Since Thanksgiving is officially over and the Christmas season has begun, B and I decided it would be cool to have an ornament wreath to hang on our front door this year. (Also, we couldn’t remember if we had kept or tossed the wreath we used last year.)
And because I like to make shit, we headed to Michael’s to buy everything we would need to make our very own ornament wreath. Turns out that this was an excellent idea because Michael’s had some really cool ornaments on sale. Really cool ornaments. So we put about 20 tubes of ornaments in our little basket. You know, in case we ran short. What? THEY WERE ON SALE.
We eventually came to our senses and decided that maybe we should dial it back a bit. We went with a more reasonable number, grabbed another hot glue gun and glue sticks (I swear those things grow legs and run off) and headed back home.
I then proceeded to make my very own ornament wreath using these 5 10 20 easy simple steps.
Things you will need to make your very own ornament wreath:
- Ornaments (duh!)
- Hot glue gun
- Glue sticks for said hot glue gun
- Wire Hanger
- Ribbon
Step 1: Prep your work space.
Step 2: Bribe the dogs with a chewy stick (we got fancy with duck this time around) to leave you alone and (probably) stay out of trouble. This is the most important thing you will do while creating your own wreath if you own 1 or more dogs.
Step 3. Assemble almost everything you will need on your prepped workspace. Behold.
Ornaments, hanger and glue gun on prepped worked space.
Step 4: Begin glueing the tops of the ornaments to stay together.
Step 5: Glue one or two ornaments and then realize you need somewhere to put them so you don’t try to re-glue the ones you’ve already done.
Step 6: Rummage around in the kitchen and came up with a big metal mixing bowl. Or use whatever you have on hand and that is convenient(ly located).
Step 7: Continue hot glueing all your ornaments. This part will feel like it takes forever. Also, you may unintentionally go heavy on the glue and will want to wipe the excess glue off the tops if you have OCD tendencies.
Tip: Hot glued ornaments look just like regular ornaments.
Step 8: Bend your wire hanger into a shape that as closely resembles a circle possible.
Step 9: Begin “stringing” your hot glued ornaments onto the wire hanger.
Stringing Ornaments
Step 10: Feel smug about making your own ornament wreath until you realize you don’t have quite enough ornaments.
Step 11: Insert all the swear words you can think of here.
Step 12: Go downstairs to the creepy room in the basement you use for storing all your Christmas decorations and find some plain silver ornaments you can add to your wreath.
Step 13: Pull all the ornaments off the wire hanger and dump them back into the bowl.
Step 14. Insert more swear words here.
Step 15: Re-string all the ornaments again, adding in your plain silver ornaments from downstairs as randomly but also as evenly spaced as possible. Only the random part will work out despite your best efforts. Go with it.
Almost Done
Step 16: Take the newspaper, the wreath and some painter’s clear gloss outside and spray down your ornaments to keep the glitter on the ornaments. (This step is optional if you use ornaments that haven’t been to a Ke$ha party) (If you live in my house, anything covered in glitter has clearly been to a Ke$ha party.)
Keeping the Ke$ha Party Where It Belongs
[SIDE NOTE] If you are like me, you may be a little overzealous with the clear gloss. This will create a frosted look on your glitter free ornaments. This is what we like to refer to as a “design element.” Go with it. [/SIDE NOTE]
Step 17: Realize that you need to find a way to hide loop that was originally the hanger hook.
Step 18: Find leftover silver lace ribbon from another project and wind it around the loop.
Step 19: Add a bow.
Step 20: Hang your ornament wreath on the door and admire your handiwork.
My Ornament Wreath, Let Me Show You It
