DIY Wreath Tutorial

DIY WREATH TUTORIAL

I just finished my wreath for my fireplace and I love it!

Here is how I did it!

After finding out how much a fairly large wreath would cost I decided to make my own. I found this wreath at Tia Pan. I was so excited because it was exactly what I wanted but then I looked at the price tag. OUCH!

So to make it more budget friendly I headed to D.I. to see if I could find a wreath I could pull apart or one that had not been decorated yet. The first time I went I found this one for $2 and planned to pull the berries off and redo it. After getting the berries off I decided it was not big enough. Don't worry I have a different plan for this one.

So on my second trip to D.I. to look at wreaths I found this for $4.

This was perfect! I could could shape it to the exact size I wanted because it was just a twig vine.

Here is was I would have spent on my wreath base if I had bought it at the store.

So after shaping it I tied it in several places with craft wire like this

Now time for the greens. Sometimes you have to realize when finding a certain item at a garage sale isn't really all that realistic. I hadn't seen any garlands like the kind I wanted for my wreath at garage sales and I was not willing to wait to see if I would it in the future so I shopped around at several places online. I found a great website called Save-on-Crafts. This website is so neat. They have thousands of products to choose from that are about half price. I found a 9ft boxwood garland for $8.50 and was about to order it but decided that I would go check my local Michael's really quick before ordering. In the end with 50% off coupons and not having to pay for shipping Michael's was cheaper by a few dollars. However, I will be checking Save-on-crafts in the future when I need something!

Here is my garland. I attached my garland with craft wire the same way I tied my wreath together. I used 3 strands of box wood garland. My total for the wreath was just over $25. Much better than $120. I almost saved myself $100 just by making it myself!

Just so you have an idea of how big this wreath is I took the wreath off my front door and placed it in front of my homemade wreath. My DIY wreath is a 24 inch wreath.

After talking to a friend I found out she was tackling the same project I was! She went about accomplishing her project much different that I did so I asked if I could take pictures and post it on my blog.

Here is her wreath. I LOVE how full it is!

She also got her garland at Michael's and used 2 6ft strands.

She took a picture frame with a flat surface and glued styrofoam on it. She then cut of sections of the garland and stuck them into the styrofoam and used hot glue to reinforce them.

What I great idea! Once she gets it up I will take a picture of it and post it!

So now with my DIY wreath finally finished I can give you a picture of my entire fireplace set up. The fireplace its self I bought for $75. The decorative mirror with the metal embellishments I bought for $17 and the two sconces I paid $15 a piece for. All were bought at GARAGE SALES! In the center of the fireplace I wanted to do some of the bronze tin ceiling tiles like this...

but they were so EXPENSIVE! They were $20 a sheet! I would have needed 6 sheets, which means I would have spent $120 on ceiling tiles. Thats more than I spent on the fireplace it's self! So I started looking for a cheaper route and found paintable wall paper.

Here is a close up of my wall paper. I am not going to lie I was pretty impressed with myself. I was even able to give it a bronze look. I will have a tutorial on how I painted it a little later so check back soon!