It Just Felt Right

I am so much more excited for this post than I ever anticipated being… today’s project turned out WAY better than I thought it would and it was so easy and satisfying, I can’t wait to show you! But first, we have business to attend to! A big thank you to those of you who took part in our first annual Christmas Card challenge… we showed you the four options we came up with for our Christmas card this year (you can read about them in this post):

…And you voted for which one you thought we chose in the end. We took the names of the people that guessed correctly, put them in a random drawing and now we have a winner! First, let me show you the design we chose for this year’s card… drumroll, please…

TA-DA!!!

Option 3!!! Which means that our winner is… SUMMER! Congratulations! We’ll get that Starbucks gift card in the mail pronto. 🙂

Whew! So much Christmas excitement and we’re just getting started. Today I have a Christmas-y project for you, but this one can easily translate to other holidays or even through the rest of winter. At first, I wasn’t sure about it. I couldn’t tell if I’d be able to get it to look like the picture I had in my head. Even after starting I had doubts, but in the end, I think this might be one of my all time favorites…

It’s so simple and easy, but so festive and merry. I’m thrilled with how it turned out and even more excited to show you how to make one of your own! Let’s get started…

For this project, you’ll need a Styrofoam wreath (I just used the one I had left over from this project but you can get them at any craft store), some burlap, green felt (I used two different shades), scissors, a hot glue gun, ribbon (not pictured), and some faux pearl berries. If you were starting from scratch and had nothing on hand, I’d say you could make this for just over $10. Coupons at Michaels are a wonderful thing. 🙂

First things first… wrap that wreath in burlap and glue the ends with a hot glue gun to secure it.

Next, cut the shape of a leaf out of felt and use that as a template to make more. For this project, I used 4 light green pieces of felt and 2 dark. My leaves only go about 3/4 around the wreath, though, so if you’re going to cover the whole thing, maybe shoot for 5-6 light and 3 dark.

This next part of the process is pretty self explanatory… all you do is start gluing those leaves onto the wreath! I did a dark leaf for every 3-4 light ones and just worked my way around. It helped to do the layers covering the ones I’d done before, creating a feathered effect.

To add some dimension and movement, I mixed the “laying flat” leaves, with a few folded over… just add a dab of hot glue in the middle and fold the leaf over on itself to get that cinched look.

My initial plan was to cover the entire wreath with leaves, but I loved the look of the burlap against the greens so much that I called an audible mid-assembly and decided to stop at about 3/4. Doesn’t it look so wintry already? 🙂

You can see how the bottom leaves end very naturally, but the ones at the top show where the pieces are glued. Just add a ribbon to cover that up!

At this point in the process, I started to get excited about how it looked, but it was the next step that won me over completely… Remember that branch of faux pearl beads? Time to cut it apart! Just take some scissors and snip off as many beads as you think you’ll want to use for the wreath.

…And glue them on! This was definitely my favorite part and what brought the whole thing together for me… I just tucked them here and there among the leaves. Don’t forget the inside and outside edges too!

When you’re finished, you’ll have a beautiful wintry wreath for your front door!

I LOVE how it turned out and it cracks me up that this went from being a project I wasn’t so sure about to one of my favorites of the year and maybe my favorite wreath so far!

Happy Winter from the Thomas family!

What’s hanging on your door these days? Are you all decked out in red, green, and gold? Maybe you’re going the blue, silver, and snowy white route? Tell me about it!