Week 32 Craft: Halloween Wreath

The calendar is officially on September, so the Halloween season has commenced - at least if you consider yourself a crafter. Come to think of it, any self respecting crafter started in with the Halloween crafts about the same time you finished the last Cadberry egg. Deco mesh wreaths are all the rage right now, so I thought I'd try my hand at one. While I LOVE the wreaths that look like they're big enough to take on Godzilla I thought I would start with something a little more manageable.

Here's what you need:
Wire wreath form
Deco mesh
Ribbon in various patterns and widths
Pumpkin picks in two sizes
Chenille twist ties
Appliance paint
Painters tape
Metallic spray paint
Silk flowers

1. Grab your metallic paint and spray your smaller pumpkins and the flowers. Be patient with the flowers; they take more paint than you think to get good coverage.

My original thought was to just give them a light spray, but it caused the petals to have a bluish hue.

2.  Paint the larger pumpkins with a coat of the white appliance paint. The finish ends up looking like ceramic, very nice! Once they dry use the painters tape to make stripes, chevrons or checks and spray with the black appliance paint. If you don't have appliance paint you could use acrylic paint and then a high gloss polyurethane to get the same ceramic look, but c'mon...you know you have some way back on that top shelf behind the goo gone.

 Boo!  Some paint leaked under the tape, but I touched it up later.









3. There are about 500,000 tutorials on how to make a deco mesh wreath, so refer to your favorite one. I used one roll and was able to get around my wreath just shy of twice. Don't worry that it didn't make it all the way around a second time; this is where you will add your painted pumpkins.

4. After that I looped and tied some 2" ribbon around the wreath one time. Pop your silk flowers off their stem and space them around the wreath at points where the mesh and ribbon are twist tied to the wreath form. Once you are happy with how it looks, use your hot glue gun to glue them in place.

5.  Arrange your pumpkins in a grouping, tucking the wire picks to the back of the wreath. Once you are satisfied with the placement twist tie them to the wreath form. I left the picks on and chose to wire them in place because I felt they might be too heavy to glue into place. I had also sprayed a berry pick with the black appliance paint and tucked some of those around just for the heck of it.

6.  Take your other ribbons and cut them into 10" lengths. I cut a "V" into the ends for a little added interest. Wrap a twist tie the middle and then tie it to the wreath form. Just for continuity I added one to the right of each flower.

 Your wreath is done. I like how the deco mesh is very shear and with the flowers looks very funereal.