Yarn Wreath {Tutorial}

My fingers are absolutely freezing. I'm having a hard time typing this because they are so cold! For crying out loud, it's June! I am not supposed to be freezing. Golly. If any of this doesn't make sense, I blame on the strange cold spell my fingers are going through. 

I saw this idea for a yarn wreath and knew I just had to do it. The blog I got the basic idea from was Joys of Life with Lucy. Actually, all I did was see the post title and a single picture. I didn't even read the post until I was halfway through making my own wreath. Pathetic, I know. You really should go look at her post. She's super cute and I love how her wreath turned out.

So I didn't do any research to find out how to make this yarn wreath. And let's get real, you might not need one. Anyone reading this post is bound to be more creative than I am and highly likely to figure it out. But I'm gonna tell you how to do it anyway. :)

I also made my wreath so that it is interchangeable like Life with Lucy. But my interchangeable method is just a tad different and I'll get to that later. First, I'll show you how I made my wreath.

An example of the finished product. Or one of the finished products {it is interchangeable, after all}. And please ignore my door. It's awful, I know.

You will need:
Wreath form {I used a round Styrofoam form, but I've seen someone use a grapevine wreath before, too. Just check out the link to go to Love Sweet Love and see how Angela did it}
Yarn in desired color {I used a neutral color to make it easier to change up the accessories}
Hot glue
Velcro, both the loop and hook

Note: click on any of the photos to view them larger.

To get the wreath started, you'll want to wrap the yarn around once and glue into place on the back. I did this in the spot where the Styrofoam was connected to cover up the crack on the wreath real good. Let the glue dry.

After I did that starting twist, I used small dabs of glue for the next few twists just to make sure they would stay in place really well.You really don't have to do very many rounds with the glue because it will stay put pretty good.

Now, because I am a perfectionist like things to look nice, I wanted the strands of yarn to be perfectly lined up next to each other. Nice and tight with no overlaps or spaces. That's the OCD part of my personality making a grand entry. But I'm also impatient. That's the lazy part of my personality picking a fight with the OCD part. To compromise, this is what I came up with and it turned out pretty darn good.

Wrap several strands of the yarn loosely around the wreath form, giving each strand a bit of space. We all need space, you know.

Then gently push the strands closer together until they are all hugging nice like they like each other.

Then, just for safe measure - and 'cuz I wanted them a little tighter - I took my fingers {of course} and carefully twisted them a bit tighter around the wreath. This gave the yarn a perfectly coiffed look. 

After getting the entire wreath wrapped, just hot glue down the last few strands to make sure they stay put.

 

See how perfectly lined these all are? Ah. I love it.

  Then take a pretty ribbon and hang the wreath from the ribbon. I cut my ribbon into a long strip about 20 or so inches long. Or maybe longer. I can't remember for sure. And the length kind of depends on how low you want it to hang. Then I created a loop in the very center of my ribbon length, held it on one side of the wreath and then brought the two ends up and through the loop. Then I just tied a knot in the ends at the top so I could hang it. Capiche?

I don't have any pictures for the next part, so you will need to rely on my superior description skills and your imagination to visualize what I did to make the accessories work.

After completing the wreath {which, honestly, I think is pretty enough to hang by itself - yes, I love it that much}, you'll want to get started on the really fun part. The accessories. Every girl loves some good accessories, am I right? To make my accessories interchangeable, I used Velcro. I just purchased about 12 inches of sticky backed Velcro strips at my local craft store. Then I cut a section out of the loop portion {the soft fuzzy stuff} of the Velcro about a half inch square. I then hot glued it {for safe measure} to my wreath. You can put it in any place you want. I put mine about 3 or 4 inches up the side from the bottom so my accessories would still be sort of towards to the bottom but not completely on the side. Clear as mud?

Since I used the loop portion of the Velcro on the wreath, I needed to use the hook {the scratchy part} of the Velcro for each accessory. I cut a section out of the hook about the same size as the loop that was already on the wreath. I had this gorgeous giant Gerbera daisy that I really wanted to use so I positioned it on my wreath to see exactly how I wanted it to sit. Then I hot glued {again, for safe measure} the hook Velcro I had just cut onto the daisy right where it needed to go so it would sit just right. Then I attached it to my wreath.

Ta da! You now have a beautiful wreath that all who visit your home will envy. :)

Isn't this blue fantastic?? I'm not usually a huge blue fan but I can't get over this color. I want to decorate a whole room in this exact color. If only I could find this exact color.

PS ~ I have some other ideas for accessories that I've made that I'll share in a few days. For now, this tutorial is long enough with just the wreath.