Without fail, every holiday I am on the lookout for new decorations. Something to spruce up my house, add a festive feel, or make me look a little craftier. That’s a real word, right? So, I head to the craft store with high hopes and aspirations, likely out of my reach, and leave feeling deflated. The stores are all selling the same thing, everything costs an arm and a leg, and nine times out of ten, it all looks really, REALLY complicated. All I want to do is make my house look festive! It’s crazy.
I decided that this Easter would be different. I was going to face the beast a.k.a. crafts and I was going to win! I started looking around for ideas, pretty much like I do every holiday, and once again the deflated feeling started to take over. I kept telling myself …. No, I don’t have time for that. Or … no, only Sally Homemaker could create that. I mean, there have been times when I have tried different things but normally they fall into the Pinterest FAIL category.
But this year, THIS YEAR, things have to be different. This year I will be hosting Easter. I realized yesterday morning that it is only a week away and here my house sits, unfestive, yeah, I am totally making that a word. I knew that I needed something to spruce up the house and make it fun and cheery for everyone but I also knew that I didn’t want to spend a bundle since we will be hosting the meal. So what did that mean? It was time to head to the local dollar store!! There were a few things that I knew going in. First, I wanted to make something fun for my front door. Second, it had to be something that people would ask about, something that they would ask where I got it. Third, I wanted to smile with pride and explain to them how I MADE IT!
DIY Easter Wreath
Difficulty Level: Beginner
Cost: About $6.00 plus you may have eggs and grass left over!
Materials:
4 – 18 count packs of plastic Easter Eggs
1 – 3 yard roll of wired Easter Ribbon
1 – Package of Easter grass
The rest of the items I found around my home.
2 – Pot lids (different sizes) – they are perfect for making the circle to create the wreath.
I could have purchased a compass, and if you have one use it, but for now, I wanted to keep this simple and budget friendly.
1 – Piece of cardboard.
Fortunately, I recently bought a large picture and there was a cardboard backer. I could have used an old box lid or really anything would work. It is going to be covered up so what it looks like doesn’t really matter.
1 – Hot glue gun and glue refills
I already had one but I know that you can pick one up for a couple of bucks and then keep it on hand for future projects.
1- Permanent marker; to trace your circles
1 – Box cutter or Scissors
First things first, I needed to make the “base” of our wreath. I started by tracing the larger lid first. Then I measured a little (on each side) and traced the second lid. Please note, this doesn’t have to be perfect. I didn’t involve my husband in the measuring because he’s an Engineer and we would still be measuring, you just want to make sure you have a little room on each side. Even if it isn’t perfect, the end result will look great. This doesn’t have to be spot on so don’t sweat it! I used a pair of scissors for the outside portion and trimmed down the cardboard to make it more manageable and then I “perfected” the circle. Then, I used the box cutter for the inside circle. My larger portion measured 15 inches and the smaller was 10 inches.
If you would like to make a couple of wreathes, you could probably stop in at your local pizza place and ask them if they will donate a few pizza cardboards to the cause. Warehouses, like Sam’s Club or Costco, also sell “Take and Bake” Pizzas that use the same thing; they may be willing to give you a few or sell them to you for pennies. I thought about this after the fact or I would have given it a whirl!
Now for the fun part, GLUING THE EGGS!
How you do this part is really up to you. Maybe you want to make a pattern or lay the eggs out a certain way. The plastic eggs that I picked up came in 5 colors so I just did a series of five; I like to keep things simple! To keep the eggs even, I made sure the seams touched as I glued them together. I placed about a nickel size/amount of glue under each egg. You are welcome to play with the spacing and the amount of glue that you use based on the size of your eggs. Again, don’t worry if it isn’t perfect. When we get to the grass it will cover up any imperfections that may result along the way. For the next few steps we are providing pictures, the visual is easier than trying to explain it in words.
Pretty cool, eh?
Once you have all of your eggs glued on it is time to check your work! In other words, lift your wreath up and make sure nothing falls off. :) We just want to make sure the eggs are stuck together really well. If anything seems loose just add a dot of glue here and there. Don’t worry, everything will come together and will be sturdy once the grass is added.
On to the finishing touches! I started by adding some glue to the holes between the eggs and on top of some of the eggs on the bottom layer. I then took a small amount of grass and started pushing it into the open places. I happened to have wooden chop sticks on hand so I used those to help but I could have easily used a pen or pencil instead. Please note that I did get glue on the chop sticks so keep that in mind while working. I added grass to the areas where there were holes little by little.
You will give your wreath a “haircut” so don’t worry about it being perfect!
Once you have put grass all over it should look like this!
After adding enough grass to make my wreath look full I grabbed my scissors again and trimmed up the grass to make it look even and nice.
To finish off the look, I made a bow out of ribbon. To make things a little easier for me, I used wire ribbon to make a pretty bow with little work. The wire makes it easy for shape it so the bow will look however you want. I hot glued my bow onto the wreath. I then took the extra ribbon that I had left and created a little hanger so I could easily hang it on my door.
All together this project took me about an hour. It may have gone faster if I was home alone crafting but I was talking to my husband, little one, and pups while I worked. I may have talked to myself a time or two as well!
Here is the finished project hanging on the door!
I love it and I am excited that I can tell people that I made it!
The main goal is to HAVE FUN! I know that I did and hope that you will as well.
As an added bonus, this is a great project to have your kids help with. You may want to use a different kind of glue and it may take a bit longer but the extra time and effort will be well worth it!
So, what do you think? I was able to make this wreath and know you can too. Are you up for the challenge?
14 comments