St. Patty's Day Wreath

This is a project I have been so excited to do! Finally, Joann's holiday fabrics went on sale last weekend, and I was able to begin this fun project. I originally saw a picture of this wreath at The Magic of Ordinary Things blog and it looked like something that could be easily recreated.

In order to make this, you will need:

1 wire hanger

Fabric

Scissors

Ribbon

I used 5 fabric patterns for this wreath, but you could use as many or as few as you'd like. I purchased half a yard of each pattern, and still had plenty of fabric leftover for another project (coming soon).

To start this project I shaped the wire hanger into a circle and cut off the hook at the top. You could leave the hook on if you are planning to hang your wreath from it.

Next, I cut strips of each fabric. My strips were approximately 1 to 1.5 inches wide and 8-9 inches long. I say approximately because I did not measure as I cut, i figured it wouldn't matter for the final product. You may cut your strips any width you desire. If you have more fabrics, you may want them thinner so each one takes up less space. 

Once all the work is done, the fun begins! I began tying each strip to the wire hanger, until the hanger was full and my wreath was complete! The amount of fabric strips you need will depend on how thin you cut your strips. I also added a ribbon for hanging.

Happy Crafting!

Love, Melanie

Heart Wreath

Once again, thank you to the Oopsey Daisy Blog for having such great ideas for Valentine's Day. I followed this tutorial pretty closely when doing this project. Let's get started:

In order to make this you will need:

A wreath form

Ribbon

Wood hearts of all sizes

Scrapbook Paper

Wooden circle beads (2 sizes)

Red paint

Mod Podge

Gorilla glue

Hot glue gun

I started by wrapping the ribbon around the wreath form. To do this, I place some gorilla glue at the start of the ribbon and used sewing pins for reinforcement. When that was finished, I began tracing the hearts onto the scrapbook pages, mixing up the sizes and shapes for each pattern.

Once all the hearts were traced on paper, I began painting. I used red paint and made sure to cover both sides of the hearts. I didn't want to be able to see any of the wood, especially because I knew I would be hanging it over a mirror.

While I waited for the paint to dry, I cut the hearts out so they were ready to go.

Next, I glued the wooden beads onto the backs of the hearts using the gorilla glue. I wanted to make sure I had some flat hearts(no bead) and then a variety of hearts with both sizes of beads on the back. You don't need to have the same amount of each, I just mixed it up at random.

When the glue was completely dried, I painted all the beads. Once again, I didn't want the wood to show at all.

After the paint dried, I used Mod Podge to adhere the paper hearts to the wooden hearts. I first put a layer on the wooden heart, placed the paper hearts, and then added another coat to the top to seal it off. More waiting for things to dry....

FINALLY, it was time to place the hearts on the wreath. I placed hearts all over, trying to cover up as much of the wreath as possible. I just kept adding more, and more, and more. I used a hot glue gun for this part, and it worked very well.  I also added more ribbon for the wreath to hang. I am so happy with the finished product!!

Variations:
- would look great with any shapes (circles, squares, stars, etc)
- any colors or patterns of paper would also be nice
- you can do this for any holiday or season

Happy Crafting!

Ornament Wreath

I fell in love with this ornament wreath when I saw it on Fingerprints on the Fridge blog. I followed this tutorial and ended up with this:

This project was much easier than the first project I decided to tackle, and didn't take very long at all.

In order to make this, you will need:

1 wire hanger

hot glue gun and glue

ornaments (approximately 60 large and 30 small)

ribbon

Start by shaping the wire hanger into a circle. Then, hot glue all the caps to the ornaments so they don't fall off later. When you are ready, untwist the ends of the hanger and begin stringing the ornaments, alternating colors and ornament placement as desired. Use the smaller ornaments to fill in the gaps left by the big ornaments. Once all your ornaments are placed, retwist the wire ends and form a hook. Use ribbon to form a bow and cover the hook. 

I chose to hang mine over a mirror in the living room. 

Please note, it is not recommended to hang this on an outside door.

Variations:

- You may add your bow to the wreath in the area of your choosing. It may look nice on the bottom and hanging down as opposed to on top.

- I chose to put ribbon throughout the wreath to cover up any areas where the wire was showing, this is optional.

- Use any colors you like! It may be fun to make a black and orange one for Halloween. It might also look cool with all one color!

Happy Crafting!