Easter/Spring Wreath

I'm SO excited to share this wreath with you!!!

I had my Valentine's wreath up until last week - sad, I know.  I just hadn't had the time to sit down and make another wreath until this past weekend.

And I LOVE how my wreath turned out!

At first, I was going to do a vine wreath with lots of flowers.  It would have been really pretty, I think.  But it was getting too expensive with all the flowers I wanted to get the look I was going for.  So while I was at the craft store I decided to change directions.  I had another wreath envisioned with tulle so I decided to go for it!

All of the Easter stuff at JoAnne's was 40% off.  Yay!  So I got a pretty bunch of wild flowers, some decorative eggs and a super cute vintage Easter sign.  I could have totally made the sign myself, but it was so cheap that it was worth it just to buy it and save me the time :)  Plus I had a 40 % off coupon for my most expensive item.  Aw yeah!  I used it on my sparkly tulle.  Yeah, I got sparkly tulle and LOVE IT!  It was a little pricey, even with the coupon (at least pricey for me, but I'm kind of cheap - ha ha!), but so worth it. 

On with the tutorial!

I started with a foam wreath.  I didn't want to see the white through the tulle so I wrapped ribbon around the whole thing

I picked a pink 2" ribbon that I already had (I love the ribbon from Tai Pan - super cheap and good quality) so that it would cover it fast.  I'm still worn out from wrapping all the yarn on my Valentine's wreath :)

Then I cut my tulle into strips.  I did 4" for the width and just cut the length in half.  PS - my mom got me a rotary cutter and mat for my birthday {I turn the big 3-0 in a couple of weeks - aaaaah!!!}.  It was SO easy cutting my tulle with the rotary cutter!  I love it!

After the strips were cut, I started tying them onto the wreath.  I did it just like you would tie the tulle onto a tutu.  But, I decided to do this like a "Tutu for Dummies" just in case there is someone out there who doesn't know how to do it.  Cuz I'm super nice and cool like that.

Soooooooo, you take your strip of tulle, fold it in half and put in under the wreath.  The looped end should be on the inside, like so:

Then pull the loose ends through the loop:

Next, pull up and tighten the strip of tulle:

When you are done tying, you will have this wonderful wreath that looks like a fun little tutu when you are done:

I alternated between the regular tulle and the sparkly tulle.  Since I got less of the sparkly tulle (cuz it was more expensive), I did one strip of sparkly tulle to every two strips of regular tulle.  Got it?  Good.

You'll want to trim the tulle at this point to the length you want it.

After I trimmed mine, I added a little ric-rac to give it some more oomph, color and interest:

Now it's time to embellish!  My favorite part.  Mwahahaha!

I started with my little bunch of wild flowers:

So fun and colorful!

Then I whipped out my speckled eggs (by the way, have you seen this tutorial to make your own?  Love it!  But I'm too lazy to do it, plus the ones I got were on sale . . . )

I arranged the flowers, eggs and vintage Easter sign (pictured below) onto the side of my wreath and attached them with floral wire.  

I wanted to attach the Easter sign with a little bling, so I hot-glued a pin to a clear rhinestone:

And here is my little cluster of fun:

And a close-up of my blinged out pin and Easter sign:

I love, love, love my Easter wreath!  It turned out better than I imagined.  Love it when that happens :)

The total cost was right around $20, which is a little more than I usually spend on a wreath, especially one that I'm making myself, but it was worth it.  I love coming home to something pretty on my door . . .

Especially when I know I made it and it's unique and one-of-a-kind!

PS - If I've inspired you and you decide to make a wreath like mine, I'd love to see how yours turns out!  Email me at LovingEverySecondBlog@gmail.com.

Here's where I link up:

Valentine's {Love} Wreath

I finally got my Valentine's wreath done!

It's been a work-in-progress all week.

Why, you ask?

Cuz I've been taking care of my sick children who, by-the-way, are still not better!

So sad :(

I'm starting to get cabin fever.  For real.

Anywho . . .

I wanted to do a yarn wreath because they are so. darn. cute.

I bought a straw wreath at the thrift store a few months ago and kept it for future use, so I pulled it out for this project.

 {That's right - I got it for one dollar!}

I kept the plastic wrapping on the wreath - I thought it would be pretty messy if I took it off.

Then I started wrapping the yarn.  I started by wrapping it around once and tying a knot, like so:

Then I kept cutting long lengths of yarn and wrapping/tying:

I'm not gonna lie, it took FOREVER to wrap the whole wreath!

And it wasn't totally perfect, but I knew I was putting some embellishments on it so it didn't bother me.

For the embellishments, I cut out a heart on some cardstock using my cricut.  Then I traced it onto some burlap:

I cut out the burlap, then, using spray glue, glued the burlap onto the cardstock:

I have a bag full of lace scraps and decided to put those to use.  I hot-glued some lace on the outside of the burlap heart:

{I originally had two hearts of different sizes.  This is the one I didn't use.  Just in case you were wondering why it has different lace than the one I used :) }

It needed a little something more so I decided to back-stitch something onto it.  I used the burlap as my guide and back-stitched "Love" with a little heart.  I love how it turned out!

Using some more lace scraps, I made some lace flowers.

I just held the lace on one end and rolled it up:

Then I hot-glued the end to the roll:

Next I hot-glued a piece of felt on the bottom to keep it from unraveling:

Then I glued my flowers onto my wreath, along with the heart:

So freakin' cute, huh?!

I wanted to hang it by ribbon on my door but couldn't figure out how to do it.  My husband suggested we staple it to the top of the door.  I knew I kept him around for something :)

I really love how this wreath turned out.

It's got a fun vintage feel to it.

Plus, the wreath cost me a total of about $3.00!

I had everything on-hand except for the yarn.

Oh how I love being thrifty :)