Okay, so I've been soooooo busy lately that I couldn't get my wreath made until a couple of days before July 4th. Like most obsessive I already had most of what I needed to do this project, so I ran out to my local dollar store and picked up some floral stems and ribbons for $5 and got to work.
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For this project you will need:
3 to 5 floral bush stems with red, white and blue carnations or the flowers or your choice. It's better to have more than enough on hand, than not enough.
Red , white and blue ribbon bow(s). My 2-pack was already made in 2 bows with twist ties, but if you know how to make bows, you can use ribbon to make your own
Pencil
18" ruler
Foamboard , thick cardboard or Styrofoam wreath form
Utility knife or craft knife (get extra blades here)
Thick cardboard or cutting mat to protect your table while cutting out the foamboard wreath base
Cardboard or newspaper to cover your table while painting
Red acrylic craft paint
1" wide paint brush
Hot glue gun and glue sticks
Heat proof metal pan on a heatproof mat to rest your glue gun on
Monofilament beading cord
Over-the-door wreath hanger (much better than putting nail holes in your door)
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First, pull all the flowers and leaves off of the stems (save these for a future project). If your flowers and leaves don't slide off, like mine did, use wire cutters or heavy shears to cut them off close to the base of the flower, keeping about 1/4" of stem at the base of the flower.
I also took apart the 2 small bows and combined them into one larger bow for mine.
Lay out your flowers and bow. Try a few different arrangements until you get them the way you want them to look in the wreath. Measure across the circle of flowers to get the width of the center of the circle. Add 1" to this measurement for the outside edge of the foamboard wreath base and subtract 1" for the inside edge.
Mine measured about 12".
Measure from the edge of your foamboard to the inner circle measurement and the outer circle measurement, using your pencil to make marks at each point. Move down a few inches and do it again. Now repeat these steps, measuring and marking from the other edge of the foamboard. Use your ruler to draw lines connecting the lines to form the outer and inner squares. Then draw an "X", from the 4 corners. This helps when drawing the circle.
I don't have a large compass or bowl this big, so I drew it freehand, using the corner markings as a reference. As you can see, my circles are not perfect, but they're good enough since the wreath will be covered by flowers and no one will see the foamboard base underneath.
Cut out your square with your utility or Exacto knife, holding the ruler firmly on the foamboard and following the edge. Watch your fingers! These knives are really sharp.
Carefully cut along the lines you drew for your circles, and pop out the wreath form you've made. Save the corners, inner circle, and sides of the foamboard. These come in handy for other projects.
Now paint the background red (blue or white, your choice). Remember to paint the inner and outer edges, too. It seals the raw edges to help weather proof them. (I didn't paint the back of mine because I don't want paint rubbing off on my door.)
I hot glued my bow on the wreath form first, but you may prefer to do it last. If you've ever made a wreath before, you probably already have a preference for the order that you do it in. Then hold the first carnation where you want it to be and press down just hard enough to make a light depression in the foamboard with the short plastic base of the flower. Then use the tip of your knife to make a hole in the foamboard on that mark, but not cutting all the way through.
Put hot glue on the plastic base of the blossom and stick it into the hole, holding it place for a few seconds until the glue cools.
Repeat these steps until the flowers fill the wreath. After gluing on my flowers, I tucked in some leaves just to see how it looked, but decided against using them in this project. As you can see I also changed my arrangement of the flowers from being bunched tightly, to a single file line before gluing them.
Tie the monofilament line to the wreath on both sides of a flower from the back to make a hanger where you want the top of the wreath to be and its all done! Now you have a beautiful July 4th wreath for your door or anywhere you want to hang it.
And hear it is! I hope you have as much fun making yours as I did making mine!
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