This past weekend I created some quick and easy holiday decorations. The first one I did was taking a plain holiday wreath and quickly adding some fun decorations.
Dressing up a plain holiday wreath:
I had picked up this plain plastic lighted wreath, a bucket of inexpensive ornaments, and some lovely peppermint striped ribbon at Target a couple of weeks ago. With the addition of some hot glue, a little help from
Martha, and some floral wire from
Michaels craft store, I turned it into a nice little holiday wreath that can be easily changed from year to year to match your Holiday whims.
Start with one plain wreath and some ornaments.
Using some quick-cut floral wire from
Michaels, I attached a handful of ornaments to the wreath by stringing the wire through the ring on the top of the each of the ornaments and then wrapping each one securely around the branches of the wreath in a tight cluster.
The next steps involve hot glue (fabric glue works too), ribbon, and a pair of scissors (to cut the ribbon). Make sure if you’re using hot glue that the ribbon you’re using won’t melt. Otherwise you should use fabric glue, which you can get at any craft or fabric store.
I cut a length of ribbon to be used for hanging the wreath. I didn’t measure. Use your best judgment as to how far you want the wreath to hang down once hung. I folded over one end to and hot glued it down on top of the other end to create a finished look.
Next I created a bow using
these instructions from Martha Stewart. I chose the Sash Bow, but any style bow you like will do.
To make the Sash Bow, you’ll need four lengths of ribbon- 16”, 20”, 24” and one 4 yard length for the tails. It just so happened that the instructions from Martha Stewart created a bow that was the right size for my wreath. I would recommend testing the longest bow length (24”) and eyeballing it to see if it is large enough for your needs (which I did), and adjusting as needed before cutting.
Glue the ends together of each of the three ribbons in order to create three rings like this. Then stack them together flat seam side down in the center (longest on the bottom, medium sized in the middle and smallest on top), tie the 4 yard length ribbon around the middle of the stack placing the knot at the back making sure the seams are hidden.
Once I had the knot how and where I wanted it, I hot glued the knot in order to hold it in place.
Et voila! The finished bow. At this point, you can attach the bow to your wreath by using wire. For my wreath, I glued the bow to the ribbon that I was going to use to hang the wreath.
And here is the final product. All in all it took about 20 minutes. Depending on your level of perfectionism, it can take you longer or shorter than that. Since none of the parts I added are glued to the wreath, I can change it up next year by using a different ribbon or different ornament… or leave it as is. :)
images by me
