Monday, November 7, 2011

Autumn Wreath

My apartment is in desperate need of some cute fall spirit, so for Craft Night, I made this cute wreath!

Here is how I made it: 
First I got the idea to go collect leaves from around my neighborhood and put them in my flower press.

Then I "laminated" them using tape and cut them out to add to my wreath.

For the base of the wreath, I went to Home Depot and bought an insulating foam tube for $1. 98 or something about that price range (which is better than the $7 for a styrofoam base from a craft store). I didn't really play with it much to try and get it to be more circular, so it ended up kind of egg-shaped.  I think if you worked with it a little, it wouldn't be too difficult to make it more circular. I'll let you know when I try making my Christmas wreath.

All the rest of the material I already had lying around. Fake sunflowers from the dollar store, three or four different types of ribbon, the cloth looks like burlap, but it was just more of a weave my mom had laying around, and rafia.

For design, I just kind of placed the materials on with my fingers and decided whether I liked it or not, and then hot glued it. WARNING the hot glue with deform the foam tube. I made sure there was a good holding on the duct tape with the fabric, and then just glued everything to the fabric.
Here's the final product again :)


Total Time: about 3 hours. This is largely due to the fact that I wasn't following a certain pattern design and the fact that I've never made a wreath before. Most of that time was me trying to figure out what a good wreath should look like and where I wanted to place my material. 
Total Cost: $1.98 for the tube. But if you're buying fabric to cover it, ribbon, etc. it could add up to around $20 or $30, depending on how nice of fake flowers and ribbon you got.

Projects I'm currently working on:
~A baby quilt for my baby girl coming in January
~Autumn pillows with leaf applique 
~Garland to match this cute wreath

Keep crafting!