Monogram Wreath

Several months ago, I saw a monogram wreath on an Etsy shop that I really liked.  Go here to see my original inspiration. 

I knew that I could make a similar looking wreath for less money than it would cost to buy it off of Etsy.   For someone who is not crafty, Etsy is a great place to buy a variety of unique hand-made items.    However, I would consider myself crafty.  Often times, it is much more cost-effective for me to try to make some of the things I like instead of buying them. 

My original inspriration cost $35 before shipping.  The only thing that I had to buy for this project was a $5 cardboard monogram from my local craft store, making this piece of home decor much cheaper to make myself.  I already had the following materials on hand from previous projects:  yarn, hot glue, ribbon, black cardstock and a book page.

First, I wrapped yarn around the cardboard monogram.

The next step was to make three flowers, two from black cardstock and one from a book page, like the one’s I made for my DIY Flower Wreath from Book Pages.  Once the flowers were made, I attached them to the monogram using hot glue.  You can find my flower tutorial here.

Next, I made a bow out of ribbon and glued it above the flowers.  Lastly, I glued ribbon to the back of the monogram before hanging it up for display.

And that's it!  Another project completed for less than $10:)

DIY Flower Wreath ~ Made From Book Pages

I’m sure you’ve seen faux curled wood wreaths in many of the stores lately.  I was inspired by one I saw at Target for $40.  I loved the look of the wreath and after examining it, I though to myself, “I could make this”.  After searching the internet and seeing other people make similar looking wreaths, I was certain I could make one.  Although my inspiration was faux curled wood, I decided to use the pages of a book to give me a similar look to the Target wreath, while still giving my wreath my own personal style.

   While this project cost less than $10, it did take me A LOT of time.  And by that, I mean SEVERAL hours.  I didn’t even finish it all in one night.  I took an hour here and an hour there to finish it.  After about a week of working on it, it was finally finsihed.  This project sort of reminded me of the tediousness of making my CoffeeFilter Lamp Shade.  Just like that lamp shade, the finished product was well worth it.

First, I bought a Styrofoam wreath from my local craft store.  They are usually priced around $5, but always check the weekly ads for coupons and sales.

Next, I bought a book for $1 at my local Goodwill store.  I then cut spirals out of the pages of the book.  I cut several pages at once to make this step go by faster.  Dollar stores, thrift stores and garages sales are great places to buy an inexpensive book for this particular project. 

Once I had my pages cut, I took each individual spiral and rolled it into a flower…..

…..until it looked like this, and then I used hot glue to hold it together.   I also made a few flowers out of cream cardstock and mixed them in with the book pages to add interest to the piece.

Then I began hot gluing the flowers to the wreath……

….until it looked like this. 

The wreath adds a little bit of interest to the table in the entry…..

….and as most of my projects do, this entire project cost less than ten bucks. J