Yarn Wreath

My sister is very creative and extremely gifted, and she's an inspiration to me (i.e. - I like to copy her ideas!).  She made a yarn wreath for my mom that was so cute, I had to attempt one myself.

This is a little project I was hoping to have finished before the baby shower that I blogged about previously, but I ran out of time.  Fortunately, I did get it finished before baby Lillian's due date, so it's currently on the way to the proud parents-to-be.

I started with a pressed straw wreath form.  I left the plastic on the wreath and wrapped it with some cheap yarn I picked up at Wal-Mart.  The wrapping is the most time-consuming step.  After finding a couple not-so-pretty spots, the only advice I can give you is to wrap tightly.  When all of the form is well covered, you're finished.

The decorating is entirely up to you.  My wreath looks nothing like the one my sister made, except that they both started with a yarn-wrapped base.  For my "Welcome Lillian" wreath, I cut some flowers out of felt and secured them to the wreath with corsage pins, which also look like little stamens.  I cut two circles out of alternating color felt squares (using two different size glass rims as my guides), and then cut the "petals" freehand.  They don't look perfect, but I was going for a little bit of a rustic look so I was very happy with how they turned out.

I picked up an "L" from Michael's, painted it with some leftover wall paint, and hot glued it directly to the wreath.  The ribbon was purchased at Wal-Mart, and it was my husband's idea to wrap it around the wreath.  You'll see that I made a bow and placed it behind the stand-alone flower to give it a little more punch.  Here's the finished product:

I hope that Lillian will enjoy her little "welcome to the world" craft.