How to make an Easter wreath

You know you have a problem with procrastinating when you realise the fabric you bought and the wooden eggs you painted to make an Easter wreath have been sitting there for a couple of years and you still haven’t got round to making it! That was my reality this morning. I was looking on Instagram and saw a lovely floral wreath made by @justlaurajayne so I decided today was the day the wreath would be made.

I thought maybe some of you would be interested to see how I made it so I’ve put together a tutorial to show you what I did.

How to make an Easter wreath by RecklessHen

First get together all the supplies you will need. I used

• a wire wreath frame
• burlap ribbon or strips of burlap
• garden wire
• a selection of Easter decorations
• hot glue gun
• glue sticks
• a bow, or ribbon/fabric to make a bow

Easter wreath supplies by RecklessHen

For a 30cm wreath frame you will need about 18-20m of burlap ribbon, depending on how full you want your finished wreath to look. I didn’t have any burlap ribbon but I had quite a bit of burlap fabric so I cut it into 12 strips which were about 1.5m long and 6 inches wide.

Start by folding your burlap in quarters and threading a small length of garden wire through it and twisting to secure it. Then use the wire to attach the burlap to one of the spokes of the frame.

Begin pulling loops of the burlap up through the outer ring on the wreath frame. Next pull a loop up through the middle ring and then through inner ring.

Once you have done these three loops, twist the burlap firmly and work your way back up the wreath frame in the opposite direction, pulling loops of burlap through each segment in the wire frame. Continue doing this until you have all the frame filled.

Secure the end of the burlap to the wire frame in the same way as you did at the start, by threading garden wire through it and twisting round the frame.

Lay out your Easter decorations on top of the wreath until you are happy with how they look and then glue in place.

Easter Wreath by RecklessHen

Make a bow and glue it to the wreath, add a loop of garden wire on the back as a hanger and Hey Presto, it’s finished!

Easter wreath by RecklessHen

My wreath is finally hanging proudly on the door and I am off to put the rest of my Easter decorations up.

Happy Easter x

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First steps on Etsy

Today I have been designing new printables to go in the RecklessHen Etsy shop and it has been so much fun being back in the creative zone. I am happiest when I am doing anything creative, it relaxes me and creates a real feel good buzz. So after spending quite a few hours designing some prints and taking photos of them I logged on to Etsy to create the listings in the shop and my feel good mood quickly evaporated! I had completely underestimated the time it would take to get the listings done and how frustrating it would be to think I had finished only to find a mistake somewhere. After checking and rechecking a million times (Ok that’s a slight exaggeration but you get what I mean) I think I finally have them done correctly but I only managed to get 6 items uploaded. I am sure I will get quicker at it the more times I do it  – boy I hope so. If anyone has any advice on using Etsy efficiently I would love to hear from you.

Anyways, the first items are now in the shop so I declare it officially open and you can find it here. All the prints will be available in both printed and digital form so you can either print yourself at home or get a ready made print that you just need to pop in a frame and hey presto – new wall art. I love to change the decor in my home by adding a few new prints and some flowers and moving a few decorative pieces from room to room. Such simple, economical little tweaks can change the whole feel of a room without spending a fortune.

Here is a little peek at the new prints in the shop.

Grateful, thankful, blessed print from RecklessHen

Just breathe print from RecklessHen

Though she be but little print from RecklessHen

I would love to hear any advice on using Etsy.

Have a great weekend x

Mother’s Day round up and an Easter Freebie

With Mother’s Day looming how many people have forgotten to order their gifts in time for them to be delivered before Mother’s Day? I always do this whether it’s for birthdays, anniversaries, weddings etc. and I end up rushing to the shops and getting something that isn’t exactly what I wanted. So if that is you today then I thought I would do a quick round up of some of lovely, quick make at home gifts that would put a smile on any mum’s face.

First up is this sweet Crocheted Daffodil from Simply Crochet.

Crocheted Daffodil from Simply Crochet

You could crochet up a few of them to make a bunch or add a brooch pin on the back to make a cute brooch. What mum wouldn’t be delighted with that!

Next up is a bouquet of Map Roses from Pillar Box Blue.

Map Roses from Pillar Box Blue

If you don’t have any old maps these would look just as good on pages from an old book or on scrapbooking papers.

Or what about Mother’s Day in a Jar from Hello Splendid.

Mother’s Day in a Jar from Hello Splendid

What a great way to pamper your mum, giving her lots of her favourite little treats in a pretty jar that she can use as storage afterwards.

If your mum likes to sew how about making this cute little Teacup Pincushion from Pins and Needles.

Teacup Pincushion from Pins and Needles

You could use some fabric from a favourite old blouse or dress, or from clothes that the grand-kids have grown out of to make this gift extra special.

Lastly, if you like to bake how about making this yummy Rose and Dark Chocolate Shortbread from Waitrose.

Rose & Dark Chocolate Shortbread from Waitrose

Add some pretty packaging to make a gorgeous handmade gift.

There are loads more fabulous ideas on Pinterest for quick and easy Mother’s Day gifts to make, but I warn you that you may end up spending so much time looking at all the great ideas that you don’t actually get the time to make anything (I speak from experience here lol).

Finally, with Easter just around the corner I thought I would make a cute Easter themed freebie for you. I love to add to my seasonal decor with printables because they are such a quick way to change things up a bit. Please remember that our Easter printable is Free for Personal Use only.

Easter Printable from RecklessHen

The printable will fit in an A4 frame and you can download it here.

Free Easter printable from RecklessHen

If you like our printable please Pin it and if you use it we’d love to know.

Why not follow us on Facebook or Instagram too we would love to see you there 🙂

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mums out there.

Spotty Dottie font goes global

We are so excited to be able to tell you that our Spotty Dottie font is now available on dafont.com. Spotty Dottie is available free for Personal Use. If you are interested in our Commercial Licence please email us for details.

Spotty Dottie font by RecklessHen (free for Personal Use only)

Free Autumn printable

I just love the colours of Autumn – the reds, browns, greens, golds and oranges that seem to speak of cosiness and warmth and evenings indoors wrapped up on the sofa. I love the crisp cooler air that means it’s time to put on a sweater and get out the wool to knit or crochet a new scarf and hat. I love the crunching sound of leaves under my feet and sitting in front of the fire at night with a crocheted blanket on my lap and lots of candles dancing on the walls around the room. I love how my cooking changes as the days get cooler and the salads and barbecues of summer change to soups, stews and hearty casseroles to warm and nourish. I love getting out my recipe books and planning crumbles, pies and delicious treats to make use of all the amazing fruits of the season. I have many happy memories of coming home from school to be met with the smell of freshly baked apple pies and scones just out of the oven. In Autumn more than other seasons I find that the smell and taste of food evoke childhood memories.

Free Autumn printable from RecklessHen

At this time of year, I love to decorate the house with a few bits and bobs that bring the Autumn indoors. I try to find a new piece to add to the collection each year, this year it was some silk leaves in fabulous Autumn shades. I also made an Autumn themed printable to frame and put on the table in the hallway. I was so pleased with it that I thought it would be a nice freebie to giveaway so you can download it from the link at the bottom.  It is designed to be A4 size but I trimmed mine to fit an 8 x 10 frame as I found a lovely red frame hidden away in a cupboard that I had put away ‘somewhere safe’ and forgot about.

Free Autumn printable from RecklessHen.

Our Autumn wordart printable is Free for Personal Use only.

You can download it HERE.

We hope you like it and can use it in your home, we’d love to see a picture if you do.

Leave a comment if you have an idea for a free printable you would like to see on our blog and don’t forget to follow us for updates.

Playing with Fonts (and a freebie)

So this week I have been playing around with creating my own fonts. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while but didn’t know where to start. Thanks to a fab course I did on Skillshare I was able to give it a go. So armed with my ipad Pro and my apple pencil I got stuck in and had so much fun. My first two creations were OK but need more work so I will come back to them another day and tidy them up for sharing, but my next two fonts were much better and I am really pleased with them. They aren’t professional by any means but I think they are fun and kinda quirky. The first one I call Spotty Dottie. When I am writing signs and posters I often do letters like this with dots on the ends so I thought it would be fun to turn it into a font and it would save me alot of time.

The second one I call For the Love of Zebras for no reason other than it has stripes in the capitals and it made me think of zebras.

If you would like a copy of either of these the links are below and they are free for personal use, feel free to pin and share. If you use them I’d love you to leave me a comment. If you have ever thought of creating your own fonts I definitely think you should go for it. They may not be perfect but you will enjoy the process and learn loads.

Spotty Dottie ttf

For the Love of Zebras ttf

Ta Dah! I give you the Vintage Granny

As promised yesterday we have been busy writing up the pattern for the Vintage Granny blanket. This is a great stash buster project to use up all your leftover yarn and make room for new, yarny delights. Our colour inspiration came from the leftover colours we had after making the Attic24 Hydrangea blanket with the addition of two others. It is a very vintage inspired colour palette but you can use whatever yarn you have to hand, or use it as an excuse to buy more.

Vintage Granny Square from RecklessHen

The Granny Square pattern we used was from a tutorial on The Patchwork Heart blog. Her instructions are very easy to follow and there are very detailed pictures to help you every step of the way. We decided to add in some solid blocks of colour which we haven’t really used in a blanket before but thought it would help bring the colours out more and shake it up a little. For joining our squares we used The Patchwork Heart’s Continuous Join As You Go method and again, there are loads of pictures on there to help you. For our border we chose a Linen Stitch edging which you can find on Attic24. Both The Patchwork Heart and Attic24 are fantastic resources for crocheters. They provide loads of inspiration and very detailed tutorials and as crocheters, we can’t thank them enough for how generous they are with their time and knowledge.

The colour sequences we used and the layout of the squares can be found in the download of our pattern Vintage Granny by RecklessHen. As I’ve said before we don’t do random well so there is actually a pattern in the colour sequences of the squares, can you find it? Heather worked out the sequence and I must admit she had to explain it to me so well done to anyone who can see it.

If you use the pattern we would love to see your finished blankets and if you want to keep up to date with our free patterns and downloads you can follow us on our blog, on Facebook and on Instagram .

Vintage Granny Square from RecklessHen

Vintage Granny Square from RecklessHen

Vintage Granny Square from RecklessHen

A pleasant way to spend the day

Today has been lovely so far. This morning we went to one of our favourite breakfast spots, General Merchants. They do a great selection of slightly unusual breakfasts and today we both opted for Elvis and a latte. I can wholeheartedly recommend Elvis and not just because I am a fan of its namesake. In this case, the Elvis in question consists of toasted sourdough, back bacon, banana and Meridian almond butter. It was delicious and very moreish. Then it was off back to Casa Hezza (a.k.a Heather’s house) to get some photos of our Vintage Granny blanket and to start to write up the pattern so we can share it with you. The Vintage Granny started life as a way to use up some of the ever growing stash of our favourite Stylecraft Special DK. We have so much extra yarn, in every colour imaginable that it was hard to choose but Heather knew she wanted to create a blanket that had a vintage vibe to it and used some of the colours from the Attic24 Hydrangea blanket. She soon whittled the hoard down to nine scrumptious shades and set about deciding what to make. Should it be a stripey blanket, a ripple, a granny square or something else? After many hours deliberation, and quite a few glorious detours via pinterest, she decided that the Granny Square from The Patchwork Heart would be perfect. If you haven’t found the beautiful patterns on The Patchwork Heart blog you really need to pop over and have a peek, they are fabulous. We took loads of photos of the blanket and really hope you like the colours. Surprisingly we have since discovered that Heather chose the same shades as those in The Patchwork Heart Vintage pack so just goes to show great minds think alike. Heather is the vintage loving half of RecklessHen whereas I am more of a brights girl but I do love the muted, almost faded effect of these colours together. I will write up the pattern and colour sequences and post them tomorrow.

Vintage Granny Square from RecklessHen

Vintage Granny Square from RecklessHen

Vintage Granny Square from RecklessHen

Vintage Granny Square from RecklessHen

Vintage Granny Square from RecklessHen

Vintage Granny Square Colours from RecklessHen

Vintage Granny Square Colours from RecklessHen

A girl with a plan(ner)

I spent last week tearing my hair out trying to get to grips with my Silhouette Cameo cutting machine. I got it for my birthday last year because I really wanted to make my own planner stickers, but it has been sitting forlornly in its box on a shelf ever since. Things keep coming up and I just haven’t got round to learning how to use it yet and I was finding it really frustrating. So last Monday I decided that this was the day that I would master the Silhouette Cameo. I thought that in a few hours I would be printing and cutting lots of lovely new stickers to go in my Erin Condren Life Planner. Boy was I wrong! I connected up the machine and linked it to my computer via Bluetooth (see how techie I am lol) with no problems. I got the software running and started to design my first set of stickers and that is where it all went wrong. I am used to using Photoshop and Photoshop Elements but this software was just not doing what I wanted it to do at all. After many, many hours and more than a little name calling, I finally had a page of stickers. I printed them out on my computer and they looked fine but when I put them through the Cameo the cut lines were going through the middle of the stickers. I checked on the screen again, everything looked fine, I could see the cut lines and they were not in the wrong place so I printed them out and tried again, and again, and again (I’m sure you are getting the picture). By this stage I was extremely stressed, more tense than the most tightly coiled spring on earth, and more than a little bad tempered. I’m sure if you asked my hubby or kids they would agree wholeheartedly. I finally worked out that the problem was that the registration marks you have to set were ever so slightly out and it was completely ruining my stickers, sheet after sheet after sheet of sticker paper was going in the bin. Eventually, on Friday, my son appeared and within no time at all he had sorted it out. So five days of temper tantrums and stress later and I can now print and cut my own stickers. Yay go me 🙂

My first sticker sheet is very simple, nothing fancy, but I thought I would give it away as a freebie anyway.  You can print the PDF file on to an A4 sticker sheet and cut the stickers out with scissors, or you can just print on to A4 copier paper and then cut out and glue the stickers in to your planner. If you have a Silhouette Cameo you may even be able to import the pdf and print and cut it but I have no idea how to do that yet. Any advice on using the Cameo would be very, very gratefully received.

Now that I have got the hang of basic rectangular stickers I will move on to other shapes and see how I get on and hopefully I won’t be turning the air blue!

Cupcakes & Cocktails planner stickers PDF

 

A little crochet humour

I have been missing for a week or two as I have been planning a new venture and there don’t seem to be enough hours in the day for everything I want to get done with the result that I have neglected the blog and I am very frustrated with myself. I think I really need to plan my time better. Thank goodness for my Erin Condren Life Planner or who knows if anything would ever get done. On a positive note, I am really enjoying being part of the Makelight membership and learning and connecting with so many other amazingly creative people. Although I am way behind on the courses I get lots of inspiration from the photos and blog posts of other members and I am constantly in awe of their creativity and drive. It has definitely made me up my game when it comes to my Instagram photos which have really improved over the last three months. Here are a few of my favourites from May.

I’ve also been trying to keep up with my crocheting and I am on row 64 of my Attic24 Hydrangea blanket so I am three-quarters of the way through it and I LOVE it. I think this will definitely be my favourite blanket so far. Even though I know I shouldn’t start another project, I confess that I am doing the Vintage Sweethearts CAL in Crochet Now magazine. I am not using the wool recommended, instead I just matched the colours to my favourite Stylecraft Special DK colours and am using up some of my yarn stash. And as if two projects on the go aren’t enough I also got the beautiful Primavera blanket pattern by Debbie Bliss on Yarn Shop Day and have started that too.

Heather (the Hen from RecklessHen) has made up a pattern to use up her yarn stash and it is so gorgeous. She is calling it the Vintage Granny and once she finishes it she will write it up and we will put it on the blog. I know you will really love it. Here is a sneak peek.

And finally, as a wee treat, here is a free crochet humour printable to download. It is 6 x 4 so it goes in a standard frame. I printed mine out on glossy photo paper but inkjet paper would be just as good.

Clicker here to download.

What are you working on at the moment?