Wednesday, December 29, 2010

The Great Wreath-Making Project

We've had the same Christmas wreath forever, and I saw several ideas in magazines and in blogs that I wanted to try to make this year. One of them (can't remember exactly where) said to take old ornaments and glue them on a wreath. Well, I didn't have enough old ornaments to spare, in the right colors, so I decided that I would just pick up some inexpensive ones to use. Four stores later, I found what I needed at Target.

The project sat around for a couple of weeks until I realized that I needed to make it, or save it for next year. Long story short, it took me two days to make and more containers of ornaments than I originally bought. I think it cost me about $50 to make, but I am happy with the result.

I started with a white styrofoam form that I began to paint silver, then decided not to bother. Some websites suggest using a straw wreath, or I'd consider using a green foam wreath that is softer, and the ornaments could possibly be pushed into it. All of the ornaments that I used are plastic, and I removed the caps from them. The ornaments are attached with hot glue, but I have a cool melt gun, and had to hold the ornaments that actually touched the wreath for a couple of minutes for them to set. Maybe it would have taken less time with a hotter glue gun? The ornaments in successive layers that only touched each other took a lot less time to set.

Once the wreath was complete, we didn't want it to fall off our front door and break, or have the impact of the door slamming cause the wreath to bang into it and damage it (our door is glass), so we hung it with a wreath hanger, plus fishing line wrapped around it and attached to the door with a suction cup, and finally foam that is hot-glued to the door. It doesn't move at all!

Here are some photos of the process and completed project:





Feeling Crafty

I have been reading several craft blogs since this summer, and never feel like I have the time to just sit down and make something without neglecting something more important. I've come to realize that making craft projects is something that I should do more often, because I get so much joy out of them, and I come away with such a feeling of accomplishment. I used to scrapbook regularly, I've done soap-making, candle-making, jewelry-making, stamping, and card-making. Paper crafts are definitely my favorite, and I have tons of supplies from my two-year stint as a Creative Memories consultant.

When I am feeling like I want to do something creative, and time keeps me from actually producing anything, I have a bad habit of stockpiling supplies. This summer, I bought a Cricut machine, along with several cartridges, but didn't use it very much at all. For Christmas, I received a Gypsy, and I am looking forward to playing with it.

I really wanted to make some things for Halloween, but this was the semester from Hell for me, and I really don't remember October. For Thanksgiving, I managed to make a banner to hang on our fireplace. It's nothing that exciting, but for me, there was a great feeling of accomplishment.


For Christmas, I decided to make three different projects. First, there was the two-day wreath-making project, then the "beaded curtain", and finally a banner that I hung on my china cabinet.




Sorry about the banner picture; I just realized that I never took a good one. It has four layers, and the lettering says, "Let it Snow". If I get a chance later, I'll write a post with just the wreath, because that was a massive undertaking.