One of my favourite bloggers is Thrifty Decor Chick. She is a great writer, a talented decorator and a true inspiration. When I'm searching for DIY decor things, I go to her blog before I even go to Google. I found this lovely entry when I was looking for inspiration for an inexpensive and easy to store, but big enough to see from the street door wreath.
I never think of the Dollar Store for craft supplies. I should, but I didn't. Until I started reading DIY blogs. I took my dear daughter to guitar lessons and had 30 minutes to kill. Lucky for me, the Dollar Store is right beside the music store. I was pleasantly surprised to find everything I would need to complete my own autumn wreath.
This one, was actually quite easy compared to the Christmas ball wreath that I copied from a retail display. Here's how it went:
I had a left over piece of black foam core that I uncovered when I finally finished clearing, cleaning and organizing my craft room.
I never think of the Dollar Store for craft supplies. I should, but I didn't. Until I started reading DIY blogs. I took my dear daughter to guitar lessons and had 30 minutes to kill. Lucky for me, the Dollar Store is right beside the music store. I was pleasantly surprised to find everything I would need to complete my own autumn wreath.
This one, was actually quite easy compared to the Christmas ball wreath that I copied from a retail display. Here's how it went:
I had a left over piece of black foam core that I uncovered when I finally finished clearing, cleaning and organizing my craft room.
I used a cake plate to trace the inner circle. Then I tied a string to a pen and pinned it to the center of the inner circle. I stretched it out and traced a circle to make the outer ring. Then I cut it with a sharp knife. Don't stress over trying to make it perfect. No one will ever see it. 
The supplies I picked up from my new favourite craft supply store needed to be cut apart and sorted. I borrowed DH's wire cutters but I will have to get my own.
I used my trusty hot glue gun to glue everything down. The trick here was to not fuss about it. Just stick it down. I had 3 shades of orange/red and 1 pile of green/brown. I used the biggest orange ones first, then filled in randomly with the others. It was so difficult to be random! I thought it looked like a hot mess! But I propped it up on my peg board, stepped back and looked at it from a distance. It's so much different when you're not looking at your project from 2 feet away. Then I placed the green leaves where they needed to go to break up some of the orange, without looking to contrived.
I tried placing the "berries" on too, but they just didn't look right. I've never seen berries on a maple tree so I decided to leave them off. (They were part of the wire garland thing I bought at the Dollar Store). Besides that, berries seem more winter to me than autumn.
So I stepped back and looked at it a few times and placed the sunflowers on the way they go traditionally. That 2 here, 1 there asymetrical placement. I liked it, but I didn't love it. I was trying to not take it all too seriously. I wanted it to be random, not perfect. I also didn't want it to look like a DIY project but I didn't want it to look like a factory made wreath either. It's SO hard to not fuss over it. I just kept reminding myself that if it was horrible, it was ONLY $10 spent. So I left it for a bit and cooked dinner. I came back to it and tried a bit of ribbon. It was too much. Then I remembered I had some rafia. I first tried weaving it all around. Yuk. Tried a bow, too predictable. While I was fussing with the rafia though, a few strands fell on the table, and were lying just under the wreath. What a wonderful accident. It was just the little pop of something it needed. So I glued it down, added the ribbon for hanging, and Voila! My autumn wreath!
 |
| Not bad for $10.71 |
