A Fish Who Likes Flowers: sisal rope

Two of the greatest friends I have, Brad and Naomi, are going to be having a baby girl in a few weeks!

Naomi is decorating the nursery with a touch of a cowgirl theme and showed me a beautiful wall hanging made of rope that spells out the baby's name. However, to order one that spells out Abigail, the name they've chosen, would be almost 250 dollars!!!

Crazy, right?

So I decided to make one of my own as part of my baby shower gift.

It might not look exactly the same as the original, but I think it turned out pretty darn cute!

I started out shaping some metal wire into the outline of the name Abigail.

Then I heated up my glue gun, Debra and went to work hot gluing sisal rope over the wire outline. When I had all the wire covered, I went over the rope with a layer of mod podge to keep the rope from unfraying.

The other part of my gift was my second baby blanket, that I knitted using Bernat Baby Blanket yarn. The yarn was a variegated pattern of pink, orange and fuchsia. I didn't realize it, but ABF pointed out when I was about half way done that it kind of looked like pink camouflage, which was not my intention at all, but was very fitting for this family.

Naomi was pretty thrilled that I remembered the rope name, which she'd kind of given up on and was excited about the baby blanket as well!

I can't wait to meet their new little one, I'm sure I'm going to love her as much as I love her parents!

I'm sharing this project at the following link parties:

~ The Cure for the Common Monday @ Lines Across My Face ~ Make It Great Monday @ Etcetorize ~ Tutorials & Tips @ Home Stories From A to Z ~ Talent Tuesday @ Vintage Wanna Bee ~ Craft & Tell @ Cherished Bliss ~ Tuesday Talent Show @ Chef In Training ~ Take-A-Look Tuesday @ Sugar Bee Crafts ~ Tell Me Tuesday @ Me And My Boys ~ Show Me What Ya Got @ Not Just A Housewife ~ {Wow Me} Wednesday @ Ginger Snap Crafts ~ Your Whims Wednesday @ My Girlish Whims ~ Lil Luna Link Party @ Lil' Luna ~ Share The Wealth Wednesday @ Laugh, Love & Craft ~ Wicked Awesome Wednesday @ Handy Man Crafty Woman ~ Show & Share @ Southern Lovely ~ Transformation Thursdays @ The Shabby Creek Cottage ~ Creative Juice Thursday @ Momnivore's Dilemma ~ T.G.I.F. Linky Party @ Craft Junkie Too ~ BFF Open House Link Party @ The Answer Is Chocolate ~ Free For All @ Young And Crafty ~ Weekend Wrap Up Party @ Tatertots & Jello ~ Whatcha Got Weekend @ Lolly Jane Boutique ~ Strut Your Stuff Saturday Link Party @ Six Sisters' Stuff ~ Show and Tell Saturday @ Be Different Act Normal ~ Weekend Bloggy Reading @ Serenity Now ~ Saturday Seven @ Positively Splendid ~ Sundae Scoop Link Party @ I {heart} Naptime ~ Sister Sunday Link Party @ Sisters of the Wild West ~

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Do You Think It Was Worth The Rope Burn?

Two of my good friends, Jaime and Joe, are FINALLY getting married after 12 years of togetherness. (Although how she put him with him for that long, I'll never know...j/k...sorta)

I was originally asked to be a bridesmaid in the wedding and was honored that they wanted me to be a part of their big day. However, after Amazing Boyfriend was diagnosed with cancer, Jaime and I had a conversation and I decided to graciously back out because we didn't know at the time how ABF was going to do with treatment, or if we were even going to be able to attend the wedding at all. However, they are still good friends and have been wonderful and supportive of both me and ABF through all of this. So I had to make them something awesome for their wedding gift.

Jaime and Joe's style is simply country. They have horses (and cows, chickens, and rabbits...oh my!), and are buying their first home where they'll finally be able to have their animals at home. They got engaged at the rodeo. The groomsmen at their wedding will be wearing cowboy hats and boots. Just to give you an idea of what I'm talking about.

Since they are buying their first home, I wanted to make them something that they could use to decorate their new space.

Pretty cool, huh?

Wanna see how I did it?

Supplies:
large mirror with flat frame
sisal rope (amount depends on frame)
glue gun
embellishments
craft paint (optional)

I was so excited when I found this mirror at Goodwill, when I went there to get mason jars. It had a flat frame that was a little nicked here and there, but was perfect for this project because I was going to be covering it anyway.

So I started this project by taking covering the mirror, to make sure I didn't get glue all over the mirror, while I was gluing on the rope. If you are not a messy crafter (like me) or can remove the mirror while you work on it, you can skip this step.

Next, I just started gluing. I know that doesn't sound like much, but it's what I did. I decided instead of cutting the pieces, that I'd try to do one continuous piece that wrapped all over the mirror. But you could cut it, so that the corners are angled and come together to make a neat pattern. I used 1 package of 1/2" x 50 ft. of sisal and had plenty left over.

I decided to add embellishments to the corners. Since I was going for a western theme, I took wooden horseshoe cutouts that I got from Michael's and painted them with metallic craft paint. I attached them at each corner of the mirror. But you could easily add seashells or other nautical shapes, strips of leather or other embellishments for a different look.

Then I uncovered the mirror, cleaned all the fingerprints off, and tried to get a decent picture (which is a lot harder then it sounds, I hate photographing mirrors!)