Welcome Wreath

I wanted to create a pretty something for the front door to welcome autumn.  This idea has been brewing in the back of my mind for some time.  It's really pretty simple, but it took lots of ribbon and lots of patience.  I bought four coordinating rolls of fall ribbon at Michael's.  They're all 1.5 inches wide and wire edged.  I chose two prints and two solids.  Of those four, two are semi-transparent and two are opaque.  I thought that the mix of colors, textures, and weights would be perfect. 

In addition, I needed pony beads.  Actually, I stood in Michael's and looked at those packages of plasticky pony beads, and just thought, 'Yuck.  No class.'  I had some faceted beads at home and figured I'd just use them.  Ha!  That's what thinking will get me.  This plan had me feeding a full width of double-wired ribbon of various weights through the holes in the beads.  (Keep in in that it's at least 100 miles away for me to go to a Michael's store.  That's Montana for you.)  I was nearly done before I started.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Here's how to make this wreath.  First, wrap a foam wreath form (I think mine was 10 or 11 inches in diameter) with electrical tape.  It's wonderful, sticky, and solid black.  A perfect base.

Next, cut all four rolls of your wire-edged ribbon into four inch lengths.  Easy peasy.  Just don't use the sewing scissors.  Your mom will kill you..........right, Mom?   {Yes, I'm fifty years old, but if my mom knew I used my sewing scissors to cut wire edged ribbon, I think she'd still have my head.  For the record, I didn't.}  Choose four fall-toned colors of pony beads.  

Here's where I went wrong.  I assumed that I'd just be able to use those little faceted beads I had at home.  But the ribbon just wouldn't fit in their freakin' tiny holes.  (Huff, puff.)  So there I was, with yards and yards of beautiful ribbon cut into four. inch. pieces. and I hadn't bought the right beads because I just wasn't thinking.  Dead in the water.  I said aloud, "I should have bought those pony beads."  I must have sounded pretty pitiful, me with my bits of ribbons and no prospect for completing the project.  MMM's mom said, "Oh, there's a bunch of pony beads back there on that shelf."  What?  Just like that?  She's not rich, but she's rich in craft supplies.  And they were perfect.  Thanks, MMM's mom - you're a sweetie.  Back to the 'How-to'.

Feed a bead onto the end of each of the pieces of ribbon, and slide it down about an inch.  After you've completed the whole lot, heat up the hot glue gun.  Carefully dab a bit of glue onto the end of the one inch end of the ribbon.  Allow it to cool a tiny bit.  I am so good at burning myself, and this project had lots of opportunity for that, but I was patient and managed not to burn myself once! When it's cooled a little, slide that bead back onto the end of the ribbon, over the top of the dab of hot glue.  If you're really slow and careful, you can twist the bead, and the glue will make sort of a tiny 'cap' like the cap on an acorn. Set it aside and allow it to cool completely.  You'll have something that looks like this:

 When you have all the ribbon beaded and glued, it's time to start attaching them to the wreath form.  My first row was the darkest solid, a nice mossy green.  I started right at the highest point of the curve of the wreath and made each subsequent row closer to the internal or center diameter. 

The last row, the orange transparent organza, is actually glued on the back, and curled forward to the front.  

When I was done gluing ribbon on, I just added a beautiful autumn spike of silk flowers that I also picked up at Michael's.  Here's the finished product.  Isn't it lovely?  Sometimes, I even surprise myself.  I love it.

And by the way, I love Picnik:

And here's a nice shot of my photography assistant (He worked very hard.)  His name?  Mr. W.  I need to protect his full identity.

What's on your door, welcoming fall visitors?

Love,

Sass

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P.S.  I have not been paid anything by anyone for anything I did, bought, or said.  I included references just in case you had any questions.