Christmas Wreaths

My favorite online blog is Epbot. Epbot has some fascinating and totally geeky D.I.Y. all the time, but last year around Christmas the author posted about flocking her Christmas Tree. I thought that this would be pretty easy to transfer to a wreath.

I have never had my own wreath. I love wreaths, but every time I went to get one it was either A)too expensive, or B)ugly as sin. So it was definitely time to try to make my own. This is what I came up with.

I'm counting this as a huge success. :-)

 I do want to add a little more to the upper area. Maybe some more Poinsettia flowers or some mistletoe if I can find some, but I don't want it to be too busy either.

I followed Epbot's directions pretty much to the letter, but here's the process anyway.

The first thing I did was get a plain green wreath for about 5 dollars on sale at one of the local craft stores. (Shopping for these after Christmas is the best time to get really good deals on them.) Then, I hot glued a bunch of pine cones onto it. 

I got a bag of pine cones at the same time that I got the wreath.

 For the flocking, I used a low dust joint compound and watered it down. It's the same as spackle, I think. (Right?) Well, the hubby says it is, so I'm going with that. ;-)

I found a light creamy texture worked best for me.

 I didn't have a stiff brush, so I had to make use of a 2" soft bristled paint brush. I just loaded up the brush and dabbed the wreath anywhere I felt snow should be. In places that snow would be heavy I dabbed a lot. For a more frosted but not accumulated touch of snow I brushed very gently with barely any spackle on the bristles. Then, while it was wet, I hit it hard with some translucent glitter.

You couldn't tell while it was wet, but it is glitterfied. ;-)

 Once it dried, it was all about hot gluing anything I could find that I liked. I found a battery pack of red LED lights at the local dollar store and a red bow and hot glued those on as well. Most of the additions to the wreath came from the dollar store, too. So, over all it didn't cost me much.

By the time I was finished I was getting pretty good with the glue gun.

 So lets get down to the nitty gritty shall we.
 Cost:
Plain green wreath:$5
Pine Cones: $2
Bell, Balls, Foliage: $3 (And I have plenty left over)
Ribbon: $3
Lights: $1
Total:$14

Well worth the effort in my opinion. What do you guys think?
     

Welcome

So I have been loosing most of my afternoons in Pinterest's Crafts section. I can get lost in there for DAYS, days I tell you! I thought it would be amusing for someone like me, who loves to DIY anything and yet is not "crafty" in the sense that I'm any good at it, to try out some of these crafts and blog my successes and failures and throw in some tips that might not be in the instructions.

I will update as I finish a craft. I will link to the post where I got the idea and give credit where credit is due. I will show you progression pictures so you can see the steps, and I will show you the finished results. Hopefully they will be amazing masterpieces, but more then likely they will not. I will even show you the disasters and tell you why they came out that way.

I hope you guys enjoy these posts as much as I will enjoy making them.

:-)