a kitchy wreath

I leave early Friday morning to drive up to Los Angeles to help Margie set up her booth for CHA.  This is her second year designing her own paper and so it is really exciting to see how people flock to her booth and drool over her products.

She really is an amazing designer.

Anyway, I made a few decor items for the booth.  I thought I'd share one with you.  I used the papers from Margie's "Kitch" line to create this wreath.

It is large. Probably thirty or so inches across.  I really wanted to capture the feel of the paper which is, well, kitchy. So I dug out some of my vintage hankies and old pop tops.  I made carnations (the kitchiest flower around) out of muffin cups. And as I always say, everything is better with pom poms.  Oh Lordy yes.

The overall theme of Margie's booth this year is going to be very festive so I wanted to stick with that and make this wreath seem like a party on the wall.

Don't those polk-a-dots just give you a happy feeling deep down in your soul?  If you will be at CHA I hope I get to say hi. I will be at the show on Saturday, but then I must come home and take care of all my little chickies.

as promised...

Paper Wreath Tutorial

Supplies:
twenty-five to thirty sheets of really great printed craft paper (I LOVE this line)
twenty-five to thirty sheets of solid color paper
an old book
buttons (thirty or so)
floral wire
glitter(oh my I do love glitter)
wire cutters
needle nose pliers
foam wreath form
glue
scissors

Using your craft paper and old book, cut out "X" shapes in various sizes with rounded edges. The largest should be around 6-8 inches and the smallest should be about 3 inches. Cut four each from the printed paper, solid paper and old book pages. Do not worry about uniformity. It looks better if each petal is unique. Also cut out circles for the flower centers. I use a 1 1/2 inch die cut.

Cut a length of floral wire (I like to use heavy gauge wire for more stability). Thread a button onto one end and using your needle nose pliers, curve the wire so the it goes back through the button.

Follow with a circle.

If you want to glitter your flower, use some glue to coat your paper and sprinkle and tap off excess. Start to crumple and shape your petals. I like to curl mine inward. Stack the petals one by one on the wire.

After you have stacked all twelve petals, use your needle nose pliers to make a curl with the wire in the back to hold the petals tight.

My wreaths are fairly large and require twenty-five to thirty flowers. Yes, it does take me forever.

But.

It lasts forever. The flowers never die.

And you can always make a small one if you don't think you can handle hours of crumpling paper.


Poke the wire from each flower into the foam wreath. It may take a little tweaking to get them arranged just right.

Be patient.

Enjoy!

Oh, and send me a pic of your finished wreath!

*****Okay I'm writing this very small because I don't want to come across as a intellectual property freak, but I would like to say that you are welcome to use this tutorial for personal use, but please ask before you publish it somewhere. After all, It's the polite thing to do.