The “Big Mama” Valentine Wreath

So I showed you my little Pom Pom wreath earlier here and mentioned The Big Mama wreath {yes, I clearly have a bizarre desire to name inanimate objects in my home.  Let’s just go with it, shall we?}.

I wanted to do something similar yet different than the yarn and felt rosettes wreath I made for Hanukkah.  For starters, I was thinking BIGGER.  We have an older home, with a painted black front door and I love the idea of the bold contrast of red and white with that, especially because we happen to have black and white trim on our red brick house.  Clearly the architect was working with me for Valentine’s Day all those many years ago.  Many thanks, designer dude.

I started with a large straw wreath and began wrapping it in long strips of red felt {about 2″ wide, cut off the bolt}.  Do NOT take the plastic off the straw wreath as felt+straw = bad combination.

Because I left the plastic on, my ubiquitous glue gun was not optimal, so I simply pinned the pieces directly into the wreath.

Once the wreath was completely covered, I made up a bunch of circle felt flowers in assorted sizes and colors.  There are a million tutorials all over Blogland so I won’t bore you with yet another.  I then made up leaves out of scraps of ribbons.  I’m sure there are other ways to make these, but here was my “quick and easy, don’t have to pull out the sewing maching and use up what I have” methodology {I’m so Martha, aren’t I, LOL}.

Starting with a plain strip, I put a dab of hot glue at the top and folded down one side in a triangle.

I then put another dab of hot glue and folded the other side down into a triangle too.

Next, I flipped the whole thing over and put a small, vertical line of hot glue near the bottom and pinched it together to give it a little dimension and the illusion of a leaf.

I repeated about a dozen times in scraps of satin and grosgrain and inserted them wherever I could around the flowers as filler.

Finally, I made a loop out of plain red ribbon and glued it together to hang the wreath since I felt a bow just didn’t “go” with this particular design {and I have a painted little hook on my door thanks to the previous owners}.

Close up so you can see the little bitty sparkles in the red flowers!

And because the pictures were taken when I finished at about 9 o’clock at night while it was snowing outside, here it is hanging from the other side of the door, too!

Linked to:

CSI Project, The Hills are Livin, It’s a Hodgepodge Life, Fingerprints on the Fridge, Fun to Craft, Tidy Mom, Finding Fabulous, Chic on a Shoestring Decorating, My Romantic Home, The Shabby Nest, Frugal & Fabulous Design, Frou Frou Decor, Paisley Passions, Yesterday on Tuesday, Tatertots and Jello, Along for the Ride, Creative Jewish Mom, Be Different Act Normal, C.R.A.F.T., Making the World Cuter, Keeping it Simple, Between Naps on the Porch, Mad in Crafts, Craft-O-Maniac, The Girl Creative, Today’s Creative Blog, Hope Studios, Sugar Bee, These Creative Juices, Skip to My Lou, Not Just a Housewife, Tip Junkie, My Backyard Eden, Nikki’s Nifty Knacks, Feeding My Temple