Monday, October 24, 2011

DIY Sunday: Yarn Wrapped Wreaths

Hello Everyone!

I'm excited to bring you a creation we did with our craft club this month! We made yarn wreaths! If you're on Pinterest (and if you aren't, you should be!), you will have seen this project becoming quite popular. We decided to jump on the bandwagon and do the project. After we did the project, the next day I got my DIY Magazine in the mail, and they had a little ditty about how their entire staff did the project this last month!

I decided to do a tutorial because we did discover some new things we didn't know about prior to doing the project. :)

Yarn Wrapped Wreaths

Supplies:

Wreath aka Pipe Foam Wrapping (None of us purchased the foam wreath forms. Why? How? You ask? Well, you don't need to! Read more about our wreaths below little craft grasshopper)
Duct Tape
Yarn (We didn't know how much to get, but I found to do one solid layer around it took about half of the yarn in one of bunches (what is the word you use for yarn? Is a package of it called a bushel or something?!?)
Hot Glue Gun (You don't actually need this if you are just wrapping the yarn and aren't decorating the wreath at all. But that's no fun)
Decorations (As you can see, we used things like branches, felt flowers and flowers)

Directions:

Step One: Create Your Wreath

Now, you could go and spend too much money on a foam wreath shape. But that's silly for this project! What you need to do is head to your local home improvement store (and that doesn't mean Wal-Mart!) and ask someone (or wander aimlessly for an hour..that's usually my method) where the foam wrapping for pipes is. You will probably end up with a large selection in front of you. We found through our trial and error, that it's pretty important to feel the foam. You will want a sturdy foam that is going to take the shape you want. I found that isn't the black cheaper stuff, but rather the more heavy duty stuff that is used for copper pipes. One "noodle" of it cost $3.00. Not a bad price and I even had a little left over to create some sort of toy for my daughter!

Also, I have seen a great idea where you take a swim noodle and using it for the same purpose. If you can find them cheap enough and don't mind a thicker/wider wreath, that may be a good option.

Play around with the foam and decide how big you want your wreath. Cut the foam to size and using duct tape (and probably another person...another tip we learned through trial and error) to close the circle in. Use an ample amount of duct tape.

Step Two: Wrapping...and Wrapping...and Wrapping...

Okay, this step can be a bit boring (unless you are with a fun group of gals and chat the whole time!). It's pretty simple since you just wrap the wreath with your yarn. You can start it one of two ways. Knot it on the wreath or use a hot glue gun to secure it. I probably would lean towards hot glue gun, but I also referred to my hot glue gun as the "elixir of life"...so I probably have an unhealthy attachment to it.

You can do it many ways. You can be clean and put the the yarn side by side or you can make it a bit messy and overlap. You can be like my friend and switch up the colors. Have fun with it!

We discovered that if you make your own wreath form, you will want to make a couple of layers of yarn. You may want to wrap two or three times to give the wreath shape some support.

Step Three: Decorate

This is really the hardest step. We busted through the wrapping and then we're just staring at one another like "What do I do now?!?!" My two crafty friends used some berry like swag on theirs. (Or as you can see, one of my friends when crazy with the berry stuff. We started to say that her wreath is "Fall with Jazz Hands" So, every time we refer to her wreath we have to say "Fall" and use jazz hands.)

I did felt flowers. Which wasn't really all that original since I did that on another wreath I did. I would post how to make them, but honestly, just Google felt flowers and you will get a 101 tutorials on a 101 different types of flowers. (Is that a lazy blogger thing? Not to actually hyperlink to the tutorials?) A little tip I would recommend, if you can manage it, you may want to put clips on the back of the flowers so you can switch them out based on the season. I did this with my other wreath and was going to do it with this one. But I got lazy and gave up trying to cram the clip into yarn wrapped part.

You can also hang a fun yarn wrapped letter. That's a pretty simple project. Just hot glue and yarn! This is another place you could do a seasonal letter and switch it out!

You now have a beautiful wreath to invite people into your home!


My wreath. I'm on a grey & yellow kick lately.


Yarn wrapped letter and super cute yarn.


Okay...so this one got some extra TLC after the fact. An extra layer of yarn made the wreath a bit more circular and sturdy.





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