Indoor Wreaths!

A made a couple of really cute indoor wreaths for my workshop last week.  The first is a snowball wreath.  The original inspiration looked like this...

(photo BHG)

I think that one is made with those little styrofoam balls.  Cute, but have you priced the styrofoam lately?  You would think it has gold in it or something.  Anyway, I made my own version, but used a much cheaper material.  Can you guess?

Yep, that's right!  Cotton Balls!

Here's a close up...

1)  I glued a whole bag of about 200 cotton balls to a foam wreath form, being sure to place them close together.  2)  After gluing I stretched the cotton balls a little to fill in any gaps.  3)  I took the wreath outside, applied spray adhesive liberally, and sprinkled epsom salts over the whole thing to simulate snow.  4)  Finish with a ribbon bow tied around the top.

I raffled off the one I made, but I think I'm going to make another to hang over the mirror in my powder room. Cute!

The 2nd wreath I made was the famous Martha Stewart wrapped present wreath from her cover 2 years ago (I think?)  Here's the original...

(photo Martha Stewart)

And here's my version...

Okay, I will not lie.  This project should only be done if you just LOVE it.  It took me 2 hours (and much cursing) to put this together.  The box placement took up most of my time and it's still not perfect, but oh well...

1)  Buy a flat wreath form or make your own (as I did) out of cardboard.  2)  Wrap small boxes in various sizes with white gift wrap.  2)  On about 1/3 of the wrapped boxes, cut a strip of silver wrap & trim with zig zag scrapbook scissors.  Wrap around and secure with tape.  3)  Tie "Tiffany Blue" ribbon around each of the packages.  Use thin and medium width ribbons.  Play around with the ribbon style, using just thin on some, thin over thick on some, and just thick.  You don't have to place ribbon on all of the boxes that form of the base of the wreath.  4)  Start placing the boxes on the wreath form.  You may have to play around with the arrangement to get it just the way you like it.  You can stack smaller boxes on top of larger ones for a more dimensional effect.  5)  Once you like the arrangement, start glueing the boxes to the wreath form.  I used hot glue, but I think you could also use a strong bond craft glue.