Gluing my life (and fingers) together....

I've never been one to craft for every season, occasion, or event I come across. I’ve always been more of a ‘fly by the seat of my pants, create when the inspiration hits’ type.

Today those two things managed to find each other in the form of a lovely easter/springtime wreath.

The whole procedure actually started a few days ago, when I came across this lovely little idea from Alissa, via my new favourite site, Pinterest (seriously, get Pinterest!!!). I knew I really wanted to try these embroidery floss covered eggs, especially since a similar endeavour failed miserably (mostly because I used completely the wrong materials, but that’s a whole other story).

So off I went to the dollar store and I bought my supplies. I had a few of the items already at home, but I brought them all together to start this sticky wonderful mess:

Yes, that is a Whiskey/Soda in the background 

• Water bomb balloons
• Embroidery floss
• Fabric Stiffener - I use Stiffy Fabric Stiffener, and yes it is a hilarious name!
• White Glue
• Vasaline - or any Petroleum Jelly of course
• A paint brush
• A plastic cup
• Pins
• Cork or styrofoam (or something to stick the pins in)
• Wax paper

I (of course) prepared my work area, had the wax paper over the cork (my cork placemats), and mixed my glue and fabric stiffener together in my plastic cup.

The mixture is about ⅔ glue, ⅓ fabric stiffener. It should be just a bit thicker than cream. 

Vaseline covered balloons... Mmm

Blow up the balloons, and tie them off. I made them all different sizes because I figured there was no way I’d get them all the same size, and that would piss me off more.

I pinned the balloons to the cork board through the wax paper, and obviously through the end of the balloons. Well okay one I screwed up and popped the balloon accidently, right next to my dogs face.

Next I cleaned up after my dog and his weak bladder.

Coat the balloons in Vaseline, and as with most uses of vaseline, you can’t really use too much, can you?

Once all your balloons are prepared, unwrap the embroidery floss (and I strongly suggest you unwrap it first, since there’s no guarantee the floss isn’t already a little knotted, and knotted gluey thread isn’t fun for anyone.)

Dip the floss in the glue mixture and use the paintbrush to push it in.

Don’t dip it all in! HOLD ONTO THE END! Trust me, if you lose the end, give up then. Life and this craft are not worth finishing if you lose the end!

To serious? Sorry, Okay... life is worth it, and the whole craft is probably gonna make it, but give up hope of keeping that particular floss colour. It’s lost forever... just let it go.

Pull the floss out of the glue mixture and squish out the majority of the glue off the thread. Don’t hold onto it like your life depended on it... Give it more of a loving feel... It’s delicate, don’t hurts its feelings. You want there to be some glue left on the floss.

The rest is pretty easy. Wrap the balloons. Go any way you want! You can have patterns, but as you saw I chose the somewhat more insane look. Think schizophrenic cat with a ball of gluey yarn!

I let the ‘eggs’ dry for at least 12 hours, over night and I made sure to rotate them in the morning, about a half hour before I popped the balloons. Pop them with the pins and then you see your real results.
Some of the balloons still have a bit of ‘spring in their step’ and pop with authority, and others collapsed in a creepy slowly dying kinda way. It was disturbing.




The finished ‘eggs’ are really great, and I found they could be easily used in a centre piece or random decoration for spring.

I of course knew my work was not yet done, and I had more to do. 

I covered a wreath frame in strips of light green felt (1½” x 3½”), layering them around the wreath. I hot glued them on, my favourite technique, and I actually put into use an awesome lifehack I saw the other day.

This particular tip said to put Vaseline on the tip of your hot glue gun to prevent the long strings of glue. Since I already had the Vaseline right there, I figured why not. It actually works quite well. Since my trusty glue gun has been with me for many a year already, I still had a few stringy bits, but I figure on a new (or cleaner) glue gun, it would work quite well.

After the frame was covered, all that was left to do was artfully place the eggs on the wreath and glue them in place. I held the eggs in place while the glue cooled and solidified, to make sure they were in exactly the place I wanted. No eggs outta place on my watch! I also glued the eggs to each other for added stability.

Here’s the finished result, and I love it!

So spring-y and bright! It can also doubles as a table centerpiece with a pillar candle.

I'd love to see your endeavors, and hear your comments about mishaps with glue! I have a few eggs left over, so be sure to check back and see what else I come up with.


Happy Crafting!


       designing a life covering glue, that makes me smile
                   Anna Felicity