Fall Wreath Tutorial

Leslie here again. First off, can I just say that I love Clarissa? How cute are those Tinkerbell slippers? I can't wait to see Little #1's Halloween costume! But, in the meantime, since Clarissa is a busy and amazing mother, I will post a wreath that I made today. I bought most of my supplies at a local thrift store, except for the leaves. I got a huge (well, not huge, it was little, but probably had over 25 leaves in it) bag of leaves from Target for $1. I love that store! I mostly only buy the items in those discount bins when you first come in (well, at my store at least), but it's still a great store.

So, Step 1: Buy and gather supplies. A wreath, some ribbon, some leaves, and a garland (or you could do picks, flowers, etc.)
Step 2: Disassemble garland and place leaves, flowers, etc. in individual piles.

Step 3: Make a bow. I didn't take a picture of bow making, but it's pretty simple. You start with a small loop first (this will become the little loop in the center of the bow), then make progressively bigger loops behind/underneath it until you get to your desired fullness. I did three on each side. Then, before cutting the ribbon off the spool, leave a tail on one side. For your other tail, you will cut another piece of ribbon, of equal length and attach it with wire. I used a tie from a bread bag, but took the paper coating off. That same piece of ribbon is used to tie the bow together, so it doesn't fall apart. Use one end of the center loop to hide the wire under. Voila! You made a bow!

Step 4: Arrange your pretty things into desired design. I didn't quite do this, which I should have done.

Step 5: Start gluing things on. I started at the center, which was kinda good, kinda not. The smart thing would have been to arrange everything first, then glue, starting with the bottom layer, but I forgot to do that, as illustrated by my picture.
Voila! You have made a cute fall wreath.
The awesome thing about this wreath is that when I added up how much I spent on this wreath, it came to $5, and I didn't even use everything. I only used about 1/4 of one garland (I got two four foot garlands for $2), less than a yard of the ribbon, and six leaves from the bag from Target. So now I have a ton of leaves from the garland, and a few flowers and stuff to make a centerpiece. I want to make one of those horizontal wreath things to go around a raised bowl I have on my table with a candle in it right now.