I realized today that I didn’t have a decent sized wreath for the door of our house. This would not do! Luckily, I had a wire wreath form and a bunch of ribbon. First, I went looking for instructions on how to use a wire wreath form, because as usual, I bought it for a project that had nothing to do with making wreaths. I was led to these simple instructions for making a burlap wreath. I figured I could manage that. So let’s begin.
I began optimistically
I had this wonderful, wide, wired ribbon that looked like purple webbing. The roll was really big, so I was sure I had enough. I tied it off, and began pulling loops through the wreath form.
So far so good?
I worked inside to outside, making sure to keep the loops even in size, untwisting the ribbon occasionally to keep the pretty side forward, and scrunching the rows together.
It didn’t take long for me to realize I did not, in fact, have enough of the cool purple stuff. Since I bought it several years ago, I knew my chances of finding more were slim and none. But that’s okay! I have, like, five rolls of Halloween ribbon! None of it matches, but I’m not the matchy type. Surely that will be enough!
That’s TONS of ribbon!
Instead of wasting length and tying off the ribbon, I stapled one end around the inner wire of the frame with my Tiny Attacher. It gets into tight places easily, and is too small for me to be able to staple my finger. That last bit is important.
Staples FTW!
Each roll of ribbon was 9 feet long. I discovered that it takes a complete roll to cover one section of the wire form. There are 8 sections. Did you notice above where I said I had five rolls? Yeah…
So Michael’s had all of ONE roll of wide ribbon. Luckily, there was a fabric store next door, and they had a ton of cool stuff. So finally, I had enough ribbon! So much that I ended up getting rid of the purple, because everything else was black and white and orange. I may not be matchy, but I have my limits.
Putting the ribbon on the frame was really fun and easy. When I finished a roll, I stapled it on the outside wire of the frame. I love how my wreath foundation turned out.
Pretty!
So now what? All those different patterns needed something to unify them. I had styrofoam balls I could paint, but they were too big. I had a bunch of eyeballs that I could paint (because eyeballs would have been too much), but they were too small. I didn’t have enough little skulls. I looked through my decoration bins, and found a garland of black leaves with purple sparkles. Perfect!
Spooky leaves
They were on wire, so they were easy to secure to the frame. I wound them around and twisted and tucked until I was happy. Which coincided with when I got tired of messing with them.
After that, I grabbed a small set of LED battery-powered lights. Just 15 lights, in deep purple. I strung them under where the leaves wound around in front, so I wouldn’t waste lights on the back of the wreath. Then I didn’t take a picture, but that doesn’t matter because they barely show up in the daytime.
Hmm. Now the center needs something. Maybe a paper piece in the center with “HAPPY HALLOWEEN” on it. I went through my Halloween paper packs, which is no hardship, and picked out a couple things. Then I grabbed some puffy letters I got on sale somewhere.
HAPPY OWEEN
While I liked the look of the thing on its own, it wasn’t working for me in the center of the wreath. One reason was that I couldn’t attach it without glue. So far I hadn’t done anything irreversible, and I liked that about the project. So I went hunting for more ideas.
Back in the bins, I found an old costume cape: black with silver spiderwebs. At first, I thought I could sacrifice it, but then I thought–why? It would probably look great draped behind the wreath like a spooky shroud.
I looked for safety pins, because that would have been, you know, safe. No dice. I attached it with straight pins, increasing the danger factor of the wreath. I’m sure no one is surprised that my Halloween decor would draw blood.
It’s hungry for BLOOD
Behold, the deadly Halloween Wreath of Doom. Or something.
It’s just misunderstood
I had a lot of fun making it, and if I don’t want to keep it for next year, I can dismantle it and use everything again. Even better, going through my supplies to do this made me want to Make! All! The! Things! So maybe you’ll get some more crafts out of me before the month is out.
