Every morning, sunshine seeps through our bedroom windows, starting off a milky white and slowly intensifying to a warm, buttery yellow. Outside, songbirds trill and flutter among the Bradford Pears as a new spring day begins. For some reason, waking up to birds singing their little hearts out does tremendous good for my own. Branches laden with pink and white blossoms, robins darting from every bush, and even a dusky brown bunny randomly taking up residence in our condo parking lot--everything seems to be welcoming the new season. So. I figured I should toss my hat in as well by making a new wreath for our front door.
I had a vague idea for what I wanted the wreath to look like. I wanted to somehow incorporate an H, for our last name Hobbs (obviously). I began by digging around in my ever-growing yarn collection, hoping a color would jump out at me. As much as I love winter and fall colors, I have to say by March and April, my heart is ready for some bright corals, pinks, and yellows.
That's when I found this: a skein of hand-dyed yarn given to me a few years ago by a good friend. I'd been saving it, hoping a stroke of brilliance would yield a unique project-idea for it.
This wreath was incredibly easy to make. Here's just how easy:
1. Gather your supplies: 14 inch grapevine wreath, a few silk flowers (I chose two large fluffy ones--like the pink hydgrangeas--one smaller flower, and something long and wispy for interest), floral wire, a wooden or paper-mache letter, some shears, and a hot glue gun.
2. I started off by wrapping the paper-mache H with my yarn. I hot-glued one end of the yarn-strand to the letter. After making sure it had dried and secured, I began wrapping.
Pretty easy right? But here's where I paused. Wrapping the H in yarn covered everything but the ends. On the tips of the H, you could still see the cardboard. While that probably doesn't seem like a big deal, for this perfectionist it was. So, I decided to take care of that mess.
I cut a few strands of yarn--about three or four inches. Then, super-glued one side to the H. I looped them over the tip of the letter and superglued the other side. Once the super-glue dried, I began looping the yarn again to secure the end cover-up pieces.
Finally, the yarn monogram was completed. I have to admit...it took a little longer than I aniticipated. So, if you're doing this project, I'd say do this part while sitting down watching TV or a movie. I was standing at my kitchen table and by the time I got to the second leg of the H I was like "ahhh come on, let's get done with this!"
By comparison, the wreath itself took no time at all. I clipped my flowers so that they each had about a two inch stem. Just enough to stick into the grapevine twigs.
First, I placed the pink silk peony. Then, I added in the greenery and the long orange interest-piece. I wanted to make sure these were all secured beneath the fluffy hydrangeas. The hydrangeas were very full so they completely filled in the gaps. Two blossoms went a long way.
I twisted the flower stems into the grape-vines; so I feel like the blossoms are all secure on the wreath. However, a little bit of floral wire twisted around the ends is an easy way to secure the blossoms if you're worried about it.
The lighting in the hallway was awful---so excuse the yellow-tinge to the above photograph. But that's it. Wrapping the letter was the longest part of the process. Placing the flowers., however, took hardly any time at all. I'd say overall--this is about a 30 minute project. So give it a try! Seeing this hanging on my door tonight when Mark and I walked in from the gym brought a huge smile to my face. Spring has officially arrived at the Hobbs house!
