Red, White & Blue: DIY Patriotic Wreath

Somewhere around January or February, I saw a gorgeous Valentine’s Day wreath on Pinterest.  It was made of red silk flowers…hydrangeas, maybe?  For a moment, I thought about making it myself, but at the time I was still getting used to my new schedule and being back to work.  Time was not my friend.  So instead I “oooohh”-ed and “aaahhh”-ed over the blog post, but didn’t do much more than that.  I was so confident that I wouldn’t have time to actually make it that I never even pinned it.  Instead, I watched how the blogger put the bright, beautiful red wreath up in her immaculate white kitchen, closed the browser window, and never looked back.

Until about a week ago.

With my girls at their grandparents’ house I suddenly found myself with a lot more time.  I immediately though about making a wreath for July 4th.  You see, I’ve always wanted to make one, but have never really seen one that I’ve liked.  And making a circle into a flag?  Yeah, I’m not that crafty.  And then it hit me – Why not make that Valentine’s wreath that I saw all those months ago, but with a patriotic twist?

So I hit the craft store with a 20% coupon burning a hole in my pocket.  Lucky for me they were having a sale on the entire floral department, making this wreath a little over $20, including wire wreath form (although, in full disclosure, the store’s cashier did let me make my purchase in 2 separate transactions, using a 50% off one item for one purchase and the 20% off entire purchase on the second transaction).  I think it came out beautifully and it was so easy!  Here’s how I made it:

You Will Need
Wire wreath form
6 bunches red of flowers
6 bunches blue of flowers
7 bunches of white flowers
White 1 1/4″ grosgrain ribbon
Yarn or ribbon
Hot glue

Step 1 – Each bunch of flowers came with a very long stem, so the first thing that I needed to do was get rid of the stem.  Since I didn’t have wire cutters, I cut the stems short using scissors (about an inch or so), until the wire inside was exposed and then wiggled the stem back and forth until it finally broke, leaving me with a bunch of flowers on a short, 1 inch stem.  You want the flowers to stay on the stem so they stay together, but you don’t need a long stem since they’re going on a wreath.  If there’s any chance that little hands could touch your wreath, drop a dab of hot glue on the end of each of the flower stems so that no wire is exposed.  The hot glue should provide a rounded (and not dangerous) cover for any exposed wire.

Step 2 – Remove the leaves from the stems and place them to the side.  Dispose of the stems.

Step 3 – Using ribbon or yarn (I used left over green ribbon from another project), tie the stems onto the wire wreath form.  In order to get a solid hold, weave the ribbon through the small “branches” of the flower bunches and the wire of the wreath.  I used two pieces of ribbon per flower bunch and tied them with double knots.  My wire wreath form was already separated into 9 sections, so I put 2 bunches of red on one section, then 2 bunches of white on the next section, and then 2 bunches of blue on the next section.  Repeat until the entire wreath is covered and you have one remaining bunch of white flowers.

Note:  When I started this wreath, I decided to hot glue the flowers on to the wreath frame.  This method will work, but I found that tying the bunches of flowers on to the wreath with ribbon (or you could use yarn) held the flowers to the wreath tighter.  It also made the flowers to sit more uniform on the wreath.  While I didn’t go back and change the ones that I’d already glued, if I could do it all over again, I’d only use the tying method.

Step 4 – Once all your flowers are attached, use hot glue to attach the leaves to the back of the wreath, going all the way around the wreath.  Make sure that you are gluing the front of the leaf to the back of the wreath.  I had to redo a leaf or two because I forgot this.

Step 5 – Pick what will be the top of your wreath – after playing with it a bit, I found that it looked best with the white at the top – and then loop the wide white grosgrain ribbon around that spot on the wreath, fitting it between the flowers.  Once you’ve done that, cover the ribbon with the remaining bunch of white flowers.  You may need to use hot glue for this one.

Step 6 – Tie a bow at the end of the grosgrain ribbon, hang it up some high, and celebrate the red, white, and blue!