Crafty: Candy Cane Ribbon Wreath

This year I decided that I was going to make a wreath for Thanksgiving.  For weeks, I was determined to make my modern, sleek ribbon wreath to hang on my door (which conveniently has a nail in it, facilitating wreath hanging), but I just couldn’t seem to make it to the craft store.  No matter how hard I tried.  Even the weekend before Thanksgiving I was still in denial – There would be a Thanksgiving wreath outside our door.  But alas, it didn’t happen.  No Thanksgiving wreath donned our door this year.  There just wasn’t time to get it done and I didn’t want to settle for a store bought wreath.

But as it turns out, that’s not such a bad thing because it only made me all the more determined to get our Christmas wreath done extra early.  I mean, it’s still November.  I think this is an all time record for me.  It seems that as handy as it is to have a nail in your door for hanging a wreath, that same nail makes me feel guilty when it’s a holiday and there’s no wreath outside.  It’s great motivation.  So I present to you – my Candy Cane Ribbon Wreath!

You will need:

Foam wreath form – mine was 16 inches across and white, but any will do

(1) Spool of 1.5″ x 12′ red grosgrain ribbon

(1) Spool of 1.5″ x 12′ white grosgrain ribbon

(1) Spool of 1.5″ x 12′ green grosgrain ribbon

2 Candy Canes

1 Holiday pick

Hot glue and hot glue gun

pins

Step 1 – Tightly wrap the red ribbon around the wreath 4 times, then cut the ribbon, and pin to the back of the wreath.  Tightly wrap the white ribbon around the wreath 4 times, then cut the ribbon, and pin to the back of the wreath.  Continue to alternate colors until the wreath form is completely covered.  You want to make sure that your ribbon is tightly wound around the form, but at the same time make sure to stretch the ribbon so the 4 loops around the wreath cover a good bit.  Twenty four feet of ribbon sounds like a lot, but I nearly ran out of white towards the end!  Also, don’t be stingy with the pins, just make sure they are all on the back so no one sees them.

Step 2 – Cross the two candy canes and hot glue them together when you find the right angle.  Remember, you’re going to want to have the majority of one candy cane touching the wreath (for gluing and securing to the form), so choose your angle with that in mind.  Then place the holiday pick on top of the candy canes and glue in place.  My pick was long, so I removed the excess.  Attach the entire thing to the front of the wreath using hot glue.  I glued mine to a white portion at the bottom, and made sure the portion at the top of the wreath was red, that way I’d get a nice contrast of Christmas colors when I attached the green ribbon to hang it.

Step 3 – Wrap the green ribbon around the top of the wreath, find the right length, and tie a bow.  Ours has to be ridiculously long because apparently giants built our house (between this nail and our kitchen cabinet knobs, I’m absolutely convinced).  

Voila!  Super easy, modern holiday wreath!