Hey everyone.
I have a simple tutorial for you today. But first, some back story.
My husband and I are both in the first months of starting our own businesses. For the last year or so we've channeled most of our efforts into getting his computer business off the ground and things are going well there. Now I'm working on prepping things to open an Etsy store. Details on that in the coming months!
With all of the skimping and cutting back it's taken to follow our dreams, there are exactly zero dollars leftover for home beautification purposes.
If you're in a similar financial situation but still want to put something cheerful on your front door or wall during this gloomy month, stay tuned.
What you’ll need:
A large piece of sturdy cardboard
A circular pot to trace, or a string
A writing utensil
Strong scissors or a box cutter
Cheap fabric, canvas drop cloth, brown packing paper or brown paper grocery
bags
Tape or a low-temp hot glue gun
15-25 plastic shopping sacks
Decorative string, optional
Paint, optional
Decorations of your choice
Step One:
Decide how big of a wreath you want to make. Most of the door wreaths I’ve seen
are between 18-24 inches wide. Since I had a huge piece of cardboard, I decided
to make my wreath 24 inches across. Now you have two choices: either trace
around a big circular pot of the right size and skip ahead to the next step…
or, use the string method. I used the string method. After you’ve decided on a
size, take your big piece of cardboard and make a mark on the center—your best guess
is good enough. Then, divide your chosen wreath width by two and add two
inches. This is all the math you’ll have to do, I promise! So using my wreath
as an example, half of 24 is 12, plus 2 is 14. Your end number is how long of a
piece of string you’ll need. Tie a writing utensil at the half-wreath-width
point (12 inches, in this case). We added the extra two inches just to make it
easier to tie the marker to the string at the right place. Tape or hold one end
of the string down on the center mark of the cardboard, and keeping the string
taut, draw your circle. It doesn’t need to be perfect. Tie your marker a few
inches closer to the center and draw another circle inside the big one.
Step Two:
Use your strong scissors or a box cutter to cut out the ring. Don’t worry if
your edges are rough; we’ll just cover them up. Now do your happy dance because
you’re done with the hardest parts.
Step Three:
It’s time to pull out your plastic grocery or shopping bags. Put them into loose
bundles of 4 or 5.
Step Four:
Take your first loose bundle of plastic bags and arrange them on the cardboard.
Use some kind of tape to gently secure it to the cardboard backing. Don’t press
down too hard with the tape, or your wreath won’t be very three-dimensional. In
the picture, I used blue painter’s tape to show you where I started. Then, I
used clear packing tape for the rest. Picture number 4 shows two bundles of
plastic bags attached to the cardboard. You don’t have to worry about making it
very even—this is a very forgiving project! Be sure to overlap the edges of the
bundles so that you don’t have any of the bag handles popping out and being a
nuisance.
Step Five:
Admire your wreath that is starting to form! Also, cut out long four-inch-wide
strips of your fabric or brown paper. I would only recommend the brown paper if
you’re going to keep your wreath indoors or somehow protected from the weather.
The fabric I used was a nasty piece of packing material that felt like fiberglass
and came wrapped around a piece of furniture.
Step Six:
Attach one end of your fabric to the back of the cardboard using tape or hot
glue. Wrap the other end around the front of the wreath. I went for a messy,
irregular look, so I twisted my fabric a little bit as I wrapped it. If you
like a smooth finish or need to conserve fabric, don’t twist it. Continue
adding strips until your wreath form is covered. Go back and see if your
plastic bags are showing through anywhere. If so, move your fabric around to cover
them. Use a little bit of low-temp hot glue to keep the fabric in place if it
is being stubborn.
Step Seven:
Continue
adding strips until your wreath form is covered. Go back and see if your
plastic bags are showing through anywhere. If so, move your fabric around to cover
them. This photo was taken before I "fluffed" and arranged all of the pieces so you can see the bags peeking through. Use a little bit of low-temp hot glue to keep the fabric in place if it
is being stubborn.
Step Eight:
Now for the decorations. I made a bunting banner out of cardboard cut into
rough 6-inch-long triangles. I knew I wanted it to say “love,” so I cut four
triangles, but you can spell out whatever you want! I painted the triangles
with acrylic paint. When they were dry, I printed out “love” in a font I liked
(Veteran Typewriter, if you’re interested) and traced the letters onto the triangles
and then painted them, but you could also just cut them out of the printer
paper and glue them on. I used low-temp hot glue to attach them to a string and
then when my banner was done, I hot glued it to the wreath.
Step Nine:
Finally, add whatever kinds of decorations you can find around the house. My
florals and ribbon were leftover from another project. I attached them using
the low-temperature hot glue. The reason for this is that the regular high-temp
hot glue will melt through all the plastic bags and you won’t get the fluffy-wreath
look you’re after. If you want to reuse this wreath form for other holidays and
only change the decorations, use wire, safety pins, clothing pins, or alligator
clips to secure your decorations temporarily.
Here are some other ideas for decorations: cardboard hearts, cut up an old
piece of clothing and make fabric flowers, have the kids cut out construction
paper hearts, or cut shapes out of a milk carton and color them with permanent markers.
Good luck!
