Gotta Be Doing Something: Easy Christmas Wreath Craft

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Easy Christmas Wreath Craft

I love Thanksgiving weekend; nothing to do for 3 whole days (I mean besides cooking and eating turkey dinners). Friday after all the crazy Black Friday shoppers had gone home, my mom and I ventured out to JoAnn's fabric store for a few items. I was in the mood to do a holiday wreath so after 30 minutes of debating on different styles and elements of the wreath I settled on a embellished yarn wreath.

The finished product

It was actually really easy. It took about 2.5 hours (most of that time was spent winding the yarn around the wreath and resting my cramping hand as my mom wrapped gifts and we watch criminal TV shows (a family fav).

If you like my wreath and just came to look at it then you can stop reading here. If you would like to make your own then here is what you will need to get started.

1 styrofoam wreath any size you desire
Yarn of your color, thickness and texture choose
Embellishments (in my case, glittered snowflakes)
Ribbon for hanging the wreath
1 straight pin
Hot glue gun and glue sticks
Pencil and ruller
And a place to display it for the world to see

Step 1: Use a pencil and ruler to mark several straight lines around the entire wreath. Because the wreath is a circle you will use these marks to make sure that your yarn continues to be straight around the entire wreath.

Step 2: Add a dot of hot glue to the back of your wreath and glue the start of your yarn. You won't need the glue gun until the end when you cut the yarn and add the embellishments so you can turn the gun off until you get close to the end.

Step 3: String the wreath. This is the longest step. My wreath took about 2 hours to string. Your yarn will overlap on the inside circle of the wreath. This will help keep the yarn straight throughout the process. Use the pencil lines to make sure you are keeping things straight.

Tip: Keep the yarn in a ball so you can easily pass the yarn in and around the wreath.

So close... taking a break to rest my hand.

Step 4: When you are finished covering the styrofoam wreath, turn on the glue gun and glue the end of the yarn to the back of the wreath. If you have any white from the styrofoam showing you can go back and add yarn to that area.

Step 5: Place your embellishments around the wreath in a pattern to your liking. Test the placement before gluing.

Tip: Odd numbers are great when creating clusters.

Step 6: Use the ribbon to make a decorative holder for your wreath. The straight pin can be added to the back through the ribbon and into the styrofoam to hold the ribbon in place. this way you can easily remove the ribbon and use it for another project or gift wrapping later.