DIY Yarn Wreath & Felt Flowers

This post needs no introduction. Just go read my last post. Then, let's agree to disagree that I'm certifiably insane, and just get on with our lives.

I got this idea off of Pinterest, of course. But what made me the most happy was that it came from one of my favorite blogs out there, Mrs. Priss (seriously, check out her blog). She is a super crafty, ultra fashionable and unapologetically hilarious lady, who can blog the crap out of anything.. in a great way! I also love following on Twitter. I only wish we could be friends in real life. And with that, I am officially riding the creeper train all the way to Creeperville.

So hey.... yeah! Let's do this!

I'm going to show you how to make your own yarn wreath. It's really simple, I swear. And a lot of fun. This was my first one, and it took me about two hours to complete. I blame that on the fact that a) I'm a perfectionist and b) my iPad was really distracting when I kept getting frustrated at myself for being a perfectionist. 

 

Here is what you need:

 

A straw wreath - KEPT IN THE PLASTIC PACKAGING

A ball of yarn for wrapping (note: I did not use this whole ball of yarn)

Felt to make your flowers

Scissors

& not pictured:

A glue gun, a pencil and a CD - or any circular object

(the last 2 can be omitted if you wanna freeball it)

 

Oh, hey yeah... listen up. This wreath does not have to be perfect. My final result is bumpy and some pieces of yarn are out of place.... but I love it! I probably could have knocked a half an hour off my time if I hadn't been trying to get each piece to lay flat.

1) Wrapping the Yarn

Start by wrapping your yarn around the wreath. This takes the most time, is the most aggravating and seriously will unearth any OCD tendencies that you didn't know you had. [Luckily, my OCD tendencies are very much present on the surface, so this wasn't an earth-shattering experience for me.]

 

This step is not difficult, so don't over-think it. Take the beginning (or is it the end? Crap, there I go, over-thinking it...) of your yarn and tie it around the wreath, leaving a bit of extra yarn. A tail, if you must. 

Then, slow and steady, just weave your ball of yarn in and out, pulling tight with each turn.

 

This is halfway through the wrapping process. See how straight the yarn is? HAHA YEAH

Eventually you'll have covered the entire wreath with the yarn and you'll want to go run a mile or something. Go do that now.

But first! Take the ball of yarn and cut it from your wreath, leaving a couple inches. Take the end and tie it to the tail from the knot you tied originally. Snip the excess and voila! You're done!

2) The Flowers

I got these tutorials from a mix of places. I've made the felt flowers before for a different wreath, but the pom pom flowers come from Mrs. Priss, so I want to make sure she gets the credit.

This step is the most fun, in my opinion. The color choices are endless. Make it classic with just one color. Make them green and red for Christmas... or pastels for Easter! Red and pink for Valentine's Day, maybe...?

Or pick a ton of colors like I did and go CRAZY!

Simple Rose

 

Take your CD, or other circular object, and trace around onto the felt. ** The bigger the object, the bigger the rose. Same goes for small roses - use a small object. (Remember before, this step could totally be freeballed if you have the capabilities of making a circle happen out of thin air and aren't ridden with these pesky OCD tendencies....)

 

Cut the circle out of the felt and then, starting anywhere, cut a spiral into the felt. I don't know how I don't have a picture of this. Basically just cut and keep moving the felt in circles until you've made the spiral.

Then take one of the ends of the spiral and start wrapping it around itself. The picture above shows how it started to resemble a rose halfway through. Pretty, right??

 

Once you are done and you have your cute little rose, hot glue the end of the spiral to the bottom.

Simple, right? I told you!

 

Here's a pink one! Awww *squish*

Pom Pom Flower

This one is just as easy, but a little more.....um.. frustrating?

Take a piece of felt in the color you want and cut a 2" or so strip down the side.

Then, glue each end together. Not the middle! No! Just the ends.

 

Like so.

After you've done that, and then realized that cheap $.25/sheet felt will never, ever, ever in a million years fold flat and you've had a major panic attack and totally scrapped the whole project, take a deep breath. And don't get out the iron, that's just dumb. 

Just... relax.

 

Cut little snippets along the folded *ahem* side of the felt. Do not cut through all the way, I'd say go about halfway through. Remember, this is on the folded side, not the open side.

 

Then, just take one end, doesn't matter which one, and roll and tug like you would a sleeping bag. This was the most annoying part for me. If you roll it too tight, you don't get a good pom pom shape. But if you don't roll tight enough, you just get *plop* (I don't know what *plop* is).

 

Pretty flowers! The pink one is bigger because I made a pink flower, then made another pink strip and wrapped it around the first one. A double flower! :)

3. ASSEMBLE!

Lay out the flowers how you want them on your wreath. Stagger your big roses against your pom poms and tuck the small rosettes in as fillers. Do it however you want! The best part about it being a wreath is that you can do anything with it. I like my flowers on the bottom at an angle, but if I wanted to hang the wreath with them at the bottom, it looks just as good!

I took a picture of how it looked and then went to my hot glue station. I hot glued each rose to the wreath and then went around and poked each one to make sure the glue held during the making of each rose, and I glued them together so they wouldn't droop.

 

Here is a bigger picture of how I laid mine out. This took me a while, and I ended up making 2 more flowers because I felt there wasn't enough to make it stand out. 

I love, love, love my final product!

For fun, I used the ones I made today and turned them into a bouquet of roses.

It's another cute idea for Valentine's Day!

Just get some wooden skewers and hot glue them to the center of each rose (before you would have hot glued the bottoms on). Use green paint, or floral tape, to decorate the skewers.. and make them staggering sizes since they are so bulky. Put them in a vase or tie with a ribbon and give to your special someone!

How cute! ;)