Hot Glue… Friend or Foe?

I am a relatively new hot glue gun user. {I just bought my first one last Christmas after being inspired by Thrifty Decor Chick.}

I know enough to know that it works awesome for DIY projects, AND it hurts like a mother when you ~~take off your second layer of skin~~ burn yourself with it.

Last year I attempted one of TDC’s projects of wrapping ribbon around a candle for a quick and cheap festive look. However, at the time I had no glue gun so I tried the NC redneck solution of duct tape. As much as I thought duct tape could hold just about everything, sadly it did not hold my ribbon. I continued a constant cycle of it falling and me sticking it back together.

This year armed with my ~~weapon~~ glue gun I went ribbon crazy. :)

First, my new and improved ribbon candles…

Also did these variations too…

The snowflakes are actually crocheted ornaments I got from Oriental Trading last year. I just cut off the string and hot glued ‘em on there. Just a tip… don’t try applying the hot glue directly on the candle. It will melt.

Love how these turned out. I think these would make great hostess or teacher gifts… a good combo of homemade and cheap, but also fabulous! :)

I also broke out the gun to embellish some other things with beautimous ribbon…

Our Christmas Candy Cane Countdown… Got this for a buck last year at Mighty Dollar. Love me some Mighty Dollar. You can’t really tell in the pic, but it’s about 2.5 feet tall. I hung it with a thumb tack and then hot glued the purty bow on top.

I added a festive bow to this candle holder filled with ornaments for some added pizzazz…

…. and a ribbon wrapped around this hurricane filled with balls…

The mother of all DIY projects for me this year and maybe ever was TDC’s ornament wreath!

I posted about this last year, but never attempted it.

It really wasn’t all that difficult but did take some time with a glue gun which was tricky for me since that meant trying to get this done during both my little boys’ naptimes.

One big piece of advice everyone mentioned was hot gluing the hooks on the balls so they wouldn’t fall off once you had them on the wreath. Well, I was working with two different kinds of ornaments, and the more expensive ones just were a PAIN to get off. Seriously I don’t know HOW those babies would’ve come off on their own, but I listened to the advice given by THREE different people who had made the wreath. Even though prying those things off was murder and actually gave me a nice sized blister on the side of my poor little finger. :( I debated trying to take a picture of my wound to garnish some sympathy, but lucky for you I decided against it.

Bending the hanger into a circle was harder than I thought and ohmyword trying to bend and twist it closed at the end was insanely ridiculous. And I thought I got the cheapest, thinnest hanger ever.

I hung it over my mirror with some fabulous red ribbon and a thumb tack and did the ‘hot gluing the bow on top of the thumb tack’ thing again.

I honestly can’t believe I actually made this. I love how it looks with the mirror and the ribbon. Love, love, love it!

This was a ZERO out of pocket project since I used leftover ornaments and ribbon I already had! Wahoo! Can’t beat free! Well, that is, if you don’t count my war wound.

Haylee did kind of crash my euphoria with her observation of ‘Wow, it looks like you made that.’