Wreath Love

The Idea

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My Interpretation

It must be the old lady coming out in me as I near my 30th birthday, but I can't seem to make/buy/seek out enough pretty wreaths these days.  Adorning my front door or the resting place of a loved one makes my heart smile a little.  I love the colors of the original wreath, but chose fall colors and flowers for the wreath I made to take to the cemetery in honor of my mother.

I bought the grapevine wreath base at JoAnn's for about $8, all of the flowers from Dollar Tree, for (once again) a dollar per bunch, and the letters from JoAnn's for about a dollar a piece.  I already had hot-glue sticks, a glue gun and some acrylic gold craft paint at home, which I also used.

I cut the flowers from their stems just below the bloom with wire-cutters.  I thought they were just plastic and tried to use regular ol' scissors.  Fail.  Next, I started gluing them directly onto the wreath in matching pairs.  I got a good pattern going and covered half of the wreath. 

Next, which I should have done first (duh!), I took the the letters out to the garage to paint.  I could have been gluing on flowers as the paint was drying.  I set them on newspaper and painted away.  Double fail.  After the tops were dry, I went to flip them over to paint the bottom and they had stuck and dried to the newspaper.  That is when I decided that I would always take the time to pull out a drop cloth to paint on instead of being lazy and grabbing some newspaper.  I peeled off the letters, picked off the stray newspaper bits and started over.  After they were, dry I hot-glued them directly to the wreath, as well.  I'm kind of a hot glue junkie.

The wreath held up fairly well out at the cemetery from the beginning of September to mid-December.  When I took a Christmas wreath out there to replace it, it had only lost two flowers.  The letters stayed on, but were a little loose.  Not too shabby.  I made a fairly similar version for my Papaw when he passed away a couple weeks after I placed Mom's fall wreath out.  Here's a photo:

I apologize if this post feels a little melancholy due to the fact that I happen to have made wreaths in honor of loved ones who have passed.  Don't feel sad.  I wasn't feeling sad when I made them.  In fact, I was quite happily thinking of all the good times we shared and how much they would love and appreciate my show of remembrance.