Ok guys… Here’s the thing… I am SO not the crafty type! Like it’s all good in Sunday School or whatever, but to just be making stuff is so not how I typically would think to spend an afternoon (outside of the kitchen). That being said, I’ve been wanting to make a wreath since a couple Christmases ago but never did. Seeing all these beautiful fall wreaths around town looking all festive and warm and welcoming and fall-ish made me decide not to wait til Christmas and to embrace my new favorite season (and new preferred way to spend a rainy afternoon by myself?) getting all creative. Thank God, it was easier than I thought it would be!
Honestly the hardest part of all of this was getting out of Michaels with everything I needed (for this project ONLY) before I racked up a $100 tab. My Type A, OCDish, pseudo-perfectionist tendencies make it kind of hard to settle on which decorative pieces I want without grabbing absolutely everything I could possibly think is cute and sitting on the floor in Michaels to arrange everything before making a decision (I resisted doing that this time… barely). The 70% fall decor sale they were having didn’t make it any easier, I assure you.
But once I made it out of the store, I was super excited to make this! It doesn’t take long (unless, you know, Type A, OCDish perfectionism…) and would be fun to do with friends and family (alternate Halloween party idea anyone?). Even if you’re not at all crafty (and I assure you, I’m really not) you will have fun doing this with others or even by yourself on a rainy fall day with some warm apple cider, jazz music and a few candles. You can design these however you want, and they look so pretty! Definitely a great way to make your home warm and welcoming this season.
Here’s what you’ll need (I got everything from Michaels, with coupons!):
- Grapevine wreath – mine was 18 inches
- Assorted wired fall decor stems and flowers – I grabbed a few cute, small pinecone and berry stems, a berry and pumpkin coiled garland that I unraveled, a small bunch of faux mini sunflowers, and a couple of bigger decorative clustered stems with pinecones, pumpkins, leaves and acorns. Think about mixing and matching different shapes, sizes and complementary colors with your different stems and flowers to get the look you want.
- Wire cutter
- Low-heat mini hot glue gun and mini hot glue sticks (or whatever glue gun you already have)
- 2.5-inch wired ribbon
- Scissors
- Music, candles, a warm beverage, my favorite pumpkin bread, and a few friends 🙂
First, set up your workspace. A large table or countertop will be best and make for easy clean-up (the wreath may leave little wood chips behind). If you’re working on the floor where there’s carpet, lay down a large piece of cardboard to keep carpet clean and provide a sturdier surface.
Next you’ll want to plug in your glue gun and get it warming up. Set it on top of a paper plate or piece of cardboard to catch any drips. Then grab your smaller decorative stems and flowers and, using your wire cutter, start snipping them into smaller pieces – maybe 4-6 inches long – that you’ll place around the wreath. For any faux flowers, you’ll want to cut a few buds off the bunch, leaving 2-3 inches of stem to glue down into the wreath’s vines. If you’re using a coiled garland, unravel it and snip off smaller pieces from the main stem.
Once you’ve got everything trimmed up, lay your wreath flatter side down and choose which side you want to be the top. You can start arranging and glueing right away, but if you’re like me, you’ll want to arrange everything around the wreath first and then glue once you’re committed. 🙂 Bend and shape the stems to follow the contours of the wreath, tucking any stems down into the vines but making sure they’re not sticking out of the bottom. I chose to place my two bigger arrangements opposite each other diagonally with lots of smaller pieces in between. I accented the big arrangements with a few sunflower buds to fill in gaps and bring some more color.
When you’ve got the look you’re going for, apply a little bit of hot glue to the tip of each stem and tuck the stems inside the wreath vines. Use a few extra dots of glue to anchor bigger arrangements onto the wreath wherever necessary (behind larger pieces like pumpkins or pinecones, or just to get things to lay flat like you want them). The glue gun is very forgiving, so if you place something and don’t like it, just snatch it up and shift it how you want it, then glue some more. Keep going around the wreath, glueing and tucking and anchoring until you’ve added all the elements you’d like and everything is secured to the wreath base.
Let it sit for a couple of minutes for the hot glue to dry while you get your ribbon ready (I also took this time to wipe off my desk real quick). How much ribbon you’ll need depends on where and how you’ll be placing your wreath when it’s done. If you’re going to put it on a mantle or hang it on a nail in your front door, you can just tie a big bow and call it a day. If however you want to hang it on your door without putting a nail in (like I had to do because, it’s the MIL’s front door, not mine) then you’ll want enough to let the wreath hang at the appropriate height with the ribbon draped over the top of the door and anchored (to the top of the door) with thumbtacks.
I looped my ribbon around 3 times to give a nice, wide presence (you can do as much or as little as you like, but I recommend wrapping it at least twice for secure hanging). You can then either tie a bow at the top and trim and straighten the ends, or wrap up and tie a bow at the end to hang pretty on the inside of the door.
TAAADAAAAA!!!! Bring on the chunky scarves, boots and pumpkin everythiiiinnnngggg!
[…] platter I found to make this centerpiece, and filled it in with some leftover stems from the fall wreath I made. Now if only our house were ready and we had a pretty dining room table to put this on! […]