Sunday, November 6, 2011

Thanksgiving Wreaths!!!

I cannot tell you how much school work I needed to do this weekend.....and instead pretended I was Martha Stewart. I can't help it that's my true ambition in life. Sometimes I wonder why I didn't just go to school to get an M.R.S. degree :)

So there are two different wreaths and neither one is very difficult.

Wreath #1: Fabric Wreath w/ Wire Hanger




    What you'll need:
    • Wire Hanger
    • Fabric in whatever colors you want
      • cut these into various widths but all should be about 7" long
      • I bought 2 yards of brown, and 1 yard each of red, orange, and yellow
      • This ended up making about 3 wreaths
    • Some ribbon
    • Tape       

   First: Undo your hanger until it's as straight as you can make it. Then bend it into a circle shape so the two ends overlap some. Then use some packing tape to secure the ends together. (You will hide this with ribbon later.)

   Second: Take a strip of the fabric and tie it in a knot around the wire and push it up to the tape. (I did one at a time on each side so that my pattern was roughly symmetrical all the way around.) For this particular wreath I did three brown strips then all the colors then three brown strips......all the way around. You can always replace some strips or just add ribbon as you go to give it a little bit of shine. 

   Third: As you go along make sure you are pushing the knots tightly together so your wreath is as full as possible!!!

   Fourth: Take some fat ribbon and wrap a couple inches over the tape to hide it. You can secure it with some tape or secure it with the large piece of ribbon you put over it to create a hanger. Hmm... this step sounds complicated and i'm not good at explaining it. You can really be as creative as you want with this step to hide the tape and to create your hanger. I used the brown ribbon to hide the tape and to secure it. Then I used colorful ribbon for a bow up top. 

   Fifth: You can add things like turkeys or leaves if you want anything to give your wreath a little flair! Just make it your own and have fun with it!


Wreath #2: Styrofoam and Tissue Paper!



    What you'll need:
    • 1 Styrofoam ring
    • Tissue paper in whatever colors you want
    • scissors or a knife
    • Glue
First: Cut up your tissue paper into 5x7" squares. I would cut up a bunch of these first so you can keep working without having to stop and start again.

Second: Using your scissors or knife, poke holes into the ring. I poked one hole at a time to make sure they were close enough together. You want the holes to be close enough to make the wreath full, but not so close it looks cramped. Mine ended up being 3/4 to 1" apart. 

Third: Fill the hole with glue. You can use elmer's glue or a glue gun. 

Fourth: Grab the tissue paper square from the center and fluff up the edges. I twisted the bottom part where I grabbed so it fit into the hole better.

Fifth: put the tissue into the glue filled hole and press down so it's firmly in there. Then fluff up the tissue paper that's sticking out!

You'll need to do the top of the ring and the outer edge. I didn't do the center because I might put it around a hurricane with a candle instead of hanging it. You could try doing the inner part of the ring, but if you use it as a wreath it might make it so full you can't even tell what it is!

I originally saw this DIY as a pink wreath for a girls room, so don't limit it just to Thanksgiving!!!

If you make one let me know how it goes!

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