Saturday, December 4, 2010

Ornament wreath tutorial


I saw one of these ornament wreaths while Christmas shopping last year, and thought, I bet I could make that!  So I bought a bunch of pretty ornaments and went to town...Do you want to make one also??      Heres how:

What you will need:

(1) 12" floral wreath ( I like the white compressed styrofoam ones, as opposed to the green boxy circular ones, I find the ornaments stay adhered better)
12-18" piece of ribbon (for hanging on wall)
Hot glue gun and glue sticks
approx. 50 medium size colored ornaments (the ones I used were about 2 1/2" to 3" in diameter

Directions:

1.  Select about 20 ornaments and lay them out around the outer edge of the wreath to check for sizing and layout:

2.  Using your glue gun, attach each ornament, with the part where an ornament hook would attach facing down, so that you won't see that part when the wreath is assembled.  When glueing, I like to not only glue the ornament to the wreath, but also to the ornament next to it for extra security:


3.  Once all your outer ornaments are attached, I then arranged ornaments along the inside of the ring, again to check for spacing and the layout:

4.  You  guessed it, hot glue these in place, again keeping the ornament hook part facing down.

5.  What I did next was arrange a ring of ornaments in the gaps between the outer ring of ornaments and the wreath its self.  I find it easiest to put the hook part down in the gap like this:

6.  Hot glue these ornaments in place

7.  Next arrange a ring of ornaments along the "valley" between the inner ring of ornaments, the inner portion of the white wreath, next to the ring of ornaments you just glued into place (I fit about 8 ornaments here):

8.  Hot glue these into place, again keeping the hook part facing down:

9.  The last ring of ornaments you will attach will sit ontop of the previous two rings you attached, sort of forming a pyramid.  Arrange your ornaments so that you are hiding the majority of the white wreath that is still showing.  Hot glue in place.

10.  Turn your wreath carefully upside down and place on a table.  Find where you want the top of your wreath to be, and at this point, thread your ribbon inbetween the ornaments, so the ribbon will be tied against the wreath, and not the ornaments.  Tie in a knot, position the knot so that it on the back side of the wreath and hang where you desire!

11.  Sit back and enjoy your pretty new holiday wreath!

Happy Holidays!

4 comments:

  1. so cute. i guess i'd worry that there would be lots of white parts showing from the ring? did you find you saved money doing it yourself? or would you say it cost just as much?
    i love this idea though. thanks for letting me know!

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  2. Pretty ! You did a great job, and I love that you figured it out yourself.
    I just hung a wreath that I made from yarn when my daughter was a baby. It's atleast 30 years old, and I just can't make myself discard it. I did atleast put it on the BACK doot, and a newer one on the front !

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  3. Niki I spent about $10 in ornaments and the wreath was less than $5, so total was at most $15, which was definitly less than the cost of buying one at the store! Surprisingly you really dont see much of the wreath at all, I used a white wreath, and my wall is off white, so what you do see kind of blends in...if you know where you want to place the wreath, you could always wrap the foam part in a ribbon that matches your wall color...but honestly not much shows through!

    Dotty, its so nice to have things that almost become a tradition, I'm sure your daughter remembers that wreath from when she was growing up!

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  4. I recently made two of these ornament wreaths for the first time. They turned out pretty nice, but I wish I had found this information before I started. Will know next time the best way to start. I used smaller ornaments in the spaces where the foam might have been showing through. I cannot wait to go through my old ornaments and find enough to make a keepsake wreath for future holidays. Will also be shopping after the holidays this year to pick up supplies for making some during the cold winter months coming on. Thanks for the info. I used a nice piece of rope, knotted it at the length I needed and then used floral pins at an upward angle to hold the rope. Worked very well.

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