If you are like me, throughout this summer much of my to-do list has consisted of projects I discovered on Pinterest...trying them out, seeing if they work, wondering if they will fit the different aspects of my classroom. So far, all of those projects have been very successful (can't ask for more!), but I finally found one that I'm not so sure about.
Don't get me wrong, it is cute, it is exactly what I was trying to go for, but it took about 9 hours to complete....
The Birthday Wreath.
If you've seen the picture on Pinterest, it looks pretty easy to accomplish: foam circle wreath, curling ribbon, scissors...go team! Maybe I'm just slow, but curling that much ribbon was incredibly tedious.
Below is a tutorial of everything I did to make the adorable project. Let's just say, I am super glad that it turned out well, because otherwise I would be pretty upset with the amount of time spent sitting on the couch curling ribbon.
Start with your favorite colors of curling ribbon. I wanted to toss in a turquoise, but it wasn't available where I was shopping and I was really impatient. I also got a 6" styrofoam ring from Michaels for the foundation.
I chose to gather a length of each color, fold the cluster in half and tie it together with a shorter length of ribbon, then curl. This allowed me to tie the clusters of ribbon to the styrofoam ring. The tutorial that I read recommended using staples to attach the pieces of ribbon...again, impatient and I didn't have staples at home.
I think the tying worked better than staples would. Plus, the added benefit of not needing to hide anything. Just curl the length you used to tie, and it hides itself!
After a while, it starts to look like this:
Remember my mentioned impatience?
At this point, it was hard to see progress and that bored feeling started to kick in. In an effort to feel like more progress was made, I pulled some of the fluffy, curly ribbon further down the ring and tied it in.
While that made the wreath slightly less puffy, the effect wasn't lessened, so it was a process that continued throughout.
Flash forward, to completing the ribbon (as I have said the words "ribbon" and "curling" too much up until now)....I filled the final part with a cloth ribbon to create a hanger.
I plan on hanging this wreath on the front of the birthday-students' desks, so a hanger is perhaps important.
(This was the point where I accidentally broke the wreath and had to pin it together. Should you decide to be bold enough to create this time-consuming project, I recommend keeping some pins on hand. They also would help to pin down those annoying pieces that fall slightly out of line.)
The wreath was cute, but I wanted a little something more to complete it...I headed for the scrapbook paper and made a template for a birthday hat.
I rolled it up and used scrapbook adhesive to keep it together.
For the final touch, I added a little bobble at the top of the hat.
I tied together a little bunch of green ribbon and secured it with a long length of orange.
Just thread the ribbon through the top of the hat until that little bit of green sticks out the top.
Finally....finally, (this, I swear, was 9 hours later) use that length of ribbon to tie the hat onto the wreath.
The hat is not incredibly secure and may fall off at some point...I will be waiting with pins to attempt to reattach!
OR, I might just tie a big, big bow onto it for that "something more" and call it a day.
Like I said, cute project! Turned out nicely, fits the purpose....took far longer than I anticipated.
Make sure that you have tons of time on hand, and tons of patience.
Alright, I now have a date with my new pink/white polka dotted glue gun and some clothespins!
Happy summer projecting!
