Rose Wreath Frame

I have been having a strong desire lately to do crafty things. I finally decided that, as with all things, there won't ever be a perfect time, so one day when the dishes were still in the sink and the floor wasn't vacuumed and Livie was taking a nap {or two}, I started getting crafty. And this is the result:

What do you think? It is so girly and frilly and Valentine-y and I love it! I really wish I could say I came up with the idea all by myself. But then I would be lying. So I'll tell you I got the idea from Thrifty Decorating. I really liked hers when I saw it and knew I would have to recreate it. I'll also tell you that it wasn't very expensive! I spent about three dollars on tissue paper but everything else I already had on hand. Love that!

Because it would be super silly for me to give you a tutorial on how to make this since there already is one, I won't. But I will tell you a couple things I learned:

• Don't start this project unless you have a lot of time. This frame took me longer than five hours to complete. It took a couple of naps, a cooperative baby, a kind husband, four episodes of The Dick Van Dyke show {it's available on instant play on Netflix} and one episode of Swamp People {kind of a dumb show but it wasn't my idea}.
• Don't worry about being precise. All flowers are different sizes. If you measure out two inches for every strip of paper, you will go crazy. Do me a favor and don't go crazy, okay?
• The wider your strip of paper, the fuller and larger your rosette will be.



Here's an example of a tighter rosette.

• If you wrap your strip tightly it will make a smaller rosette. The looser you wrap and twist the paper the larger it will be. In other words, wide and lose rosettes make the biggest ones.

 

This is an example of a fuller rosette.

• The more twists you make in your tissue paper, the more petals will appear on your rosette. I like lots of petals and therefore twisted the paper a lot. 
• I crinkled up every strip of paper before I started twisting to make the rosettes. I thought that gave the flowers a little extra texture and I liked that.
• The beads are one long strand of pearls I got from the baby shower that was thrown for me over a year and a half ago. I usually just let Livie play with them. I wanted her to still be able to play with them when the holiday was over so I just wrapped the strand around the frame and taped it into place when I was finished. I think you could just glue some individual pearl beads in random places to make it look really pretty.