I'm so excited to have a guest post from the lovely & talented Lindsay! I bought one of her custom paintings and it's adorable :) She is always posting the greatest projects she's doing and I'm excited about this one she's sharing with me & all of you!
Hi there! I'm Lindsay from Tails to Tell Studio. :) It's nice to meet you!
I don't know about you guys, but I really love the 4th of July. The fireworks and cookouts, spending time with friends and family... I mean, who doesn't love that? It's just good ol' American fun.
In getting into the spirit of celebrating the birth of my wonderful country, I decided to make a festive wreath for my front door. Here's what I came up with...
Think you might want to make one of your very own? Well, I'll show you how I did it. :)
It's really pretty simple.
I went to a nearby craft store and got some festive goodies. You'll want a wreath form, yarn in red, white, and blue, some pretty wide ribbon, some slightly thinner ribbon, a piece of foam for the stars, some floral wire (I got red), and a little flag or two. (I originally wanted a little cloth flag, but I live in Hawaii right now, and evidently the 4th of July is not a big deal here, so I had to go with toothpick cupcake toppers.... Hey, whatever works, right?)
I didn't take a picture of every single little step because there are a lot, and most of it is kind of self explanatory.
Anyhoo... Start with your blue yarn, and wrap about 1/4 of the wreath. (Tip: Determine which side is the front of your wreath right away so you'll know to put all of your knots on the back when you tie off each color.) When you're finished with the blue, you'll start alternating between the red and white. On this wreath, I eye-balled it and got lucky that each stripe was fairly even. You may want to measure it out and mark your stripes. (I'll be doing that in the future.)
Anyhoo... Start with your blue yarn, and wrap about 1/4 of the wreath. (Tip: Determine which side is the front of your wreath right away so you'll know to put all of your knots on the back when you tie off each color.) When you're finished with the blue, you'll start alternating between the red and white. On this wreath, I eye-balled it and got lucky that each stripe was fairly even. You may want to measure it out and mark your stripes. (I'll be doing that in the future.)
When you finish wrapping, it will look like this...
The next step is adding your stars. On the back side of my foam, I drew stars. (I did them free-handed because I sort of liked the irregular, "hand-made" look. If you want, you can always use a stencil, of course.) Cut out your stars, and hot glue them sporadically in place.
Then, your wreath will look like this...
It's all down hill from here! Simply use the ribbon and floral wire to create a bow by making several loops (pinch the middle and try to make the sides even). Do this with the thicker ribbon, and then create another with the thinner ribbon. When you're happy with your ribbon, you can fasten it with floral wire or glue it.
Then, add your flags. I glued my little toothpick flags in a criss-cross. (If I had had the little fabric flag I'd envisioned, I would have let it stick out of the bow and wave into the center of the wreath.)
Voila! You have a super festive 4th of July wreath!
When it came time to hang mine, I made a little hanger out of the red floral wire. Then, I discovered that the front of my door is made of something the consistency of concrete. Nailing a nail to hang it on wasn't happening. However, the top of my door is made of wood, so I looped some of the wide ribbon through the "hanger" on the back and nailed it to the top. Just another way to hang the little guy... :)
Hope you guys like it! Let me know if you decide to try it!
Thanks Lindsay!
Thanks Lindsay!
