Fall Wreath Craft

Don't hate me. I don't control the hands of time, but the inevitable march towards Fall is upon us, so I thought I'd share a wreath I made last year.  Of course, I didn't actually make it until October, so it was kind of late to post back then, so here it is, almost Fall again and my timing is now better for those of you who are actually thinking of decorating for the next season already.  I am not usually one of them.  ;-)

This was pretty easy to make, considering I usually am a crafting failure.  How can you tell I'm not a crafter? Instead of going to the store with a plan, I re-used a couple of fake leaf "bouquets" that I was tired of, paints that I inherited from someone else ("Sure, I guess I'll figure out a use for them...") and ribbon that I bought a long time ago (like 6 years) only because it was on sale and, "You never know when you'll need some ribbon." Luckily all the colors matched fairly well, otherwise this would have been a disaster...Confession: I actually had to go out and buy the letter and the styrofoam.

 You will need:

a styrofoam form for the wreath

cardboard for the back 

a wooden letter

a length of wide ribbon

a shitload of fake Fall leaves

paint

brush

tacky spray (to adhere the cardboard to the wreath form

staple gun 

First, paint the letter in the color you desire. I can't tell you exactly what colors I used, because they were from a bunch of paints someone gave me a while ago.  I kind of did a double coat, blending two different paint colors.  Turned out that it almost exactly matched that ribbon I bought a while back.

While the letter dries, prep the styrofoam form.  Attach cardboard to the back of the styrofoam using the tacky spray.  Mine looks a little trashy because I used parts of some cardboard decorations (cowboy boots, to be exact) that had been hanging up on the back porch for a couple of years. It was time to "repurpose" them, don't you think?  ;-)

Not a big deal, because you really don't see that part.  I used masking tape to hold the cardboard down until the tacky spray had dried.

Turn the form over and start attaching leaves. I had to experiment at first to get the leaves to stay on. The tacky spray didn't work, so I ended up putting glue on the ends of the leaf stems (first trimming the stems to a pointy end if necessary), then sticking the stems into the styrofoam.  I started at the bottom, using a miniature pumpkin to camouflage the point where the first leaves overlapped, then worked my way around each side until the wreath was completely covered.

 Next, take your painted wooden letter (make sure it's completely dry) and the wide ribbon.  The length of the ribbon you use will depend on how low you want the letter to hang in the middle and how long you want the ribbon hanging from the top. I used about 18 inches for the long piece, then 6 inches for the shorter piece.  Take the longer piece of ribbon and staple one end to the back of the letter.  Lay the letter in the middle of the wreath to place it where you want it to hang.  Then make a big loop so that the other end of the ribbon goes over the top of the wreath, then back down underneath the wreath. The ribbon should be laying flat.  Staple the other end of the ribbon to the back of the styrofoam and cardboard backing.  To make the loop on top from which to hang the wreath, take your second, shorter piece of ribbon and tie it around the longer piece of ribbon, just above the top of the wreath, to form the closed loop. You will have to tuck the front part of the ribbon underneath the leaves to they hide it.

Sorry I don't have any pictures of the ribbon-attaching process.  I was in full crafter mode and forgot to take any more until the thing was done.  Here's the finished product:

Happy Fall, y'all!