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Sunday, March 17, 2013

Bright Easter Wreath

We are moving at the end of next month, and with Easter just right around the corner I knew that I couldn't NOT put any decorations up. I am a holiday decoration addict! Seriously..... I have a problem. You had better stand back when Christmas is approaching because, my house looks like a red, green, and glitter bomb went off (a tasteful bomb). But with all of my beloved decorations lovingly wrapped up and carefully packed away, I just couldn't bring myself to venture out to the garage and open up the boxes. So naturally, I just need new decorations to get me through Easter until we get into our new home.

Although I have a sweet and understanding husband, he would be PISSED if I bought a bunch of new decorations, considering that our garage is 3/4 my decorations and 1/4 his tools. I try to justify that the decorations make the house so beautiful and festive, so whats the big deal if there's 40 plus boxes in the garage!? It probably doesn't help that I am completely unwilling to purge and get rid of any of it. There is always the "I still like it, so I had better keep a hold of it and maybe use it next year" excuse that my husband is sick of hearing. But they are like my babies! If you were forced, would you be able to choose which one of your kids to give up? Do I give up the shiny new one that I had been waiting for and wanted desperately? The one I could picture adding to the family and building memories around for years to come? Or the older ones that have been there through new homes, a growing family, each year pulling them out of the boxes, dusting them off and smiling just thinking about all of the memories that we already have made together? Its just not possible to choose. Okay maybe I shouldn't compare inanimate objects to my children. But I love my decorations.... you get the point.

So I decided I would choose one decoration to DIY. I figured that if I couldn't buy a bunch of new stuff to deck out the inside of the house, and I couldn't bring myself to brave the towering packed boxes in the garage, then I could at least keep up appearances with the neighbors who have never seen my door naked before. So a wreath it is! I've never really made a wreath before but I felt confident that I could. I looked around on Pintrest (of course) and found a cute wreath for inspiration. It wasn't an Eater wreath but the color screamed at me. So here is what I did.

Supply List:

Grapevine Wreath- I got mine at Micheal's but I know you can get them at loads of other places, including Hobby Lobby (<------ one of the great loves of my life)

Spray Paint- any color you want.

Easter Grass- I got mine at the Dollar Store. It wasn't the plastic shiny kind. It was more like green raffia.

Styrofoam Easter Eggs- again I got mine at the dollar store. I got 1 pack of the regular size eggs (contained 5) and 1 pack of small eggs (contained 10) All of the eggs came attached to skewers.

Ribbon- any kind you want. This will be used to hang your wreath so you will want a medium to wide width ribbon.

Glue Gun and Glue

Scissors

This project will take about 2 hours if you count the drying time for the paint.





In the future I would probably use the next size wreath down from this one. Its a little bigger than I thought it was in the store. But it was $8 so I got a little greedy! Lay out a drop cloth. Grab your wreath and spray paint. I chose a beautiful powder blue. Obviously for ventilation purposes, you're going to want to do this outside. 




Shake your paint well and begin spraying your wreath, making sure to cover between the twigs and crannies. I did this in the afternoon when it was about 85 degrees with a little bit of a breeze. which was perfect for drying. By the way, why in the hell is it 85 freaking degrees in March!!!!




While your wreath dries, you might as well prep the rest of the project. So grab your balls eggs and lets get to it. These come on skewers from the dollar store. Hold each skewer tight between your fingers and gently turn the egg until it is released from the glue. They should come off fairly easy.



Once your wreath is fully dry bring it on into the house and put it down at your work space. At this point your glue gun should be heated up. Grab your grass (I loved using this raffia grass, I definitely recommend it) and start pulling it apart. You DO NOT want to just grab a big clump of this stuff and start gluing it on all willy nilly!  Choose where you want it to start end end on your wreath. Then little handfuls at a time, pull the grass apart and start gluing it into place. This way you can build up the density of the grass to how you like it. I didn't want mine to be to thick so this is about how much I used.



Now start to arrange the eggs on your wreath, without glue, to decide the placement you like best. When you have got the right configuration start to carefully pick them up, one at a time, and add the glue to one side. place them where you want them and apply a little pressure to keep them in place. You want to make sure you are not just gluing your eggs to the Easter grass, but that the glue attaches to the grass and to the wreath beneath.



Almost done. Loop the ribbon of your choice around the top of your wreath and make a cute bow. Bows are not my expertise, as much as I wish they were. Leave about a foot of space between your wreath and the bow. Take one more minute to retrieve a pair of scissors, so that you can trim off any bits of grass that look wild or out of place. Now.... you are done. Go stick that cutie pie up on your front door!



                             I really like the way it turned out! I hope you try this out and love it!

                                                          Until next time lovelys!

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