how i saved my husband $50.... {a tutorial}

oh, i love etsy.... oh my, do i love etsy.  everything so crafty and homemade and glorious.... and pricey.  while i absolutely love supporting etsy artists, it can really break the bank to purchase one of every.single.thing. i love..... and if you ask my husband, that's like a million things.  i do have a pretty lengthy "favorites" page.

one of my new favorite things is wreaths..... maybe you picked up on that from here and here. *wink*  so in the spirit of being crafty myself, i decided to save my husband fifty dollars and make another wreath, rather than buy the ones i found on etsy that i hadtohave..... i google searched "yarn wrapped wreath" and found what is now one of my favorite daily blogs to read, take heart.  danielle is the lovely blogger behind all of the crafts, and she has such a big heart and adorable personality.  i love all of the super easy tutorials she creates for her readers, as well as the beautiful pictures of her family and stories of their day-to-day life.

here's my take on her tutorial of the yarn wrapped wreath.... very similar, but just a little bit more difficult {which was totally my fault}.

{gather your materials....}

{straw wreath, straight pins, felt, yarn, bunting}

a little word to the wise {which danielle outlines in her tutorial, also} -- leave the plastic wrap on the straw wreath.  seriously, it will make your life so much easier and this craft will go so much quicker!! i had a left over wreath from my acorn tutorial {too big for the amount of acorns i had} so i used it.... unwrapped.  that's why i purchased the bunting.  now, if you leave the plastic wrap on the wreath like a good crafter, you will eliminate this $9.99 purchase and save yourself alotalotalot of hassle.  word to the wise, done.

for the sake of a complete tutorial, let's say you did take off the plastic wrap.  open your bunting and cut several 4-5 inch strips.  start anywhere on your wreath, and use a straight pin {or a florist pin would work well, too} to affix the bunting to the wreath.  then start wrapping.  try to keep the bunting as evenly distributed as possible.  when you get to the end of a strip, do the straight pin thing again and start with a new strip until you are done wrapping.

next, the yarn.  take one end of the yarn skein and tie it around the bunted wreath {hehe... bunted *snort*}.  then start wrapping.  keep your yarn tight... it's so important.  it takes forever when you start, but you will get into a rhythm wrapping and moving yarn, so don't worry.  i came back to this project for the better portion of a week and a half to wrap a few inches here and there.  don't worry about getting each tiny sliver of yarn situated perfectly to the next tiny sliver.... it's not going to happen.  as danielle said.... imperfections = perfection.  so true.  so wrap and wrap and wrap and wrap.....

{progress.....}

it is absolutely inevitable that you will get a ridiculous knot in your yarn at some point during this project.  luckily caleb is a pro at unknotting things.... so grab your handy husband and let him take care of the knot while you sit back and drink a coke.  the sharpie-d  mr.T tattoos, however? optional.



finish wrapping wrapping wrapping and tie another knot at the end to secure.  i actually went back around the wreath one last time and covered any little areas that the bunting was peeking through.  i also slid in two straight pins to hold the knot tight where it is.  ta-da!!! you are done with the ridiculously tedious and hand-cramping part of the project!

i decided to make some earthy-colored felt flowers to add to the wreath like danielle did.  i also saw on etsy where people added small feathered birds or sprays of button flowers.  those are awesome, too!  so let's make some pretty flowers to accessorize this purple wreath!

buy up as many colors of felt as you want from the craft store.  i got one big flower out of a 8 1/2 x 11 piece of felt... or two small flowers.  you can draw a circle {as big as you can} on the felt and cut it out in a wavy style, or you can just eyeball it.  i drew the circle on my first flower, but just eyeballed it after that.

next, you are going to cut the wavy circle into a spiral.... start at any point on the circle and just start cutting, making one long, wavy strip of felt.  when you get close to the end, you will have a little ovalish/circle.  leave it... don't cut it!

starting from the point that you started cutting {should be kind of pointy}, start wrapping the felt around itself.  wrap tightly at first, then start loosening it up if you want a fuller flower.  i did a mix of flowers, some wrapped tight to make it more of a circular bud, and some looser and fuller.  whatever suits you best!  wrap until you are at the end, with your ovalish-circle thing.  put some hot glue or other fabric glue on the end and adhere it to the bottom of the flower to hold it all together.  turn the bud over, and admire your work!!

make up as many flowers as you want.  i also got some green felt and made some leaves.... just draw a few and cut them out.  i didn't have a pattern, just eyeballed it again.  and i'm no artist... so they must be easy to freehand *wink*  i laid all my flowers out on top of the wreath before gluing to make sure i liked the placement.  hot glue will hold them on just fine.

hang your beautiful new wreath and let the compliments come in!  our mailman loves every new wreath i put up.... he must be a decorator at heart.  i'm going to save this one to hang on our door in san diego, though.  it's more spring-y and with it still being cold here in jacksonville, i'll keep our acorn wreath up for a bit longer.

{i adore....}