Fun Christmas Wreath

I am so excited to have finished my Christmas wreath before Christmas! I say before Christmas because sadly my fall wreath is yet to be completed.

:( We have so much at the end of October and during November that the time slipped away from me and I failed to complete my table runner and wreath. Not for Christmas though. ;) I am very happy with how it turned out although it is far from the original drawing. 

I went for a not so traditional look. I used some great blues, warm whites and a dash of red. I wanted a lot of texture with my flowers so there are a variety of them. I did a few crochet and a few fabric. Do you see that red netting? Can you guess what it is? If you said the bag my tangerines came in you are absolutely right! I always save those little bags. I have used them to adorn gifts, decor, gift bags for the doggies Christmas gifts, bows, and so on. There are tons of cool ways to use them.

I covered a straw wreath with masking tape and spray painted it red. Then covered it with some warm white yarn. The wrapping isn't perfect because I wanted a little of that red to peek through. After searching high and low for the perfect ribbon to make my bow I stumbled upon something a little different than what I had in mind. One look and I knew it was exactly what I was looking for. Turns out I wasn't looking for ribbon after all. ;)I found these at Target....

I purchased two of the blue and one white. Using needle nose pliers I shaped the stem around my wreath and trimmed the excess with wire cutters. Then I simply shaped all the little arms to my liking. What do you think? I personally love it!

After putting my new finagled bow and all the flowers on Mr. Wonderful pointed out that it was missing something. Merry Christmas! He said it needs a greeting since it will be at the front door. It is always nice to have a fresh set of eyes when you are working on a project. I knew it need something but I was sure what. He  nailed it. So I got out some craft wire, yarn, needle nose pliers with a wire cutter feature, and I typed up and printed out Merry Christmas as a guide.

Here is the gauge of the wire I used. It was really easy to shape...maybe a little too easy but it held it's shape so I went with it. I used the pliers to get nice, even curves. This takes a little while so maybe sit down to one of your favorite shows to tackle this. I watched Next Iron Chef (GO Zakarian or Guarnaschelli).

Here is the finished Merry Christmas.  I am pretty happy with it. The T gave me fits but the more I worked with it the crazier looking it became so I just left well enough alone. I tacked everything on with some small pin needles. It is holding very well. Oh and on the end of the letters that didn't continue into the word ( IE the M) I used a small piece of double sided tape to ensure that the yarn stayed put.

I love how lovely it looks perched on the front door. The red taffeta ribbon gives it just the right pop, I think.  

Not sure if you can see this but I used an upside down command hook on the inside of the door to secure the ribbon to. My ribbon was wired so tied it with a little curly cue bow. It is pretty on the outside and the inside. The bow also conceals the command hook a little.

It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas!! Tree is up, wreath is on the door, some lights are hung, Christmas music is playing, and now to bring out a few other little things around the house. Did you make a wreath this year? Feel free to leave a link to a post or pics I would love to see them.

Link Parties!!!