wreath

Are you ready for another Christmas craft project? You are? Good, I’ve got just the craft for you, a Christmas ball ornament wreath. To start, you’ll need to acquire a roll of floral wire, a wire wreath form, tons of cheap plastic ball ornaments and a sheet or two of felt to match your color palette. It also helps to have a glue gun and plenty of glue sticks handy.

I got a large form from Hobby Lobby for $3.47 and nine packages of ornaments from Target’s dollar section. I chose all silver to keep it timeless and go with any color palette in the years to follow. Seriously, the best deal I’ve found. Get an assortment of sizes, too. I used 2 1/2 packages of the small (16 per pack), 5 of the medium (8 per pack) and 1 large with 4 per pack.

After you gather your supplies, start by cutting a piece of wire about two feet in length. For this part of the process, use only the two large sizes. String the wire through the top of the ornament. Wrap the wire around the wire form and twist the loose end to secure. Then, wrap the long end through another section of the wreath form, go back up and add another ball. Basically, you’ll make a zig zag pattern with the wire to connect the ornaments on a few long wires.

The zig zag will help keep the ornaments in place. They will still move around a little. This is where the glue gun comes in. Place a few little dots of hot glue where the ornaments meet and allow to dry. This step is most easily done in small sections. I don’t recommend waiting until you’ve attached all ornaments to glue.

Continue attaching the ornaments until you’ve covered the wreath form. You will have spots where the wreath form is still visible, just as I did with the pine cone wreath I recently made. If you have visible areas on the very inside or outside of the wreath, wire small ornaments in place, gluing to keep from moving.

Then, hot glue the smallest ornaments onto the larger ornaments to fill any areas you can see through those ornaments.

Again, continue until you’ve covered all areas. If you want to add a splash of color, you can add a bright bow, hang an ornament in the center of the wreath or choose a brightly colored ribbon to hang the wreath from. The possibilities are endless.

To prevent from scratching the surface the wreath will rest against, hot glue small pieces of felt to the back or the wreath form.

Hang on your door to add a ton of Christmas cheer and greet your guests.

Still looking for Christmas decorating ideas? Fret not, we’ll share another DIY idea tomorrow, but you can check out our Christmas tree in the mean time.

By now, I bet you’ve learned two things about me. Number 1: I like to make a lot of things myself. Number 2: I’m cheap. I like to make things because I’m cheap. One item I’ve been working on is a pine cone wreath.

What I love about this wreath is that it can easily transition from autumn, to Thanksgiving, to Christmas, to winter, just by adding a few accessories. That means, one wreath to store, but two seasons and two holidays of decoration. Sweet, huh? Yeah, I think so. What’s even better? It’s practically free!

To make a pine cone wreath, start with a wire wreath form, available at craft stores, pinecones, wire, and wire cutters or scissors if your wire is thin enough.

Cut a length of wire between 9 and 12 inches long. Wrap the wire around the base of the pine cone, tucking under the petals.

After wiring a few to the form, I learned that the cones flop around less if you keep part of the wire on each side, rather than twisting like the picture above.

Once your cone is wired, wrap around the wreath form, pulling tightly to keep it firmly in place. Wrap the wires of the next cone to the previous wiring. Again, this will keep the pinecones in a tight formation and prevent flopping.

Group the pinecones as closely together as possible. The back will look something like this.

Twist the wires together and cut the ends off. Continue this process until you re covered the entire wreath form.

If you used large pinecones like I did, you’ll have to find smaller ones to fill in the gaps where the wreath form is visible.

I bought some golden pine cone picks from Hobby Lobby for $.50 each, after a 50% discount.

I cut the pinecones off the pick and followed the same wiring process to fill in the gaps. Add the small filler pinecones and the wreath is finished.

The way you choose to hang the wreath will depend on your situation. You can add a few lengths of fishing line or hang from a hook. You might be wondering why my wreath is on m dining room window. Well, friends, that’s because it’s friggin’ freezing in Montana. I literally have not left our house in days due to the cold. Cold like a high of 5°. Which means, the suction cup hook I bought won’t work on the outside of our front door. It requires a minimum of 40° to stick. So, it’s hanging in our dining room.

I will share details on how to add decorative items to add some seasonal pizzaz. What are you doing to spruce up your home for Thanksgiving?