THE IN BETWEEN TIME WREATH

Having lived in California all of my life until twelve years ago, I never had much experience with four real seasons.  In the hot valleys of California it can still be very warm at Thanksgiving some years.  I moved first to Colorado and then Idaho and I love the four seasons and we have what I call the in between time - after July till September. September is the start of fall - it's like the switch gets flipped and it's fall.  This in between time for me is sunflowers, days a little shorter, sky is looking a little different, weather a little cooler, etc. So I am changing up my front wreath and bench for the in between time.  I Pinned a wreath like this several months ago with the plan to make my version. I had never seen a wreath with a piece of art tucked inside before.

So I first moseyed over to The Graphic's Fairy for my rooster (I will put a link below) pulled him into Corel Draw, named him Le Coq (the rooster), flipped him (remember you do not need a draw program to flip an image, just go to your Microsoft paint program that comes will all Windows) copy and paste the image and at the top you will see "rotate." Please feel free to print out this image (there is a button on the side "print/pdf"). I added the frames, etc.  I printed him out on canvas and then cut a piece of foam board the same size and glued him to the foam board without taking the paper off the back.  I then sprayed him several times with clear coat finish because even though he will be under a covered porch it's still out in the weather.

Another item I needed was a rustic star but I did not want the brown color.  Using water based acrylic I painted the star (it needed two coats) when completely dry I took a little dark wax to age it a little, done.

Here is what is needed for the wreath (ignore the sunflower towels) with the exception of the apples - they were way too heavy so I found some much smaller ones.  For some reason pomegranates were hard to find in my area so I only had one. I used two wreaths - a stick one and then a small grapevine wreath.

First thing to do is to cut all of the flowers and greenery off of the center stems, leaving a long enough stem on what you cut off so that you can either hot glue or just stick into the wreath.

Lay the stick wreath on a flat surface and then hot glue the grapevine wreath to the stick one and let it completely dry.

First glue Le Coq to the wreath with hot glue. Now you are ready to start putting it together - Starting with the greenery and leaves go around the wreath until it looks like you have equal distribution.

Now it's time to add the flowers and the fruit and add the big bow.  I like to use a pipe cleaner instead of wire for the bow as I think it is easier to work with and kinder to your fingers and easy to attach to the wreath.  If you have holes in your wreath you can fill them with extra leaves or I like to use the leafy boxwood too.

Tip #1: When making a wreath be sure and as you work hang it up so you can see how it looks being hung up because many times it may look great on a work table but the angle of the items may not work when the wreath is hung so save yourself some time by periodically hanging the wreath.  I have a hook on the back of my craft room door.

Tip #2: When you are making something like this (a wreath that I saw on Pinterest) don't try and make an exact copy, make it your own, use the example for inspiration only, or you might end up like a bad Elvis impersonator who wants to look like Elvis but really looks like Ernest Borgnine!

List of greenery & fruit used:

Twig wreath

Grapevine wreath

Boxwood greenery

Picks of little sunflowers and red flowers with green berries

(1) Plastic Artichoke

(1) Plastic Pomegranate

Plastic apples

Red Poppies

Fall pick that had big leaves and faux feathers

Sunflowers, two large, 3 medium

Small berry stems, green

Large berry stems, beige

 New and IMPROVED wreath. Truth in advertizing friends. This morning (8/8) I went out on my porch to check on the newly planted mums and to my horror only the twig wreath was still on the wall and the grapevine wreath had face planted on the porch! So I did what I should have done in the first place - I wired the two wreaths together instead of hot gluing them.  This one will not come apart so....if  you make one of these don't hot glue the two wreaths together. j.

Resource

Liquitex Acrylic paint, Yellow Oxide, Michael's

Rustic Barn Star, online, Google " Rustic Barn Stars Two Sided Primitive Country Barn Star" and you will find a star to order.

Greenery and fruit, Michael's & local craft store

Wreath's, Hobby Lobby & Michael's

Ribbon, Costco (it is gingham off white and red, wired)

Dark Wax, Annie Sloan

Rooster Graphic, The Graphic's Fairy, Link 

Ink Jet Canvas paper, Royal Artist's Canvas, Pack of 5 (28942)

Foam board, Dollar Tree

Thank you for stopping by.