Happy First Day of Fall to you! I am very excited because autumn is by far my favorite season. I guess that is kind of strange because essentially everything is dying or going dormant or whatever. At any rate, I love that the air starts to get crisp and cool. There are chilly, drizzly days that are perfect for a hot cup of tea and a good book. The colors of fall, the reds, golds and browns are gorgeous and right up my color palette alley.
Making this wreath can be very inexpensive. I used a 24" grapevine wreath (this sucker is massive). The wreaths were supposed to be "oval shaped" but you can dig around for a good circle shaped one as I have here. With the exception of the big green berries and the grapevine wreath itself, everything else was purchased at the dollar store. The birds were 2 for $1. The orange and red leaves are made of paper and were $1 per package (one color per package). The stick I found in the yard! My autumn birdies wreath is gorgeous and it was cheap!
So, do you want to make a wreath similar to mine? You will need:
- 24" circular grapevine wreath (or smaller)
- paper leaves in two colors from Dollar Tree
- fall colored natural sprays from Dollar Tree
- birds from Dollar Tree
- loose naturally colored feathers
- hot glue gun
- gold paint and brush or gold spray paint
- a stick
- fake floral seeds, available at craft stores
- picture hanging wire
STEP 1: Tromp around the great outdoors and locate long and nicely shaped branch. Cut that sucker down and place on top of your wreath. Play around with the placement and find the way that the branch fits most naturally onto your wreath. Take a picture with a digital camera or your phone of the placement.
STEP 2: Paint your branch gold using acrylic and a foam brush or for a quicker solution gold spray paint. Allow to dry fully.
Reference your picture on your phone or camera and using your hot glue gun, attach the branch to the wreath. Put your glue directly onto the wreath and hold that section of branch to until the glue has firmed up and can hold on its own. Continue this with as many sections as you can.
Before continuing, give your branch a good hearty shake to ensure that it is successfully attached.
STEP 3: Use your paper leaves in pairs and attach around the bottom two thirds of the wreath. These have awesome metal wires inside that you can use to attach most without the use of glue, but hot glue when needed. Step back and ensure that you are happy with the placement.
STEP 4: Take your big old berries and break the big floral spray apart from one clump into several smaller pieces. Use the wires inside and hot glue to affix around the bottom two thirds of the wreath. You want some to overlap the empty space on both the inside and outside of the wreath for good visuals.
STEP 5: Take your loose feathers and, one feather at a time, hot glue onto any portion of the wreath where you have unsightly glue or wires sticking out. Spread more feathers around the entire wreath to help fill up some space.
STEP 6: Attach your two birds to your branch in the way they are most visually pleasing. I used the wires that came out of their feet, but I also hot glued them into place.
STEP 7: Take your dried floral sprays and attach them to the backside of the wreath using wire hand hot glue so that they are sticking out over the outside edge of the wreath.
STEP 8: Use some picture hanging wire on the top backside of the wreath for secure hanging.
And that's that. Happy fall y'all!
Wednesday, November 14, 2012 
