Thursday's Craft: Spring Wreath

I has been a looooooong time since I've posted something about crafting. Mostly because I haven't done anything new in a while. So here I am and ready to post a new craft just in time for Spring!

This year I have been looking at Spring like a dieter looks at chocolate. I don't want to get excited, but I find myself indulging anyway. I wasn't exactly happy with winter this year, so I'm dreading the awful heat of summer in a few weeks. But here I am, sitting in my kitchen, writing this blog, and waiting for the 89 degree weather Spring has in store for me today, and I'm going to share with you my newest craft: a Spring Wreath.

Yup. Wreaths. They are super easy, and I almost didn't post because they really are just that easy. But I figured there's got to be someone out there who needs a quick tutorial on how to make one. So here goes:

Spring Wreath


What You'll Need:

• 1 medium round or oval wicker wreath (they are the pre-shaped wreaths made out of sticks in the craft section of the store) 
• Fake flowers of various spring colors 
• "Spring" ribbon with wire
• Hot glue gun and glue
• 2 feet of ribbon without wire
• Scissors
• Wire cutters (optional, but may be necessary depending on the flowers you get)

Instructions: (in pictures) 

1. Glue the ribbon to the inside of the wreath, loop around one time, and then glue the ribbon to the glued end on your wreath. Begin wrapping the ribbon around the wreath until you get all the way around (see spacing in step 3)

2. Fold over the end of the ribbon once to hide the frayed end and then glue down. 

3. Try to maneuver the ribbon around the wreath to get as equal as spacing as your ribbon and wreath with allow. 

4. Using scissors or wire cutters, snip the flowers off the stems. Make sure you leave a little stem. In the past, when I cut it too short (like the yellow flower in the picture), the flower eventually fell apart. So flower on the left: good. Flower on the right, not so good. You could also cut some of the leaves and add those if you want (I did not). 

Note a step, just a note: I put all my cut flowers in the center. I didn't want any real pattern with my flowers. I just wanted to make sure that there was either a purple or white flower in each section around the wreath. 

5. Add a little glue to the base of the flower. 

6. Begin placing the glued flowers around the wreath. You will cover some of the ribbon, but the ribbon is only working as added color. Work your way around the wreath. It helped me to also put the flowers in their place before I began gluing. That way if I didn't like the order, I could change it before I started gluing. 

7. Loop the ribbon through the wreath and tie a pretty bow on the ends. 

8. Hang the wreath. I used those little hooks the commercials talk about at Christmas (you know, the ones that can be removed and help you get your deposit back? Yeah, I use those to hang wreaths at my front door as well). 

And voila! Done! Here's what my finished product looks like: 

My ribbon was already cut from another project, so it was longer than 2 feet. This is what it looked like  hanging long. 

So I shortened the ribbon by tying a bigger bow. But I'm pretty happy with the way it looks. 

Happy Spring, everyone! May yours be pleasant and full of colorful fun!