A Letter Wreath

Some of you may remember a wreath that my friend made last year.


This is how it looked all decked out for the Holiday Season. I love how full and voluptuous is is but the red was a little much by the time February rolled around. So I pulled out all the red stuff and stuck it in one of my white dishes.


I don't know about you but when I have a good wreath form, instead of buying or making a different wreath when I'm ready for a change, I just pull out the parts that define the season and stick new parts in.


Since this wreath started out as a grapevine wreath, it's easy to wedge in whatever you have available and it magically stays if you shove it in far enough. I try to never hot glue or wire anything in that way I can change it up fast and reuse everything. Every now and then something might fall out but hardly ever, it's a small price to pay to be able to reuse my floral stuff. But I did wrap a wire around that starfish.


I like to add in some fern. In the photo they look really distracting. But in real life they blend in much better and don't demand that much attention.


We have purple flowers growing in our front yard. So I figured I'd add in some purple. Not my favorite color but I loved the end result. I just tear these stick berry branch things apart with my bear hands, I mean bare hands and force them in. After that work you will wish you had bear hands. The branches are from Hobby Lobby of course.


After mixing up the greenery and color, the wreath needed something more. I found this "S" and thought it would be a great addition. I mean, who cares if our last name doesn't start with an S--it was on sale. Just kidding.

This "S" started out really yellow. Once it was on the door next to our white trim it made my house look like a pretty girl with yellow teeth. So I got a paper towel and brushed on some white acrylic paint. Much better.


Now for the part I am most proud of. I have a bad habit of saving any and everything that I think could possible be useful. Last year I purchased a pretty fluffy blanket and it was wrapped in a thick taupe ribbon that closed with Velcro. What a genius idea. I saved that ribbon.

When I went to hang my wreath like I've talked about here--this is the link to click if you want to read how to hang the wreath with a ribbon because it's too long to tell it all again in this post, I remembered this ribbon. And, since I knew right where it was {ask me to find last year's tax returns, my children's medical records or a working ink pen and you are out of luck, I don't even know our home phone number by heart} I grabbed it and it worked. I hope Simplemom isn't reading this.


See how the Velcro meets right at the back!? Do you think I could patent this? I mean, utilizing this ribbon that just happened to be cut to the perfect length was my finest hour. I was so entirely impressed with myself. I had to take my husband out and show him. Anyone want to nominate me for the Nobel Peace Prize? Now I can easily change out my wreath, or if we change our last name, I can switch out the letter with the greatest of ease. And all you have to do is go buy a $40 blanket at Target and you, too can have one of these ribbons.

Sometimes I feel like an idiot decorating savant. I'll admit, there are times when things just seem to work out. All the Design Stars must have aligned for me. I think it comes just from doing so many things the wrong way that sooner or later, something decent is bound to happen. Too bad my brain isn't wired for technology or medicine. I'm sorry world.


One last thing, I wanted to show you the back side of this wreath. Turn your children away as it is naked and not ashamed. See how there are actually two grapevine wreaths wired together? One is big and one is small. This makes for a super fat wreath.

Do you ever rip stuff out of your old wreaths and redo them?

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This post just added to Get Your Craft On at Today's Creative Blog.