Winter Wreath

I love Christmas.   I love {most} everything about it.   The post-Christmas event of taking down the Christmas decorations, however, is my least favorite thing about Christmas.  Not only do I dislike putting everything away, I dislike the emptiness the lack of the decorations leaves behind.  Once the Christmas décor is put away, it seems my house is left empty.  As if to remind me that yet another year has come and gone.

Often I put up some Valentine’s decorations, but this year I wanted to do something more ‘wintery.’  I wanted to make a wintery type wreath so I would at least have something up before putting up the Valentine decor.   

I had an idea in mind that I wanted to create - snowflakes, snowballs, something to that effect.  I used some supplies that I already had {snowflakes from Christmas decor, felt, sparkly bird}  and purchased a few things at Michaels… the finished product was different than I had originally thought, but I like it even more!  

Tutorial coming soon!

Thanksgiving Fall Wreath Tutorial

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Supplies Needed:

~ Styrofoam Wreath {can be found at any craft store}

~ DMC floss, various colors

~ Burlap or any fabric, cut into strips roughly 2” wide

~ Felt, various fall colors

~ Fabric flowers {mine are made of felt and silk}

~ Needle

~ Pins

Cut burlap into strips, roughly 2” wide.  My strips were about two feet long, so I needed roughly four strips of burlap.  

Then take the strips of burlap and wrap them around the wreath, overlapping as I went along.  I used pins to make sure the ends of each piece stayed in place. 

Next step, and the most time consuming part, making the leaves.  Cut leaves from the various colors of felt.  Depending on how many leaves you want on your wreath will determine how many you’ll need to cut.  I used about 20 on my wreath.

Take your first color of DMC embroidery floss and cut a piece {I cut about 15 inches}, thread it into your needle, then tie a knot at the non-threaded end.  Starting from the backside and bottom of one leaf, push the needle and thread through.  Put the needle back through the felt leaf roughly ½ centimeter up the side of the leaf.  Continue this process all the way around the leaf.  Tie a knot at the end, cut the remaining thread, and start the process all over again on the next leaf.  

Making the fabric flowers {you can skip this and leave the flowers off the wreath to save more time}.  HERE is a fabulous tutorial on how to make fabric flowers by Tatortots and Jello.

Once you have ‘decorated’ all your leaves and created your flowers, you’re ready to finish the wreath!

This is the fun part {but also the part that took me the longest- cause I couldn’t make up my mind!}  Take the felt leaves you made and lay them around the wreath however you like.  Place the fabric flowers on top of the leaves.   I put the majority of mine on one half, and three on the opposite side.    Once you have the leaves and flowers where you’d like, you can use pins {or glue, or whatever you’d like} and stick the leaves and flowers in place.  

 

And… done!  You have a fun and festive wreath for fall and the Thanksgiving season!

What do you think of this wreath?  I'd love to hear your thoughts!