I Made it Monday Paper Mesh Sunflower Wreath

I Made it Monday

This week I'm introducing a new plan to kick start my blog and hopefully get me back to posting. Every week on Monday I will try to post something that I made. It might be a neat craft like this week, a sewing tutorial, maybe a recipe or even just a few pics of something that I made either for myself or as a gift. It may be original or completely link to someone else's hard work. Who knows. Basically it will be something that I made. At some point. Maybe on a Monday. Maybe not. If you want to share your IMIM creations please feel free to in the comments or on my Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/AppliqueTime.

Sunflower Wreath

I’ve been looking for some time to redo my spring wreath. I’ve had the same spring time wreath since 2000 and I have hung it with pride on 5 different homes since I first made it 15 years ago. The problem is it was made on a twig wreath and you know what? Birds like twig wreaths! They make great nest locations and even if they aren't building a nest there they like to use it as their own building supply store and take twigs and flowers from it. Every year I would say I was going to make something new that the birds wouldn’t like so much. I really thought after the great “bird in the house at 10:00 pm” fiasco that last year might be the year but alas, it didn’t happen. Until this year when I saw a beautiful sunflower wreath on a friends post on Facebook. I knew then that this wasn’t just a craft idea that I was going to plan to do, or worse yet, buy the supplies but never do. This one my friends was going to happen. I was going to make a sunflower wreath! So here’s what I did …

Materials

•         1 roll each of 10 inch by 10 yard decorative mesh in green and brown (I got mine at JoAnn’s. The colors there were lime green and bronze.)
•         2 rolls of 10 inch by 10 yard decorative mesh in yellow
•         Cloth Stem Wire (I could have just used pipe cleaners.)
•         Pipe Cleaners to match (Don’t worry if you don’t have the right colors. You’ll just have to spend a little more time tucking and twisting them in the final step so they don’t show.)
•         12 inch wire wreath frame (If it sounds small it is. Don’t worry. The wreath is very full and spreads out way beyond the frame.)
•         Scissors and/or rotary cutter and cutting mat
•         Ruler or straight edge

Before we get started I have to give credit where credit is due. I originally saw similar Sunflower Wreaths on Pinterest and based my entire approach off of a few videos.

The first one is here, https://www.pinterest.com/pin/190699365448392506/. I spent a lot of time looking for a wire twig work wreath like they have in the video but never could find anything that I was willing to pay for so I used a standard wire wreath with pipe cleaners as my “twigs”.

The second video is here, https://www.pinterest.com/pin/190699365448513686/. You’ll love her sweet southern accent. It made me feel like I was back home in Alabama.

There are definitely more videos and tutorials out there for similar wreaths. Look around and see what approach you are most comfortable with and what supplies you already have on hand or are readily available to you. This is a very forgiving craft and you really can’t mess it up. My approach is a combination of the two videos listed above.

Step 1. I began by adding cloth stem wires across the center of the wire wreath to create an “X” and pipe cleaners to each section of the wire wreath form. There were 3 rings and 6 sections so I added 6 pipe cleaners to each ring for a total of 18. Try to stagger them on the rings. I folded the pipe cleaner in half, slipped it over the ring then gave it one twist. You want to have as much pipe cleaner as possible available to twist around your paper mesh.

Step 2. This step is most similar to the approach for the green leaves in the second video. You will need 6 cuts of green deco mesh approximately 18 in x 10 in. It is already 10 inches wide so just aim for lengths approximately 18 inches long. I didn’t worry about being exact, just somewhere close to 18. Working with one cut piece at a time, I gave it a diagonal pull on the bias to try to get some of the curl out so I could work with it. I’m not sure if this was effective or not but she did it in the video so I did too. I then rolled diagonally opposite corners towards the center. I pinched it in the center, folded it in half, then attached it to the outer ring using the pipe cleaners working the leaf so that it would stay to the outside of wreath. Repeat for the remaining 5 pieces. Don’t worry if it won’t stay where you place it. Once the wreath is filled in more things will start to stay in place and fill in a little better.

Step 3. For the yellow petals I went with the approach from the first video. I cut 24 10 inch by 10 inch squares of yellow deco mesh. Taking one, I gathered and essentially pleated it from one corner to the other on a diagonal. I then did this again on a second cut of yellow then attached them to the wreath using the pipe cleaner. First I filled in the row with the leaves using the excess pipe cleaner from the leaves to attach the petals directly on top of the leaves then I did the same 2 to 1 approach on the middle ring.

  

Step 4. For the inside of the flower (the seed part) I used the approach in the first video. Starting with the end of the brown (don’t cut it yet) I gathered it and attached it to the pipe cleaners leaving the tail to be gathered and attached again. I poofed it a little (is poofed a word?) then attached it to the opposite pipe cleaner and kind of worked my way around the inner ring poofing and securing. This is where the “X” that you put in the middle of the wreath comes in handy. You can poof and twist and anchor to it too if needed. When I was satisfied with the poofiness (again, is that a word?) I cut the end and secured it to the back.

Step 5. Next for me was just clean up. Some of the wreaths that I saw had tails for stalks or extra leaves going down but I didn’t want any of that. Just the sunflower was good for me. I fluffed and pulled and adjusted where needed and tucked all of the extra pipe cleaner to the back.

Step 6. Hang your wreath. For once I kind of liked having a yucky brown front door because it contrasts nice with my sunflower wreath. Never mind that the door could use another coat of paint or that the door handle is actually just a door knob. I have a pretty wreath and that is all that matters now anyway.