Celebrating Rivalry Week: Stained Glass Rivalry Panels

It's that time again. That magical time of year when friends become enemies almost instantaneously. For me it's not so much the friendships that magically disappear for a couple of hours: it's my marriage.

Yes, that's right. I, a BYU Cougar, married a Ute fan. I know, I know, it sounds crazy, but it seems to be working (except on Rivalry Day, of course ;) ).

Okay no, it's really not all that bad. To be honest, I'm not very big into the whole rivalry thing no matter what team it is. Don't get me wrong, I love my Cougars, but I'd rather spend my time watching the game in the background than being on the front lines battling with the rest of the crowd.

But regardless of your team preference (or distance from the battle), there's one thing we can all agree on: a good game. That's why Aaron and I decided to celebrate together—in style!

Check these babies out: stained glass Utah and BYU logos. These were so fun to make but it tends to be pretty pricey and time-consuming. Totally worth it though! They are beautiful, decorative, and totally unique.

You can't really tell cause mine is so dark but the blue is translucent like the red in the "U"

Aaron's "U." This came out to be about 8"x8" ish.

And my "Y." This one came out to be about 7"x11" ish...

And you can have one too! These, and other team designs are individually hand-crafted and make great gifts. Comment if you're interested and I'll give you the details. Or just comment and tell me what you think! :)

Halloween Wreath

Hello again! It's been a while since I last posted but it's been a crazy few weeks at school for both Aaron and I. Despite all of the craziness however, I somehow found the time to put together a really cute, easy, and fairly reasonably-priced craft I thought I'd share.

Some of you may know of my recent fascination with Pinterest. My sister-in-law, Koloni, showed me some fun ideas she'd found there and introduced me about a week ago. I think it's fair to say I've been amazed by the clever ideas on this site more over the last 7 days than I have probably been in my entire life. Seriously, simple, creative concepts I would never in a million years have thought of! In fact, I'm a little afraid that my blog will end up turning into a craft blog but I'll try my best not to let that happen. ;) Anyway, I ended up making this really cute Halloween wreath made from strips of Halloween fabric. It's a little time consuming, but it keeps your hands busy and it's lots of fun!

Monday night I went to Joann's and got everything I would need. I ended up getting a total of 2 yards of fabric in 6 different patterns (1/3 yard [or 1 foot] of each). They were all anywhere from 30-50% off so they cost me less than $2 each. The paint and sponge brush were super cheap (less than $1 together) and the wooden letters were $1 each and each package came with two letters. I was going to go with "Boo" but the store was out of "O" so I went with "Eek". The wire wreath was originally $2.49 but I found it online for $.75 and they matched the price. :)

Here's how it works:

1. Start by cutting your fabric into strips. I didn't have a good way of measuring because I don't have a rotary cutter or mat so I settled for folding the fabric in half length-wise and cutting the fold, then folding in half again, cutting the fold, and then folding in thirds and cutting the folds so I ended up with 12 long strips of fabric. I then did the same thing with the long strips folding them in half "hamburger style" and then half again and cutting the folds so I ended up with 96 strips per fabric. They ended up being roughly 5.5" x 1"

2. Tie your fabric strips around your wire wreath in random order. I tied mine around the two inner most rings and then the two outer most rings rather than each ring individually. Once I'd tied 5 or 6 I took another strip and tied it around the middle of them to group them all together and add a little texture and volume.

3. Paint your letters. The tutorial I saw had connected the letters to the wreath by creating hooks out of bobby pins and hot gluing them to the wreath. I decided to take a different approach and hang my letters in the middle of the wreath with fishing wire.

There you go! Enjoy your super fun and easy decoration for Halloween. :) More to come!