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So I finally decided to attempt making an ornament wreath. I probably have been “thinking” about making one for over a year and decided on Friday, it was time! I ran to Target and Michaels on Friday (yeah, I “ran” into Target on Black Friday – lol) and picked up the stuff I thought I would need. This included three different sizes of brightly colored ornaments (I’d say I bought over 100) and an 18 inch foam wreath. I already had a hot glue gun and tons of glue sticks at home.
The 18 inch wreath. I think it was $11.99 at Michaels? Had I been smart, I would have brought a coupon with me and gotten at least 40% off.I started by taking all the tops, hangers, or whatever you call them off the ornaments. It wasn't as easy as it should have been. I had to use scissors to pry some of them off.I started with four matching large ornaments. Just to give myself some sort of guide as I went around the wreath.Then I went around and added more of the large ornaments in between the four matching ones I started with. Again, this helped me with spacing the ornaments out.Next I filled in the spaces between the big ornaments with medium and smaller sized ornaments. I tried to make sure I put as many ornaments as I could "flat" in the foam wreath. Meaning, I stuck as many tops into the base as I could. Note that I am burning myself with hot glue left and right by now.Still filling the wreath in! After going around and putting as many ornaments as I could flat in the wreath, I started stacking them on top of each other to cover in the white spaces of the wreath. It was about this time I realized I should have covered the wreath in glitter or fabric or something before I started.After doing the top of the wreath, I went around and worked on the inside and outside of the wreath. Make sure to have plenty of glue sticks on hand. I used a TON of glue. No way was I risking this baby falling apart!After about two hours of work, I ran out of the ornaments I had bought on Friday, so I had to go back to Target on Saturday and pick up some more. I continued to fill in the white spaces as necessary. I only picked up more small and medium sized ornaments. I only used one package (or 8) of the large ornaments.After a total of three hours worth of work (two on Friday night and one on Saturday), I declared the wreath DONE! Sure I could have added more ornaments, but I was over it. Plus, it gets hard to decide when to stop, so you just have to be done!I used a my hot glue gun to attach some ribbon to the back to hang it with. I let the glue dry and then did a "test hang" overnight to make sure it was secure. I hung it from a low cabinet in the house, just in case it fell.The final hung project! I am super pleased at how my first attempt turned out!!
A few more notes / tips:
Make sure you buy enough ornaments. I was so sure I had bought too many. Wrong. Buy tons. You can always return them. Don’t start with ornaments you already have on hand that they don’t sell at the store anymore. Unless you want a wreath that doesn’t match.
Use glitter or something to cover your wreath so that the white (or whatever color wreath you use) doesn’t poke through so easily. Next time I will for sure cover in something. For sure.
Have enough glue sticks on hand. I think I used almost a full package of mini glue sticks. I used these instructions as a guideline and she used glitter glue sticks so that the glue wasn’t too obvious. Of course, I was too lazy to go out and get glitter glue, so if you get too close to mine, you can see glue.
Use shatterproof ornaments. Unless you are careful, which I am clearly not, your ornaments will roll off the table, you will break them taking the tops off, your they will break as you hold them in place to secure them on the wreath.
All in all, I would say this is an easy and fun project. It is not a cheap or fast project that’s for sure, but I had fun doing it. Plus, I have never seen ornament wreaths at the store like this, so it really is one of a kind. I’ll share tomorrow how I am using my wreath!
Jennifer: Jennifer is the author and founder of Subscription Box Ramblings. She first discovered subscription boxes in 2012 and has been addicted since. Current favorites include CAUSEBOX, Boxycharm and Beachly!
