Project Post: A Springtime Peacetime Wreath

Happy Spring! I guess it's officially spring but we've had such remarkably nice weather (even for here) all winter that I'm already feeling summery. Except that I still have pretty pasty legs.

So I had been wanting to make a peace sign wreath. I wanted it to be rustic and flowery and... peaceful.

There are a million ways you could make one, I'm sure. But here's what I did (and this is, I promise you, something any crafter or non-crafter could do):

Start with a cardboard base. I used the shoe box my husband's work boots came in (a pizza box would probably work well). Traced a circle, cut it out, wrapped tape around it to help stabilize it, painted it a few shades of green. Pretty elementary school-level crafting so far.

Then I added moss, which is probably the messiest part. Be prepared for that. For this project I used moss that comes on a roll held together with really thin wire (something like this); it comes pretty packed together so I had to stretch and arrange it a bit to "fluff" it. It was my biggest expense for this project and I think it was under $4, regular price. You could use a pack of loose moss as well but you'll probably need a lot more glue and time since basically every piece will need to be glued to your base as opposed to this moss ribbon which can be held on with a chunk of glue spaced around the wreath, does that make sense?

Next add layers of tree bark, I just broke mine off in small pieces. I also flipped the wreath over and added bark from the back of my base so that from the front it had a more three-dimensional look.

Not very pretty from the back, but who's looking?

I started layering on a ton of small and medium sticks I'd collected. Start with the big ones around the perimeter and to make the "structure" if you will, and then keep filling in with smaller ones. My trusty mini-glue gun was more than adequate for this. So far, still easy-peasy.

Almost done ---  I wrapped some jute twine around the whole thing to help keep everything in order, though really it's all that glue-gunning doing the work. I added the twine to the back to hang it from a hook or nail, too. Ok, and literally I almost forgot to tell you to add branches to the center to make it a peace sign. duh. This is pretty straightforward, the most difficult part was finding three sticks that created the shape I wanted and fit together, so just keep trying until it looks right. You might want to reserve a few of your longer, thicker, branch-ier sticks for this part so that you have more to work with, and you can always break them up to be shorter. Even though they're primarily held together by glue, I added more twine where they meet to keep that handmade look.  

You can see better here that the whole thing has a really layered, rustic look. It's imperfect.
I wanted it to have the feeling of something Maid Marian would have just
thrown together on a springtime afternoon in Sherwood Forest, #HowsThatForAVisual? 

Finally, add the finer details. I pulled individual buds and sprigs off of a few large stems from Dollar Tree and JoAnn's, just filling them in by working my way around the wreath. This may be the hardest step and it is still easy.

And that's it!

I have had this on our front door for about two months now and it has held up perfectly well. Granted we've had just one spring storm during that time, but you know, it experienced wind and rain. :) This was also a really inexpensive project; when you consider I used recycled cardboard, found sticks and bark, and already had the twine, glue gun and glue sticks on hand. If you needed to purchase supplies, I'd suggest searching for a Michael's or JoAnn's coupon to save a bit on the glue gun (the mini-size is usually under $5, I think), and I usually find glue sticks at the 99-cent or dollar store. I happened to find my flowers there as well although again, Michael's usually has a huge selection that go on sale, and you don't need many. I'm confident that you could make this wreath for under $15 or so.

So there's my Springtime Peacetime Wreath! What are you crafting to welcome Spring and/or get ready for Summer? Anyone working on some kind of wreath, or maybe fun Easter crafts? I feel like this is something you could use through the Easter season without it having eggs and bunnies on it --- I mean wasn't Jesus' mission to bring salvation and peace? :) Is everyone ready for Spring weather? I'm loving the 80-degrees days we've had off-and-on, can't lie :)

Happy Spring and Peace Be With You,