Thursday, August 1, 2013

Front Door Wreath

So as you can tell from the lack of blogging our lives have been pretty full! And I have loved every minute. We recently just got home from vacation, and we are 2 weeks away from school starting. Every time someone mentions it I am on the verge of tears. Today was one of those days where I played catch up. I even got to a little weeding in the flower beds (Eric just about fell over)! But one item that was high on my to do list was to get something new for my front door. I love a good wreath, but I hate paying a ton of money. I have had the same wreath on SINCE BEFORE EASTER! It even had a bunny on it! Whew... it was driving me nuts.  I have pinned no less than 50 things that I wanted to make to spruce up the ol' front door but none of them were happening.

When I was in Lexington a couple of weeks ago I ran into the Hobby Lobby to get a few things, While I was in the fabric section I saw a pre-printed burlap with black chevron. It was $8.99 a yard and I used my 40% off coupon. I had a project in mind, I just needed the time to get it done.

Well yesterday was the day! I was ready to pull out the burlap and get started! Here is a "best" step by step tutorial!

SUPPLIES:
1-2 yards of burlap fabric (they have several colors, several printed-- like the chevron i used, or they have the simple plain burlap). I bought 2 yards but only used about 1
LOTS of plastic Wal-Mart bags ( for my "W" i used about 25)
Staples

TUTORIAL:
- Lay fabric out on flat surface. Layer the fabric so that you are only cutting the letter one time. I put my fabric printed side to printed side so I could mark on the blank side.
- Once your fabric is laid out and its time to make your letter. I eyeballed how big I wanted my letter and then just free handed a "w" with a pencil. Once I got it how I wanted it I used a marker to outline it so I could see better when cutting.
- Cut your letter out. I used pinking sheers to keep the raveling to a minimum, but I do not think it necessary
- Once you a have your letter cut (don't forget you need 2 letters) make sure that they are lined up and printed sides are facing out.
- For my "w" i started by using my good old fashion stapler and stapling the bottom. Basically what you are gonna want to do it staple part of your letter then stuff it with the wal-mart plastic bags. I would just keep stapling and stuffing making sure that the stuffing was even. I just did a little section at a time and then stapled it up! (*** you will be able to see the staples from up close but really they are unnoticeable***)
- Once my letter was done I needed a way to hang it. Now this is gonna vary for each letter. I used a brown wire hanger.  Breaking off the "hook" of the hanger and I unwinded it and then poked holes in my letter and fished the letter through the hanger. This way it would lay flat on the door. Another option to hang it with is wire hanger that is used for picture frames.
- Now that my letter was on my hanger I needed a splash of color and a way to hide the ugly part of the hanger. I used some art mesh that I had left over from my christmas stash and made a bow. Put the bow on the top of the hanger and then placed that baby on the door.
- Now its not perfect, but it looks great on my door and it is NOT my Easter wreath hanging up in AUGUST!

If you have any questions please feel free to EMAIL me at kjwhite1980@gmail.com