one wreath, two ways.

i have been eyeing these twig wreaths in the floral aisle of michael's for a long, long, time, but never really considered myself a "wreath" kind of person. i finally decided they were just too cute to stay in the craft store, so i bought one big one and one smaller one to come home with me. i made the big one into a fall wreath for our front door and the smaller one into a baby wreath for a friend's baby shower.

twig wreath!

for the fall wreath:

wreath, hanger, and a papier mache "B" for our last name.

i got a faux hydrangea, also from the floral aisle (because of its pretty green color!), pulled the individual flowers off the hydrangea and cut the plastic pieces off and the petals apart.

hot glue, hot glue, hot glue until it is nice and petal-y!tie the letter to the wreath with ribbon or a strip of fabric.

and hang the wreath from the hanger! you could also cover the letter with twine, raffia, moss, green floral tape, or different colored leaves or petals!

[note to self: i think it needs a bigger bow.]

i had so much fun with the baby wreath! i went crazy with my glue gun and all the little baby-sized toiletries. i stuck to a green/orange/yellow theme with all of them (utilizing the yellow packaging of the burt's baby bee brand) since those colors matched the shower theme.
i spray painted the wooden letters white (she's having a boy, obviously!) and dotted the edges with a green stamp pad to ink them a little bit- that gives it a cute shabby-ish look with some extra color. [ps- i was skepticall at first of how much people do the shabby ink pad thing, but then i tried it a few times and found that it just makes pretty much anything look a little more finished.]
i wrapped the entire wreath loosely with the orange ribbon [reinforcing it a bit with little dots of hot glue on the back so that the ribbon wraps would stay fairly evenlyl spaced] and then hot glued the letters where i wanted them to go. then i tied each letter with a little strip of the solid yellow ribbon. make sure to leave space for where the wreath hanger will loop up and under.
next i hot glued [just a tiny dab!] each little toiletry to the wreath, spaced the way they would best fit, and tied them to an individual little branch of the wreath with the solid green ribbon. this took a little finagling to get the ribbon up under the little branches with so much stuff glued to it, but it helps keep it sturdy and keeps it from looking like it is all hot glued together, even though it is!

and finally, hang on the door of the baby shower to welcome guests and spread the excitement of a sweet little boy on his way! [also makes a great gift, because the momma-to-be can take it home to hang on the door to announce when the baby is born, and take it apart and use the travel-sized toiletries!]