I was compensated for this post by Joann Fabric & Crafts
I had been thinking about what I was going to make for this month for quite some time, and finally decided it was going to be a Christmas Wreath for my front door. I don’t decorate a lot for the holidays, but wreath at the door just makes everyone who comes to the door put a smile on their face.
Yesterday I was getting ready to start making the wreath, but I couldn’t find my hot glue gun. I have had that thing since probably 1985, and even though I haven’t used it in quite some time, I knew that I still have it. We hauled it around in our travel trailer for 13 years, and I know it was still in the wicker trunk when I unpacked it. Except that I couldn’t find it. It was not in any of the places I thought it might be. Fabgrandpa even helped me look for it. We looked in all of the boxes and bins that are stored on the back porch and in my office, but it is just not there. You know when I will find it, don’t you? When I buy a new one. It always works that way for me.
So, today I gathered all my supplies together, and started working on a revised version of the wreath that I was going to make, the version that does not use a hot glue gun. I needed a large piece of cardboard for the framework of the wreath. I had a shipping box on the back porch that was big enough to work with. There really isn’t a special size, just whatever size you like. The one I made is about 18″ around. So, here are the materials and tools you will need to make a wreath like the one I made:
Materials:
A large piece of stiff cardboard
packing tape
fabric glue
bubble wrap, about 4 yards or leftovers from packages received (I used a little of new and a little of recycled)
1 yard of 120″ wide fabric in a neutral color (I used ecru quilt backing fabric)
1 spool of 1/4″ wide ribbon (I used green)
15-21 1 inch jingle bells
Tools:
a large pot lid for marking a circle
a cereal bowl
a Sharpie marker
scissors for cutting the cardboard
5-7 safety pins
Place the pan lid on the cardboard and draw a circle around it with the sharpie marker. Then, use the cereal bowl to draw a smaller circle inside the larger one. Because I wanted my wreath to be wider than the pot lid circle, I used the first circle I drew as guide to draw a larger circle outside of that line. Then, cut out the large circle, and cut out the small circle so I had a round piece of cardboard with a hole in the middle.
Next, starting on the back of your cardboard, start wrapping the bubble wrap around and through the hole in the middle. Overlap the edges of the bubble wrap so that all of the cardboard is covered. Begin and end each piece of wrap on the back side of the cardboard.
Next, Cut the fabric into pieces that are 12″ wide X width of fabric. You will have three pieces of fabric that are 12″ X 120″. Fold one piece of fabric in half so it is 6″ wide, and start wrapping the fabric around the cardboard over the bubble wrap. Start and end each piece on the back side of the cardboard. Use some fabric glue to attach the first piece of fabric to the bubble wrap. Make sure you over lap the fabric so that each round covers the raw edges of the previous round, and the folded edge is on top. Continue to add pieces of fabric in the same way until the entire bubble wrapped cardboard is covered. On the last wrap on the front of the wreath, fold the raw edge under about 1/2″ so that it doesn’t show on the finished wreath. Glue the end of the fabric to the back of the piece. I used packing tape to hold it in place until the glue dried.
At this point, you will have a shabby chic fabric wrapped wreath that looks puffy from the bubble wrap, like in the picture above. Now you can decorate your wreath any way you wish. I chose to add red jingle bells to mine.
This is where I had to improvise in making my wreath. I had intended to use different decorations on my wreath, but that depended on using a hot glue gun, which, as you know, I was not able to find. So, instead, I used these pretty little jingle bells. I strung three together on a piece of green ribbon, and attached them to the wreath with safety pins. I used a total of 18 jingle bells in six clusters, but you can use as few or as many as you like, spaced evenly around the wreath. I like the way it turned out, even if it wasn’t what I wanted to do at first. And this way, I can change the decorations on the wreath to fit another holiday if I want to.
This wreath turned really simple and easy to do. You can use your imagination to add other things to yours to make it as elegant or as simple as you want. I might add some leaves made of green fabric, glued to cardboard, and then glued to the wreath around the bell clusters.
Do you make any of your Christmas decorations? Do you keep them from one year to the next? If you would like some ideas for making your own house Fabulously Festive with Joann Fabric and Crafts, you can check out their online catalog. If you do decide to make your own, you can use this coupon to get 50% off any one regular priced item, either in-store or online, thru December 31, 2013.
Leave a Reply