictures of her cute little self with the letters!

How cute is she???

a happy aunt,

the craft rookie