Recently I've felt pretty crafty and inspired. I have a few Christmas crafts up my sleeve that I plan to do this year, and figured I'd share with you! Hopefully life doesn't get in the way, but the goal is to start posting weekly...it's a goal, but I can't make any guarantees!
If you have $5 to spare, love pizza, and own a glue gun, you can make this super cute ornament wreath!
Here's the backstory:
A few
(If you knew me well, you'd know I'm a total Christmas FREAK. Christmas is my favorite holiday to decorate for. Not only that, but I looooooooooooovvveee giving gifts! We can't forget I was also born with craftiness in my blood!)
So I check out the Christmas decor the Dollar Tree staff have already stocked on the shelves, and found pretty good-looking ornaments. A few of them had minuscule little scratches or dings, but hey...what do you expect from The Dolla Dolla Bill Store? Overall, they looked pretty fancy though, and I loved that I could find 15 small golf ball sized ornaments, or 12 small apple sized ornaments, for only $1!
I immediately grabbed 3 of the 15-packs, and 2 of the 12-packs, because I knew I wanted to do something fun. And for only $5, I could justify buying 60 ornaments! Even if my project ended up as one of those Pinterest Fails, $5 isn't much to be disappointed about. :)
Last year, my Pinterest feed blew UP with different Christmas crafts, and I kept finding myself going back to the ornament wreaths. One of my favorite DIY bloggers is Virginia at LiveLoveDIY. A few years back she made an ornament wreath and I thought, I can do that!
I rounded up all the supplies I needed for my wreath. I used a glue gun and glue sticks, the ornaments, a small plate, and the cardboard cut out that comes in a frozen pizza box. (If you're a pizza lover like me, you're likely to have one of these in your refrigerator or freezer as we speak!)
I found that having so many dogs means buying lots of treats, and when those treat boxes are empty they make for great storage! I currently keep my glue sticks in an old Milkbone treat box. Dorky, I know, but it's perfect!
To start this project, set out your pizza cardboard insert and set your ornaments around it, with the hook-side facing upward. This will give you an idea about spacing and placing the ornaments in a circular form, making sure you have enough ornaments to complete the circle without having any gaps in the wreath you'll be creating.
Once you've figured out placement, it's time to whip out your trusty glue gun. Keeping your ornaments with the hooks facing upward, place a dot of glue between each ornament. No need to over do it, but make sure there's enough there so the ornaments don't pop apart from each other.
Here's my wreath after the first round is glued together.
Once the first round is complete, remove the pizza cardboard insert and place the small plate in the center of the ornament circle you just made.
This will act as the guide for creating your second round of ornaments.
Place ornaments hook-side up between the edge of the plate and the first round of ornaments. Glue the second round of ornaments just the same as you did before, but also attach them to the outer ornaments so all one piece.
Remove the plate, and flip the wreath upside down so the hooks are facing downward.
You'll find there are some gaps between the rows of ornaments, so you'll want to fill them in with the ornaments you haven't yet used.
Place the ornaments between the gaps, and attach them hook-side *down* this time, until you've either run out of ornaments or are satisfied with the look of your wreath.
My wreath isn't perfectly round, but it gives it a little character...I like it!
You could string a piece of ribbon through a few of the hooks in the back to make a hanger, or even loop a ribbon through the wreath to make a hanger like the one pictured below.
(source)
I actually hung the wreath I made on my downstairs bathroom door and it's SO cute!
Tomorrow I'm going to share another DIY Christmas Craft, so stay tuned!
Until next time :)
