DIY Friday : Christmas Wreath

In the effort to reignite my crafting flame, I’ve decided to try to attempt one diy project a week. In fact, I might just make it my new year’s resolution and I was thinking about turning it into a linky.

So here goes. In keeping with the season, I decided that we absolutely needed a wreath for our front door. I wanted something simple and straightforward, so I decided to start with a wire coat hanger. I pulled it into a circle shape, a rough circle shape.

The bare coat hanger looked a little skinny so I decided to add so bulk by wrapping some fleece fabric I had leftover from my cloth nappy making days. You could also use quilt batting or polyester wadding. I’m glad I took the time to complete this step because it made a better base for the tinsel and also made the wreath look fuller in the end.

Next I wrapped tinsel around the covered coat hanger. I found some matte forest green tinsel garland at our local discount store which cost a mere $2.50 each. I used three and tied them together end to end to get one long piece of garland. I used the hook part of the coat hanger to anchor one end to and then proceeded to wrap the tinsel tightly around the whole wreath.

Then I looped a two metre length of ribbon through the centre to hang the wreath. Using another piece of matching ribbon I fashioned a (near) perfect bow and hot glued it to the hanging ribbon. I also threaded a star ornament onto the hanging ribbon so it would dangle in the centre of the wreath when hung. Lastly I hot glued some silver bells around the wreath for a bit of added sparkle. The also jingle every time the front door is open, which I thought was a nice festive touch.

Hanging on the door

Close up

To hang the wreath, I put a small screw hook into the inside of the front door. I tied a simple bow about a third of the way from the ends of the hanging ribbon. Then positioned the wreath on the outside of the front door and ran the hanging ribbon up and over the top of the door and hooked it over the screw hook on the inside. I hung it this way because it required the least amount of damage to the front door and because I think it looks prettier.

From inside

Have you been doing any crafting or DIY lately? Should I turn DIY Friday into a link up?