Ornament wreath

Here is how the wreath started:

You take a wire hanger and ornaments that do not shatter and thread them onto the hanger. I went to the Dollar store and just picked through what they had. I bought about three different sizes and used red, green, silver and gold. In the tutorial they say to hot glue the tops on but I couldn't get them off to glue them. I did lose some ornaments later when I was moving them around but only about three popped off. I couldn't see a hole so I just let it go.

This is what the wreath looked like when I ran out of ornaments:

Back to the Dollar store I went hoping they still had some more ornaments that I had bought. Thank goodness they did and here is what the finished wreath looks like:

I just used a command strip to hang the wreath over the fireplace. I know it turned out great when even Charlie is impressed with my work. He even brought Henry over to look at it.

The whole project probably cost me under $10 and maybe took me less then an hour. I used close to 80 ornaments but they were all in packs of 5's or 7's and then the really small ones I used as fillers were packs of 14.

I'm really happy I decided to do this craft. It was fun, easy, cheap and looks great!

Berry Monogram: Pintastic!

As I was pulling together our winter and Christmas decorations last year, I realized that we no longer had a wreath for our front door. Living in a condo with shared stairway access means that we need to keep door decorations on the smaller side so that whatever hangs does not get banged up as our neighbors pass by with bags. This Berry Monogram tutorial I had pinned earlier in the year seemed the perfect solution, and fed my love for monograms: http://www.ourunexpectedjourney.blogspot.com/2011/11/let-decorating-begin.html



I found the letter at JoAnn's for around $2, an $0.89 bottle of red acrylic paint and purchased a berry garland to cut up from the floral department. In all honesty, I purchased two garlands plus some berry picks, not knowing how much I'd need. Let's just say I have enough leftover to make at least one more of this project (or three). One garland would have been plenty!

At home, I painted the monogram red. While that was drying, I clipped different sized bunches of berries from the garland using wire clippers. When the letter was completely dry, I used a hot glue gun to attach the berries. As I went, I chose pieces/bunches that would conform to the shape of the letter and filled in the center after it was outlined. Wherever there was a bare spot, I simply broke off a few berries, added a dab of glue and squeezed them in for fullness.



Once completed, I looped the wired ribbon around the top of the B, tied a bow and added it to our wreath hanger. Easy and loved the finished product!

Project time: 1.5 hrs
Cost: $10 (using coupon/sales)
Supplies:
MDF Monogram
Berry picks or garland
Acrylic paint to match berry color (optional)
Hot glue gun and glue sticks
Wide wired ribbon
Wire cutters and/or heavy duty shears

http://pinterest.com/pin/267612402828631855/

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