Pre-Christmas Crafting

The time is upon us! Cold weather to me means two things (besides crappy commutes in the rain)

• Baking delicious treats
• Getting crafty and making gifts for people I love!

The crafty bug bit me HARD last night, and I *had* to make a 8pm run to Michaels (it’s a disease, people!) because, oddly, I didn’t have a styrofoam wreath form in my craft stash.

I grabbed some yarn, my button stash, some ball-headed straight pins and my new styro-wreath and set to work! (Pardon the crappy phone pics… I totally planned to do a little tutorial and then promptly forgot to take photos! Sigh. I blame the rum.)

1. Start wrapping the yarn around the form. You could use hot glue or something, but I just wrapped it several times to hold secure. Continue wrapping to cover the styrofoam. I used one of the white, flat-backed forms, so I couldn’t slide the yarn to adjust it but if you got one of those green floral foam ones, it’d probably slide pretty easily.
2. Every 25 wraps or so, I overlapped on the inside of the ring to adjust the angle of the yarn as it worked around the circle. (Does that even make sense?) If you look at the photo, you can see it better… it’s there the thicker bits of yarn are. That’s where I overlapped it.
3. Continue wrapping until the wreath is completely covered. Mine used about 1/2 of a skein of the cheapo stuff I had… this is where the patience part comes in… you have to pass the entire thing of yarn through the middle of the wreath every go-round… my left hand is still sore from holding the yarn as I worked, and I had to recruit hubs a few times to help me manage the mass of yarn while I wrapped.
4. When the entire wreath is wrapped (It happens eventually, I promise!) just tie a knot using an existing wrap; I left a nice long piece attached so I have something there to use for hanging the finished piece, but if you have another plan for it, you could cut it short.
5. And the last step, EMBELLISH! I’ve seen lots of these that use fabric or paper flowers, but I’m partial to buttons.
6. Make it adorable and VOILA! A button-embellished wreath!

I’d love to post more projects as I work on them, but it’ll be hard since my family reads my blog! Maybe I’ll have a top-secret Flickr group to share photos until after the holidays! LOL

I’d love to make all of the gifts we give this year; I’ve got ideas for lots of people, but always love to see what crafty things other people are up to…

What are you making this holiday season? Gifts for others or just for yourself? (I’m totally keeping this one, sorry family!) Please share! I love links and Pinterest boards! 🙂