Today was a bittersweet day for me. It was my last day interning at my current site. Exciting because that means I'm just one step closer to being a speech language pathologist, sad/scary because I won't have the same supervisor next year! :( I lucked out so much this year--my supervisor was beyond helpful but also willing to let me try things out on my own, which made me feel so much more confident! So to thank her for her help, I wanted to do something nice for her on my last day...which leads me to...
I got a little obsessive with tutorials of deco mesh wreaths over spring break, so Heather and I made my cousin's baby (Lilliana) a pretty pink and leopard one (you can see it on our last blog post). Then we got into a little wreath kick. I made one for our grandma for Easter but completely forgot to take a picture before giving it to her...Then Heather made this one for our mom for Easter.
So since I enjoyed making those wreaths so much (and my supervisor didn't have any decorations on her office door) I decided to make her a wreath to thank her for all of her support! And since I learned how to make them by looking at tutorials, I thought I would make my first ever tutorial and hopefully help someone else out! :)
I got a wire wreath from Hobby Lobby...I didn't check what size, but it was the second smallest they had. Then I hot glued pipe cleaners/chenille stems alternating with the top two wires and the bottom two. Some wreaths come pre-wired, but I think its worth saving a little money to just wire them yourself!
Then I used this dark green deco mesh (I got this short roll--10X35 I think--from Walmart), looped it under so you can't see the end of it, and secured it to the wire wreath by twisting it with one of the outside pipe cleaners.
I continued gathering and twisting the dark green mesh with all of the outside pipe cleaners.
I didn't take a picture after, but I did the same thing with the inside layer of pipe cleaners (and you don't need to cut the mesh in between--that just creates extra work for yourself!)
Next, I used lighter green mesh and did the same thing to start it off, except this time I started on the opposite side and on an inside pipe cleaner.
This time I just went to the nearest pipe cleaner instead of going around the outside and inside separately. You can kind of see in the picture, but the light green is a wider roll than the dark green...I didn't check the measurements but it's the medium sized one at Hobby Lobby. :P
Then I used this cute green polka dot ribbon from Hobby Lobby and did the exact same thing to start it off (on an inner pipe cleaner)...so far pretty easy, right!?
I did the same thing with the ribbon as I did with the light green--just going to each pipe cleaner as I came to it. And I still hadn't cut either of the mesh or the ribbon at this point..Just in case I saw any areas that I wanted to be a little more full. It's easer to just loosen the pipe cleaners and puff the mesh out a little if it's still attached.
Next, I took some cute sparkly gold ribbon from Hob Lob and cut small little strips and twisted them onto all the pipe cleaners.
I got these cutesy white letters from Hob Lob too, and I planned to make them sparkling gold with Mod Podge and loose fine glitter. I love that look, BUT there is an important step before mod podging and loose glittering (making up my own verbs again...). It's really important to do a quick coat of whatever color paint is close to the color glitter you're going to use. Otherwise any spots that aren't completely covered in glitter will stand out. So I put a quick and sloppy coat of gold paint on these letters
While I waited for the letters to dry, I put a coat of metallic green paint on this mini chalkboard I found at Hob Lob.
While the letters and chalkboard were drying, I hot glued little strips of a white feather boa to the center of every gold ribbon I had twisted down. The hot glue reinforced the twisted pipe cleaner too, which was good. (At this point, I was pretty happy with the fullness, so I cut the mesh and ribbon).
I found a chevron print on Google and printed it out. I put it on top of the chalkboard and traced the pattern with a pencil (pushing down pretty hard so it would make a slight indention in the wood).
In this picture you can kind of see the indention the pencil left.
I used a small paintbrush and did one coat of white paint on top of all the indentions...In retrospect, I probably could have used a paint pen with better control, but I didn't even think of that then!
One more coat of white paint (and more green paint to fix any mishaps)!
While the second coat of paint dried, I added Mod Podge and loose fine gold glitter to the letters. How pretty and sparkly are those?! I love them. You can kind of see how I didn't paint the edges of the letters gold, which just reinforces the importance of painting before glittering!! ;)
Then I went back to the chalkboard...I added Mod Podge with my little paintbrush to all the white areas then sprinkled loose fine white glitter on them. I considered skipping all these steps with the chalkboard and just Mod Podging a scrapbook paper to it, which would look more precise...but I really didn't like the look of paper on a wreath and thought paint and the little imperfections that go with it added to the homemade look.
I forgot to take pictures as I made the letters, but I found a font I liked, printed it up, cut it out, traced it with pencil, then went over my pencil marks twice with a white paint pen. Easy peasy!
I hot glued the chalkboard on the wreath, then the letters.
Then I used my finger to curl the pipe cleaners that were sticking out
Then I used an eraser to clean up the chalkboard a little! And fyi: the school's colors are green, white, and a yellowish gold. So I didn't do St. Patty's Day colors just for fun! ;)
So my wreath addiction is hopefully just beginning because I love to make them! I hope this how-to helped someone as much as the ones I looked at helped me! If it seems like too much work to you and you'd rather just pay someone else to make one for you, hit me up! ;)
-Sarah
