W is for Wreath!

I completed my very first crafty thing. I don't know what brought on my sudden urge to start making a whole bunch of stuff, but it is so fun! Making things with my hands (cooking, painting, crafting) has become a sort of therapy and big way to occupy myself. Ever since this fall super-Seattley weather has hit, I definitely notice the change in my moods. For the last couple days, my brain feels like the sky looks, just kinda grey and "blah." So it's always nice to make something pretty to hang up, and celebrate the season, instead of just hibernating in it.

My inspiration came from a sweet little blog, Twig & Thistle. Until recently, the author was out of commission, but now she's back, and has such cute ideas! The wreath caught my eye because it's so different. You know me, I love love love things that are different, unique, one-of-a-kind. My wreath turned out a little less sweet-looking than Twig&Thistle, but I still like it :)

I bought some fall leaf garland and cut off the leaves rather than buy them individually (There is no Hobby Lobby here, and frankly, Michael's sucks).



And then, I spray painted them with a white primer. There are about 60 leaves here. I only ended up using like half of them though. 

Careful not to spray paint the balcony! As you can see, there was something weird about the primer reacting to the way the leaves were colored, so some yellow showed through, but that was ok, didn't need to be perfect. While they were drying I took ribbon and wrapped the wreath ring (say that 10 times fast!) with a coordinating color of ribbon. Tip #1 discovered by error: Make sure you pull the ribbon tight as you're gluing or pinning it to the ring. Otherwise you get little wrinkles and may run out of ribbon towards the very end!

Once they were dry I divided the leaves into 3 piles, for the 3 shades of purple I would be painting them. Tip #2: Whenever possible, use spray paint! Painting those suckers with a sponge brush took FOREVER. And the coverage was spotty so I ended up "dabbing" them with the sponge for like, a couple hours.

Tip #3: When applying multiple layers/things to a wreath, pins are probably a good idea, so you can move stuff. I hot glued all these puppies down, which was great, until I decided I wanted to move one. Those leaves are strong. So here's my end product, to which I added some festive fall berry things to give it some more fallish color.

Don't mind me and my lack of hanging devices. I had to impromptu-hang it on the kitchen cabinets until I get some sticky hooks for the door, teeheehee. I'll update this post with pictures when the wreath is hanging majestically on the door where it should be! Now be festive and go make your own!