Thanksgiving crafting FAIL!

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 Alright fellow readers, I have to admit something to you. One thing that kinda bugs me about the blogging world is that it is very easy to get caught up in what I call the blogging race. You feel like you have to keep up with what everyone else is doing, and what they are doing seems SO perfect.  They're doing Halloween crafts when you're still celebrating the 4th of July.  Their recipes always look and turn out amazingly, and they have 10,000 followers supporting them all the way. 

Well, my sister and I really feel that we are just ordinary, stay- at- home moms who love to craft, and we use the blog as a way of sharing that with you. When Valerie asked me if I wanted to join her she emphasized that I should only create things that I want to create and share, not to make something just to make it. I always keep that in mind when selecting my projects.SOOOO... I really wanted to make a Thanksgiving centerpiece for the adult's table. I mean, we spent so much time on the kid's table that ours just couldn't be plain! While wandering through Hobby Lobby looking for butcher paper and plastic wine glasses, I found this tree form that immediately screamed centerpiece to me.

Sorry, the picture's a little crooked

I knew right away that I wanted to add felt rosettes all around the top and then do something (i hadn't figured it out just yet) with the bottom. I quickly got to work cutting out what seemed like a million rosettes, rolling them, gluing them together, and then I was ready to plaster them allover the tree top. I got the first few on and was super pleased with how it was turning out until....I didn't have enough rosettes! And what's worse, I got that felt in Korea so I wasn't going to be able to just buy some more. I had a complete mental block on the whole thing so I decided to work on the other part of the adult's table. This one was so simple that I could just get it done and get back to the centerpiece.
At least, I thought it was simple.

I picked up 8 candles from the dollar store to spell the word THANKFUL with some easy paper cutouts. I measured and cut 8 rectangles to make the bands to go around the candles, and then went to pick a font for my letters. Now, you have to know that I have hundreds of fonts that I have downloaded onto my computer. While scrolling through my choices I saw a nice bold font. I thought to myself, 'Hey! This font has some cool designs on the insides of the letters. I haven't been able to use it before and this will be the perfect project for it!'  I typed up the word THANKFUL, cut it out on some cute paper, and upon peeling it off of the mat it dawned on me what sort of design was really inside the letters.
 Ummm....  yes, I am THANKFUL that I live in Colorado, but not THAT kind of thankful! Ack! I had completely failed on my two thanksgiving projects! My husband even joked about keeping the marijuana/weed letters as a way of welcoming Valerie's family to Colorado, but I knew they had to go.
So what does a true crafter do? Give up? I certainly wanted to. Time is a crunching and I had just wasted a whole day, and a lot of materials. So I drove over to Michael's for some more hot glue sticks and inspiration. Nothing. I came home still not sure what to do. The next day I pored over my felt stash and decided to add a few more colors and hope to keep the same color scheme and idea. I didn't want to use different textures of felt, but it wasn't going to happen any other way.
How do you think she turned out?
 So this post isn't completely depressing, I'll give you a little tutorial if you want to make something similar.  First, cut out 3 inch circles of your desired fabric, and cut a spiral into them.
Roll them up starting with the smallest point, and use a hot glue gun on the bottom to hold it all together. It turns out I need about 75 of these, instead of the original 36.

 Then just hot glue them all over your styrofoam ball.  I just put them on in whatever way pleased me, added some scrapbooking pearl stickers, painted the bottom with acrylic paint, and added a bow. I think it will compliment our Thanksgiving dinner spread nicely!
Oh, and I did come back and finish those candles with a 'simpler' font.

 I guess I wanted to share all this with you because even us bloggers fail. I am human and still want to craft for you if you'll let me :)   Connect with us! You can find us here: