DIY Fall Wreath

I always see these beautiful wreaths on Pinterest and think "someday...someday I'll make one of those..." and then my inner dialogue goes off and says "yeah right...you aren't that creative..." well, inner dialogue, thanks to step-by-step instructions on a certain blog I discovered on Pinterest, this time I am that creative.... kinda. Haha.

Photo from Pinterest

I saw this beautiful fall wreath on Facebook and had bought a stick-wreath a while back on super sale at a craft store and finally got up the gaul to use it. To see how to make this your ownself, check it out here. 

The most expensive part of this project was the wreath. Everything else costs very little, but the hot glue gun...that costs your fingers a bit. Or, maybe it's just me. Ouch! Those blisters did not feel good! 

I tried a few different techniques before I found exactly what I liked for cutting the felt flowers. I started by marking the felt with a sharpie and cutting the lines. This proved to be my least favorite method as the black shows up on the tips of that flower and I didn't like that as much. It probably isn't noticeable to anybody but me, but I didn't like it so I didn't do it that way again.

The next technique I used was taping the pattern to the felt and cutting it that way. This was probably my favorite method, but also the most time-consuming and difficult to get right. Most people probably wouldn't have a problem, but I am challenged when it comes to using any kind of cutting tools. Seriously. It's a bit embarrassing. 

The last method was to cut the felt out using my silhouette cameo. This worked wonderfully, although rather than it just being the felt, I had to iron on webbing so that it would cut nicely using the silhouette. But, it worked! Although this was the easiest method, it was not my preferred method because it left every flower too uniformed, without as much personality. Most people would probably see that as a good thing, but it wasn't my preference. 

In order to make the smaller flowers, I used the same pattern, I just cut off the end of it. I was surprised by how easy these were to make! Other than, like I said, the burnt fingers. Ouchy. Oh well, the sacrifices we make for beautiful projects, am I right?

After the flowers were done, I laced the berry/beads string through the wreath. This was a bit more challenging than I would've expected simply because I wanted it to look like it had only been woven in the front. Nobody was gonna be seeing the back of the wreath, so I'd rather not have much of the pretties back there. Once the berry/beads were strung, I got out my hot glue gun and glued the flowers into place. Note: I'd recommend placing them first so you can see what they look like and you can adjust them accordingly. Once they are glued in place, it's a whole lot harder to move them. 

I had a few friends ask me to make this for them, so I got more practice and had a blast doing it! I tried a darker red on one, but wasn't as crazy about it. It looked ok, but meh...not preferred. I had a good time making these and was happy to do it - though I felt like I was robbing my friends of the joy (and blisters) of making this themselves. Hopefully they won't resent me too much after they've seen it here on my blog. 

It took me about a week to actually get my wreath hung on my door, but I am liking the way it turned out and feel very proud to see my hard work hanging on my door.

Photo from my friend Charity - this is the one I made for her.