It's fall craft time: front door wreath

It's really not fall until you've pull out all of your autumn colored faves and decided on a new craft project to freshen up your decorating. I started on this bad boy last month when Kevin was on his business trip.

I spent a lot of time pondering what I wanted my wreath to look like. Spent several painstaking hours searching pinterest and browsing Michaels, A.C. Moore, and Hobby Lobby.  Oh, the things you'll do to satisfy your creative desires.

Here is the final product:

I would love to give credit to a crafter for ideas, but if you do a search for "Fall Wreath" on Pinterest, you will see a plethora of ideas and create your own from what you see.

This wreath was pretty simple, unless of course, you are a perfectionist like me.  Anyway, here's the materials I started with:

While I didn't keep the receipts, everything in total came out to less than $23-24, with items from Michaels and A.C. Moore.

After laying it all out and getting an idea where I wanted everything placed on the wreath (yes each leaf and pumpkin meticulously placed one-by-one), I started on what would be the most difficult thing for me to accomplish: The bow.  I am terrible with tying bows, and it's even more difficult when you are working with something that is thick and not easily knotted like burlap.  So........ I faked it.

Instead of actually tying a bow, I looped the burlap and bunched it in the middle with the floral wire I had on hand.  Then I simply covered this little mess another small piece of burlap to make it look like the knot.

One thing to keep in mind with burlap is its uncanny ability to fray! I actually like the looks of the ends fraying without worrying about it continuing to fray.  So I put a small layer of hot glue on the back end of the burlap about a half an inch up.... that way it gives room for naturally fraying but won't ruin it.

After completing the bow, I started on the part that kills my perfectionism..... attempting to glue the leaves in the exact same spot I placed them when laying them out.

Woah-is-me.  They never go back exactly how they were placed.  Nevertheless, 10 glue sticks later they always still look good.

Then I painted the letter P, and spent a fair amount of time hot gluing this guy to make sure he stays on for a while.

The color doesn't look as pink in real life, it's a red with a metallic hue.

I finished the wreath by attaching the burlap bow with thin floral wire. And voila, the finished wreath.

My boys interrupting my photo sesh with the wreath (unfortunately caught with my iphone and not with my rebel). This wreath is just what my crafting itch needed, but just got my juices flowing.... ready to get back to the crafting table before it's too late to craft for fall!!