The weather is warming up and people in our neighborhood are out planting flowers, bringing out the patio furniture, and hanging their door wreaths on their doors to welcome visitors. I have seen many kinds the past couple of weeks and decided to try my hand at making my own.
This is the first wreath I have ever made, but I was pleasantly surprised at how well it turned out. It isn't crazy fancy, but it is perfect to welcome the warm weather with.
Supplies:
- a natural grapevine wreath
- flowers of your choosing
- a wooden letter
- 5 1/2 inch squared edge burlap ribbon OR a pre-made burlap bow
- glue gun and extra sticks
- scissors
- paint (for your letter, if you wish)
- pain brush/sponge if painting
Step One:
The first thing you want to do is paint your letter if you aren't going to leave it looking natural. You could paint the letter any color you wanted, I just thought the white looked better with the wreath and the flowers I chose. I only needed one coat of paint on either side and it dried while I was putting the rest of the wreath together.
Step Two:
After you have painted, set the letter off to the side and out of the way to dry. Take the wreath and give it a a good look. Is it shaped right? Do some twigs need to be trimmed back and smoothed out? Go ahead and re-shape and trim your wreath to your desired look. I used a pair of kitchen scissors to get the job done and just cut off all the scraggly vines and made it look like a perfect (but not too perfect) circle.
Step Three:
Now you are ready to tackle the placement of your flowers. I just placed them where I thought they would look best and going off of all the visuals I had seen around our neighborhood and good 'ole Pinterest!
***Plug that glue gun in right now and get it ready to go***
The first thing you want to do is to remove the stems on the flowers, but leave enough to poke through the wreath at least halfway. This will help to place the flowers on the wreath here in a little bit. Once you have the stems cut off, play with the positioning of your flowers to find the look you are going for.
Once you have the flowers placed where you want them, one at a time, glue them in place on the wreath. Place a good amount (not dripping, obviously) of glue around the base of the flower (underneath the petals) and then press the flower stem through the vines on the wreath until the glue on the back of the flower meets the wreath.
Continue to do the glue/place method until you have succeeded in the look you want.
***Leave the glue gun on, you will need it for the next part***
Okay, so, by now you should have your letter drying, your wreath trimmed up, and flowers glued in place. You are now ready for THE BOW!
The bow was the toughest part for me. I seriously played with burlap ribbon for a half an hour before I finally figured out how to get the ribbon to look like a bow without actually tying the ribbon itself into a bow. It was painful. Suffice it to say, if you know how to tie a bow, GREAT! Go get you some burlap ribbon and go to town! If you do not know how to make a bow for a wreath, spend the extra money and buy a pre-made bow. You will thank me. :)
Step Five:
The final step is to affix your letter to your wreath. I used some of the burlap ribbon that was fraying on the ends to attach my letter to the wreath itself. I thought it gave it a very rustic look, which is what I was going for. You can see how I affixed the letter to the wreath in the picture below.
And now you're finished! Go on over and display that wreath proudly on your front door!
If you love this tutorial of mine, please feel free to pin, tweet, or share to your hearts content!
