Winter Wreath

First, thank you SO much for all your super-sweet comments after my last post -- it was such a nice welcome back! :)

So waaaaay back before Christmas even, I made a winter wreath for our front door.  And although I wish I didn't have to have a winter wreath up in January in February, we do live in Minnesota, and it is definitely still winter here.  Brrrrr!  Not to mention, we've had more snow this year than I've ever experienced in my whole life -- so yes, the winter wreath will be staying up for a few more months. 

This wreath is SO fun, and SO easy (and cheap) -- you know, my favorite things!

First, I found this wreath at Goodwill for only $.99.  I liked the twisted viney branches for my base -- and just took off the "Christmasy" decorations on the front.  I decided to paint it white for a bit of winter elegance. 

I gave it a few coats of white spray paint  -- oh yes, this was definitely painted quite some time ago -- with our below zero temperatures there is just no spray painting right now :(  

The next thing I did was spray paint some big pine cones. First I primed them so the paint would stay on through the cooold, coooold, months.  I chose a metallic blue for these pinecones -- another fun wintery color. :)

Soooo shimmery!  I love it -- the color just screams winter, right!?!

Next I glued three pine cones onto the front of the wreath with some trusty Gorilla Glue.

Finally, I found a pretty brown ribbon in my stash and tied it onto the front to hang it on the door:

I hung it on the door -- and viola!

I was pleasantly surprised at how easy and cute this wreath was!  I think it turned out pretty glammy from where it started, don't you think?

And the absolute BEST part was that I only spent $.99 on the actual wreath!  (Although I did splurge on the blue paint which was $3.29 -- still okay though, right!?!)

 

Linking up to:

Mondays:Between Naps on the Porch ; C.R.A.F.T; Craft-O-Maniac; Keeping it Simple; Mad in Crafts; Making the World Cuter; The DIY Showoff; The Girl Creative Tuesdays:  All Thingz Related; House of Grace; I'm Topsy Turvy; Lucky Star Lane; Sugar Bee Craft Edition; The CSI Project; These Creative Juices; Today's Creative Blog Wednesdays:  Blue Cricket Design; Creations by Kara; Debbiedoos; Domestically Speaking; My Backyard Eden; Night Owl Crafting; Seven Thirty Three; Someday Crafts; The Thrifty Home; Trendy Treehouse Thursdays: Beyond the Picket Fence; Craftastical!; Fireflies & Jellybeans; House of Hepworths; Life as Lori; Somewhat Simple; The Shabby Chic Cottage Fridays:  Chic on a Shoestring; Finding Fabulous; Fingerprints on the Fridge; Frou Frou Decor; Frugal & Fabulous Design; It's a Hodge Podge Life; It's Fun to Craft!: Just a Girl; Remodelaholic; Simply Designing; The Shabby Nest; Tatertots & Jello Weekend:  A  Little Lovely; Be Different Act Normal; Funky Junk Interiors; House of Thrifty Decor; I Heart Naptime; Kuzak's Closet; Under the Table & Dreaming

Fall Wreath

I absolutely LOVE fall -- it's one of those seasons that has completely grown on me.  Ironically, as a kid I HATED fall -- it meant we had to go back to school, stop swimming outside, and start wearing jackets.  But now I adore the change -- the crisp air, the rustling leaves -- all of it.  And this year it feels like the season came overnight!  It got chilly really fast.

So to celebrate the autumn season, I decided to make a Fall Wreath to hang on the front door.

I used some decorating raffia, a wreath form and my glue gun.  

 I got this raffia at Michael's for around $4.00 with my 40% off coupon, and I managed to find the straw wreath form at Goodwill for $2.00.

First I took thee or four strands of each color raffia and glued one end of the bunch to the wreath.

 Then I wrapped them around the wreath tightly.  I glued the end of the stands to the wreath and then started another bunch of raffia, overlapping the end of the previous bunch so no ends would be sticking out.  

 I continued doing this until the whole wreath was covered with raffia.  

At the end there were a lot of loose ends and pieces sticking out.  I trimmed as many as I could with scissors, and then the ones that I couldn't trim short enough, I glued down (I tried to do most of my gluing on the back of my wreath where it wouldn't be seen).

Now that my wreath was done, I decided to make raffia flowers.  First I took the purple colored raffia and grabbed five to six strands. 

 

I wrapped it around a cardboard form (or you could use your hand) so that it is uniform and even, like this:

 Then I wrapped another piece of raffia around the middle and tied it in the back to secure it like a bow.

Then I made another "bow", exactly like the one shown above and glued them on my wreath in an "X" to make a flower.

Finally, I hung it on the door and admired it. :)

What do you think??  I wish there was less pink and purple in there, but I still like it -- it still says, fall, right? :)

Linking up to:

Mondays:Between Naps on the Porch ; C.R.A.F.T; Craft-O-Maniac; Keeping it Simple; Mad in Crafts; Making the World Cuter; The DIY Showoff; The Girl Creative Tuesdays:  All Thingz Related; House of Grace; I'm Topsy Turvy; Lucky Star Lane; Sugar Bee Craft Edition; The CSI Project; These Creative Juices; Today's Creative Blog Wednesdays:  Blue Cricket Design; Creations by Kara; Debbiedoos; Domestically Speaking; My Backyard Eden; Night Owl Crafting; Seven Thirty Three; Someday Crafts; The Thrifty Home; Trendy Treehouse Thursdays: Beyond the Picket Fence; Craftastical!; Fireflies & Jellybeans; House of Hepworths; Life as Lori; Somewhat Simple; The Shabby Chic Cottage Fridays:  Chic on a Shoestring; Finding Fabulous; Fingerprints on the Fridge; Frou Frou Decor; Frugal & Fabulous Design; It's a Hodge Podge Life; It's Fun to Craft!: Just a Girl; Remodelaholic; Simply Designing; The Shabby Nest; Tatertots & Jello Weekend:  A  Little Lovely; Be Different Act Normal; Funky Junk Interiors; House of Thrifty Decor; I Heart Naptime; Kuzak's Closet; Under the Table & Dreaming