Summer Wreath Tutorial

Since last Wednesday's announcement that I needed to stay off my feet the rest of the pregnancy, I've been staying busy around the house on a few projects that allow me to sit most of the time.  One that I've enjoyed most is making a wreath for the front door that would be perfect for summer.  I made a somewhat similar wreath last fall using yarn, but I haven't had anything hanging on the door since Christmas.  The horror!!

My mom and I joked the whole time I was making this wreath that they would have to drag me out of the house kicking and screaming if it wasn't done before Will's arrival!  :)  I hate leaving craft projects halfway done, so thankfully the little guy stayed put until I got it finished.

Here are the materials I used.  I purchased everything with the exception of the sand dollars, twine and glue sticks because I already had these laying around.  Mr. Man, aka Carlton, loves collecting seashells and like items at the beach so he had the sand dollars stored out in the garage.  All I had to do was clean them up and preserve them.  That was super simple and you can follow these easy instructions if you have some laying around and need to do the same.  I used a bleach solution and then I used Mod Podge to harden and preserve them.

I started by wrapping the wreath form in the Caron Simply Soft sage yarn.  I used hot glue to secure the yarn.

Once I had the form 100% wrapped, I added a twine accent around the top.  This also helped cover up where I had to overlap the yarn a bit (you can see the gap in the picture above; I just double wrapped that section).

Then, I roughly placed the sand dollars where I thought I wanted them to go.  I thought the wreath looked kind of empty, though, so I started thinking about what else I could use to fill it in a little.

I decided to continue by adding a few twine accents to pull the whole thing together and add a bit more texture.  I just wrapped lengths of twine around and around until I got the rough size disk that I wanted.  I used hot glue to secure the twine to itself and nearly burnt off the ends of my fingers in the process.  I even have blisters to prove it!

Once I had the twine accents and sand dollars attached securely to the wreath using hot glue, I called this project C-O-M-P-L-E-T-E and proudly announced that little Will could make his entrance into this world anytime he chooses.  Pretty sure everyone around me rolled their eyes!

So, that's it for my summer wreath!  The front door is ready to welcome visitors and I can now sleep a little easier knowing this is one more project off my wish list before Will arrives.  Yes, I lose sleep over such silly little things...




Linked up @: Not Just A Housewife, Home Stories A to Z, How To Nest For Less