Happy December everyone! Are you ready for the onslaught of holiday cheer? Me too.
I don't know about you, but I get all goose-bumpy with the ideas of crafts, cookies, gift wrapping, icicles, and having a perfectly good excuse to act giddy and cheery all month long. True, some people may look at you strangely from the corner of their eye and mumble something about "bah, humbug", but just throw some tinsel around their neck and wish them a Merry Christmas (Happy Hanukkah, Merry Winter, Happy Shopping, etc.) and one can't help but feel a bit more festive. With that said, I've been thinking about fun decorations and gifts to make on the cheap. Wreaths are always a good idea. I can't think of anything more festive that would work for any holiday. And the great thing about wreaths is you can buy a basic wire form and reuse it all year round: robin's eggs and cherry blossoms for spring, a patriotic mix of ruffled red and white carnations, green moss and purple hydrangeas with amber satin ribbon for fall, maybe something completely made of round ornament balls, pine cones, postcards, feathers, or vintage sheet music (you've seen the ones!). Plus, you can hang them from all sorts of places aside from your front door: as a focal over your bead, on the pantry door, hang horizontally around your dining room chandelier, in front of the bathroom mirror, on a door handle, on the mantel... So, you wanna make an ornament wreath? I thought so.
Here's a quick tutorial:
Plastic or glass ornaments
Foam wreath base
Two prong push pins (U-shaped)
Super glue
Ribbon, if desired
1. Tension wrap your foam wreath with satin ribbon, spray paint, or leave bare.
2. Loop U-pins through the top of an ornament. Add super glue to the prongs and push into the foam.
3. Continue looping, gluing, and pushing until the wreath is covered with ornaments. Try to keep them as close together as possible to reduce gaps.
4. Add coordinating ribbon by looping (lots of "looping" going on) around the wreath and tying half a square knot. Or, add an additional U-pin to the back of the wreath, leaving extra space to pull your ribbon through. Tip: Use different sized ornaments (I like sets of three) for good dimension, and create interest and texture by adding thin sprigs of greenery, beads, craft toppers, etc. Happy Crafting!
P.S. Tomorrow is National Pie Day - no joke. So bake a pie, buy a pie, but most importantly...EAT a pie! I don't need to be told twice...do you? Images courtesy of Martha Stewart, shoponline2011, and Just A Girl