How to Make a Mesh Wreath Without a Wire Form

So wreaths are one of my "thangs"  It's up there with  cool cups, ornaments, and shoes.  I can never have too many!

I think right now I even have somewhere over 20 wreaths posted on my blog already.....it's a situation here in our house.

I've seen so many adorable wreaths all over Pinterest....but holy crap they can be expensive to make! Just because they're homemade doesn't mean they're cheap.  And at over 20 wreaths under my belt it would add up to a small fortune.  That's why I like to keep my wreaths $10 and under....sometimes they only even cost me a few bucks.

I keep the costs down by not ever using the typical forms that people buy like the foam or wood ones. I always cut mine out of cardboard boxes....which are free....which is perfect for a cheap ass like myself.

I love the look of deco mesh wreaths but had never made one before because

 1. the mesh itself is expensive 

 2. they are made with wire forms = $$

My sister Bree found a bunch of mesh on clearance that perfectly coordinated with the color scheme we had for a party coming up.  So problem #1 was solved but there was still the issue of the wire form

After researching alternate ways I realized there wasn't one.  I'm sure there is somewhere out there.....but it definitely isn't well known enough that I could find anything.  Every single tutorial I found required the wire form. So that meant coming up with a solution myself

Here's what I did.......

Cut your mesh into strips.  I had the long rolls of mesh so I kept the length the same as it came and cut it maybe 6-8inches wide.  (Just a guess, I didn't measure)

 

Fold it down

Do the same to a different color and pair them together. Fold up some of the loose bottom parts and rubber band them in the middle to create what I was calling "bouquets"

Keep making these bouquets in different color combinations

The reason I folded the bottoms up was so create a sort of flatter bottom so they would be easier to glue down and also to make a messier less perfect look.  I like the raw edge poking out randomly around the rounded bouquets

Take your bouquets and glue them onto your cardboard circle.  It took me about 15 of these to fill mine the way I wanted

Before I started I debated wrapping the cardboard in some of the mesh or painting it a coordinating color.....but I got lazy and just went for it.  It turned out ok....you could only see the cardboard through if you got super close.  But next time I'll try not to be lazy and see if it makes a big difference or not

And that's it! Decorate it as you normally would and your done!  

Not too shabby for on the cheap

DIY Dollar Store Fall Wreath

If you've been reading my blog for any significant length of time you may have figured out that I'm a wreath making fool.  If you're new to my blog I'll let you in on a little something.....I am a wreath making fool! 

Now that we have that clear I have a terrible confession.......I never had a Fall wreath.  I know, I know.....terrible, disgusting, downright shameful!  I don't even know how I've been able to look at myself in the mirror all this time.  I have every season and every holiday covered in the wreath department.....except poor Fall.

I'm especially disappointed because I'm a root for the under dog kinda gal and Thanksgiving tends to get looked over.  It kinda got screwed getting sandwiched between holidays like Halloween and Christmas and doesn't get much energy devoted to it with decoration.  

Well, I'm happy to say that I have cleared my conscious and made things right with poor Fall/Thanksgving and finally given it it's well deserved place on my front door

I love how it turned out and the best part was it only cost $6 to make.  Everything is from the dollar store.  I think it looks just as nice as the premade ones in the craft stores that cost 4x that at least

For the background I cut the leaves off bunches and arranged them around using hot glue to hold them in place.  Don't completely plaster them flat though.  I just put dots of glue on different places of the leaf and lightly pushed it down so they would still look sort of crinkled and more real instead of an ironed flat look

Add some fall colored and a bow and your wreath is done

College Sports Wreath

Because we don't have nearly enough wreaths in this house already.  Since there aren't stacks and stacks of them ranging from Easter to Patriotic laying in my craft room until I find a permanent storage area.  Since we have none of that going on here at all.....I had to make another

Actually, I started this wreath a year ago and just never finished it.  I'm kinda bad like that.  So this sucker sat in my craft room for a year before I finally looked at it and thought "You know......maybe I should finish that"   Crazy thought right?

So as you may have read before....The Boy is the lone Wildcat in my family.  Everybody else is Arizona State alumni and he went to The University of AZ.  So as you can imagine there is some intensity in our family during football season.  But my boy sure holds his ground.  Bear down!!!!

Here's a funny picture of The Boy and my brother inlaw both sporting their team hats at a beer festival we went too.  Their caption on the photo was "Beer brings Wildcats and Sun Devils together"  Whatever works I guess!

Last year I made my cardboard wreath form (just a big circle of cardboard because I'm waaaaay to cheap to buy a real wreath form.  Those things are outrageously priced!)  And glued on shiny paper crap.   Then I made my own "A" logo out of craft foam and glued it on.  And that's how it sat.....forever....and ever...and ever.  At least until 2 days ago

I decided that instead of just doing football that I would represent basketball and baseball too because he follows multiple college sports.  So this way I can throw this wreath on the door for a big football game or basketball game.

I don't think men are ever super excited about wreaths....but I'm pretty sure this is one The Boy can get behind

 

Cinco De Mayo Wreath

So last year I made...not so much a wreath....but a door decoration for Cinco De Mayo.  As soon as I made it I liked it, but I didn't love it. It just wasn't quite what I had in mind  You can go see it HERE

Sooo....when April rolled around this year I pulled it out and decided I didn't want to put it up again and pulled the maracas off of it.  Bad idea. Baaaaad.  This ripped something else on it so the option of just reattaching them if I wanted to was out the window. 

But I thought...No biggie....I have the whole month of April to make a new one. 

Well....life happened.  Between taxes, a friends wedding (which was multiple projects in itself), other projects, maintaining a house, oh yea....and the little thing I call a full time job......it didn't happen.

By the end of last week I was starting to stress over not having one made yet.  It was literally hard for me to go to bed at night because I kept thinking I should be making a Cinco wreath right NOW!!!

I know.....crazy right?

So then the semi logical part of me kicked in and said  "Hey Whit.....stop stressing.  Nobody will care if a holiday comes and goes and you never put up a wreath...nobody will even notice" I chose to listen to that moment of logic and thought I had come to peace with the idea of just skipping it this year. 

That is until..........................

Dun dun duuuun.

Monday my sister Kinsey came over...and whataya know.....one of the first things out of her mouth was "There's no wreath on the door?!?"

Welp....so much for logic and "nobody will even notice"......buncha bullshit!

  So I frantically made one the other night....and guess what....I still don't love it.  So I'm sure I'll be back in this same position next year

Normally I love all my wreaths, but I think Cinco De Mayo decorations have such slim pickins that I just can't seem to get anything I love.  I still have an image in my head for what I want....I guess I have a year to make the PERFECT Cino wreath

I guess this one will have to do in the meantime

All I did was glue on my usual wreath background of shreddy paper.  I used red, green, and white.   Then glued on my maracas (which I'm sure will somehow end up in the next one too)  And then some of these paper fans I made.....Here's what I did

Cut 3 sqaures the same size.   Fold the square accordion style....then fold in the middle

Glue or staple the two middle sides that come up to make your fan shape.  Repeat this with the other 2 squares, the glue or staple all 3 together to create one large circle fan

Now I've got myself another mediocre Cinco De Mayo wreath.  Oh well....there's always next year ;)

St. Patricks Day Wreath

 Oh Good Ole St. Patty's Day.....

A day of boozing, pinching, and corn beefing!

A holiday celebrated by many....but often screwed over in the terms of decor 

I didn't get around to making a wreath last year and I couldn't let another year go by without making one...so with only a week to go I whipped one out pretty quick

If you've seen any of my other wreath posts you'll notice I almost always use paper shred as my background.   So I stock up on random colors as I see them throughout the year because I know they will get used at some point or another

Turns out I had 3 different shades of green paper that I mixed together in a box

I glued on a little hanging "Lucky" sign that I got at the dollar store and some little coins, foam shamrocks, and some heavier weighted shamrocks from Michaels

Now you're all set for getting your Irish on!

Cupcake Liner Valentines Day Wreath

Sooooo guess what?!?

Today is The Busy Broads Birthday!

Yup........my bloggerversary!

One year ago today I wrote my very first blog post

And it was terrible.

No really......god awful!

You can go look at it and laugh if you want....HERE.......I really won't mind.  Promise.

But I started off with a Valentines Day pillow....so I figured what better way to celebrate than with another Valentiney project

That brings us to a wreath.....cuz I'm a wreath makin fool

And for the very first time I think in history.....I made a wreath where the basis WAS NOT the shreddy paper gift basket stuff

If you look under my "Wreaths" tab you will see that pretty much all my wreaths start that way

So I decided to step outside the box and try something new

That something new ended up being cupcake liners

It's pretty crazy that I haven't used them yet considering I'm cupcake crazy. I collect all things cupcake....it's getting out of control actually

So I bought three different cute patterned cupcake liners from the dollar store

Even though the bottoms are totally cute....they don't matter at all

That part gets glued down so find ones with cute sides

All you do is flatten them 

Then fold them inside out and crumple them into a kinda sorta flower shape

And hot glue them all the way around your form.  In my case it's always cut from scrap cardboard

It's not hard, just take a little while

Then I went simple and embellished it with a few hearts that I pulled off of picks from the dollar store

That's all there is to it!

I really like it much better in person where you can better see the mix of polka dot, hearts, and chevron stripes in different shades of pink and red.  I like that it's not as matchy matchy as I usually tend to go

Now I think that since it's our first birthday me and the blog should get to wear a diaper and smash cake into our hair while everyone watches.....what do you think?

New Years Wreath

So this is a totally last minute post......cuz it will be 2013 in 3 hours and 45 minutes write now as I write this

But this entire project in general was extremely last minute.  I just made it last night but I was determined to get it done because I wanted to show my support for New Years.

New Years Eve always kinda gets screwed....at least in the decoration department.  It gets the tiniest section in the store and then WHAM it's alllll Valentine's Day stuff

I like to root for the underdog so I felt it was my duty to pay homage to it

Just like any other of my wreaths I glued shreddy paper stuff (this time it's the foil kind) onto a form which in my case is always a cardboard round.......cuz I'm cheap

I found an oversized party hat at Walgreens and cut out the Happy New Year on it

I glued it onto poster board for structure and cut it out again

I didn't take a picture but I glued a scrap square of cardboard to help it pop out more

Then I just glued on some different blowers and horns from the dollar store and some squiggles I cut off of the party hat

That's all folks!  I wish you all an awesome year ahead of you! =)

Skull Halloween Wreath

So I sort of dropped the ball at the end of Halloween wreath week.  I got super busy again.

Go figure!

The only one I didn't get around to posting was the one we ended up keeping.

I had made some many different wreaths and each time I got done with one I declared it my favorite.....

Until I made the next one

So I gave The Boy the task of picking one and this is what he chose

 This is just a variation of my SKULLS & SPIDERS WREATH

if you go there you can see how I did the skull

I think he made a good choice!

Black & Purple Spiders Wreath

Are you sick of wreaths yet?

I don't blame you if you are

So I'm going to keep this short and sweet and just show you the picture

Spiders & Web Wreath

For this one I used some wood letters again that I painted

The green crinkle paper

An assortment of glittery spiders

And a glittery black web hangy thing from the dollar store

It had a black widow with that red hour glass bow tie looking thing  (which I don't understand but I know means something...I should probably look that up haha)

I wasn't crazy about the spider so I glued it to the side a little to cover most of it and then put one of my spiders over the remaining part that showed

 I like that the web isn't dead center because of that

I also added some black roses because it felt spidery to me

Skulls & Spiders Wreath

Next stop on the tour of Halloween wreaths.....skulls!

I got these cool skulls at dollar tree

Spray painted it gray

Then gave it a few coats of glittery silver acrylic paint

It's amazing what paint can do huh?

My background is a mix of purple and black crinkle paper

And then glued on some spiders and decorative foam glitter balls

Still kinda cutesy but slightly more spooky.  I like it!

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Bat Wreath

I wanted to make at least one wreath that was classic orange and black 

But of course it needed glitter

So thus both glittery bats from the dollar store and a black glitter bow was used

I just cut the bow a little so it wasn't as long

Then just added some wood letters I painted black

I swear the  bow is straight   I just hung it all wonky

Spiders and Bows Halloween Wreath

On this episode of

Halloween Wreath Week

Ok so it totally looks blueish in the pictures

But this wreath is purple and green

Bible

(in my best Kardashian voice)

Glitter balls....glitter spiders.....glitter bow

It's sparkly

Or as my niece Katie used to say when she was little

"Spaw-co-leeeee"

My families ability to talk normal has been forever changed

We have our own language and dialect now

Oh and the background filler stuff is a mix of purple and black

Candy Corn Wreath

Geeez!  Another long stretch without blogging

I've been a busy broad!

(see...see what I did there?)

Again this whole "job thang" is just cramping my blogging style

I wish I could just stay home all day and craft and blog my little heart out

But me and the husband have a lifestyle we have to maintain

We like to eat

Oh and we like having shelter too

We're weird like that

It wasn't just work that's kept me busy.....I've been a Halloween wreath making fool!

My entire living room is covered in wreaths (and glitter..sorry hubs!)

For realz

But that means I present to you......

Halloween Wreath Week

over here at The Busy Broad

Makes me feel like a legit blogger

Even though I'm pathetically far from legit

But all the cool bloggers have enough "like" material to fill up an entire themed week

So the fact that I do now too make me feel like one of the cool kids 

First wreath up is the Candy Corn Wreath

All my wreath starts off pretty much the same because I'm a creature of habit  

if you go HERE  you can see detailed instruction

But you're a smart cookie and I'm pretty sure you can figure out how hot gluing works

Made the big corn out of foam

And the little ones are wood that I painted and then covered in a lightly glittery paint but it doesn't show up in the picture well

That's it!

Stay tuned for more Halloween Wreaths

The biggest issue was deciding which one to keep for ourselves

Football Team Wreath

I'm not much of a football girl

I know

That makes me unamerican right?

I also HATE apple pie

But I do like baseball

Redemption!?

I feel like I did my part and put in my time

The whole first season that we were dating I sat my ass on the couch next time The Boy and watch EVERY SINGLE GAME

Every one

Even college

I was even thinking of borrowing my sisters "Football for Dummies" book to try and get myself into it more

But I just can't do it

It stops every 5 freakin seconds and I can't handle it

At least basketball (which I like to watch) keeps moving the entire time

The only thing good about football is the parties and dip

I like dip

My simple disinterest in it has now turned to disdain

See, The Boy comes from a big football family

His parents have season tickets and the whole family is alllll about it

They teased me in the beginning of our relationship about not liking it and I could take the jokes for a while...and then....

It just got old!

I remember one time over text they asked The Boy if he had seen a specific play

He told them no because I was watching something on the TV

They said that I should get back to my baking and mending so he could watch the football game

Call me a Sensitive Sally.....but that was kind of it for me

 I just totally checked out of any effort I was thinking of putting in

At least I bake well ;)

And I can mend the shit out of a pair a pants

When was the last time watching football for hours resulted in an awesome cake and handmade gifts?

I'm gonna go with NEVER! 

haha

I win.

(can you sense some slight bitterness? haha)

But in typically Busy Broad fashion football season was just another excuse to make a wreath

One even The Boy would love

Look HERE for a tutorial on how I make most my wreaths

I did this one the exact same way

After the basic form was done I made the Cardinals logo out of foam

And glued some cardboard to the back for sturdiness

Then just glued it on along with some little footballs I got for 59c over on the wood aisle in Michael's

This is about as close as I get to going all Rah Rah for football

Back To School Classroom Wreath

Wreath making is an addiction for me

I'm always looking for my next fix

I'll pretty much make a one for any reason at all

So of course the beginning of the school year seemed like a great excuse

My mom plans to put it on her classroom door for the first week and then they'll just bring it in for the rest of the year 

If you've ever seen any of my wreaths like this Patriotic Wreath or my Easter Wreath they all start out pretty much the same.

Gluing down shreddy paper stuff onto a cardboard wreath form I make

I don't like the foam ones you buy because they're expensive as all hell and I prefer for them to be flat up against the door.

After I covered the whole form I glued on some crayons and small pencil sharpeners

I had another sheet of school themed scrapbook stickers leftover from my School Keepsake Box project

Just like in that project I stuck them onto poster board and glued a small piece of cardboard onto the back to help them pop out better

All that was left was a major focal point

I had bought some word strips for the Keepsake Box that I ended up not using

It hit me  that I could make them into a cute bow!

See...every once and a while I can be a friggin genius!

Don't forget to glue on a pop tab in the back for am easy and cheap way to hang it