Burlap Birthday Wreath: {guest post}

I am so excited today to have my first guest blogger. Jen is one talented lady that I met  through the "blogging world." I love her blog (that she designed herself), her crafts, and the way she writes. Lately She has been my go-to-gal for some great advice on blogging. Please go check out her blog, you wont regret it.


Hi!  My name's Jen and I blog over at Twiddler House.  I was so excited when Bridget asked me to stop by and share my birthday countdown wreath with all of you!  Thanks so much for having me, Bridget!


Since my boys' birthday is so close to Christmas, I'm always trying to come up with ways to make their day feel special - something to set it apart from all the other celebrations going on during the month.


I was inspired by Gallamore West's burlap wreath and decided to put my own little spin on it.  I turned ours into a burlap birthday countdown!


I started by following Laurie's basic wreath instructions (I used pipe insulation for the wreath form - so cheap! - and followed these tips for getting the shape to turn out right.  Thank you, Pinterest!)  Gotta say, it looked pretty sweet all on it's own on the back of our door...

Next, I took a bit of wood (found pre-cut at Hobby Lobby), painted it yellow, and drilled holes in the corners.  I slipped in some thin-gauge wire and curled it up a little at the ends to make it cute.  Then I glued on a little chalkboard and mod-podged on some lettering that I cut out of scarpbook paper using my Silhouette.

I put it all together and attached it to the wreath, to make it look like this...

That's when the real fun started.  Each day leading up to their birthday, I pinned on one balloon and wrote the number of days left on the chalkboard.  (I tied a little ribbon around each balloon, and made sure to pin through the ribbon so the balloon wouldn't be pierced.)  Since their birthday is toward the end of the month, this added up to a colorful, balloon-filled wreath!

I loved seeing the wreath fill up with color, and the boys really got into it with me, keeping track of how many days were left until they turned FIVE!






And the fun didn't stop there.  On the big day, The Old Man and I took off all the balloons, blew them up, and scattered them all over the floor, so that when my boys woke up, they were greeted by a whole room full of birthday balloons!

This was such a hit!  And it was so fun to see the wreath filling up day by day.  This is definitely the new birthday tradition at our house!  And I love that I can vary the colors of the balloons, depending on what the theme is for their birthday each year, just to mix it up a little.






As we were heading out the door for their big party, the boys made me write "0 days" on their countdown wreath. :) They were SO excited to be turning FIVE!