Christmas wreath 2010

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2O5HQ3qoYynNTdjNTVjZGQtODZiYS00N2M5LWJjZTEtMmI5NGI1ZTlhZTUz/copyIt's December 1st, officially open season on holiday crafting. We'll ignore the fact that I made this wreath in November, well before such a thing was appropriate.

This year's wreath started, as all good things start, with a large cup of tea. Also, wool felt.

{christmas wreath 2010}

I traced over some olive leaf pictures and created a black and white file in Illustrator, then printed them and cut each one out. I traced around the cut outs on green wool felt (of course, polyester craft felt works but it simply doesn't feel the same - if you aim for at least 60% wool, you'll be much happier) and also on some metallic faux leather (wanted real leather, but it could not be had) that I purchased from the local upholstery store for $5 for a quarter yard. Black sharpie worked best on both, although I was a little woozy from the fumes. Make sure you trace on the back of the metallic material so you don't have to worry about the lines showing!

Then I cut and cut and cut. This part made me very thankful for old episodes of This American Life.

Pieces all ready, I protected my coffee table with wax paper, set down my wreath frame ($2 at the craft store) and started hot gluing. I attached the ribbon first, because I wanted the leaves to go over it.

{christmas wreath 2010 - assembly}

At first I tried to come up with some kind of logical process, like applying the metallic leaves first and then adding the felt. In the end, I just ended up gluing like crazy, adding leaves wherever I thought they looked right. This was the fun part.

{christmas wreath 2010 - gluing}

Adding leaves to the back as well gave the wreath a fuller feel. I initially imagined it as being more sparse, but sparse is actually a lot harder to do and I would have needed to be much more precise with my placement.

{christmas wreath 2010}

And here it is, hanging on the wall in the grey winter light. I'm probably safe to move it to our front door now, without risking anyone defacing it out of sheer annoyance.

{christmas wreath 2010}

{christmas wreath 2010}

If you'd like the leaf file, it's right here. You only need to print and cut out the leaf pages once, but you'll want to trace at least two sets onto your materials. I traced each leaf onto the wool felt twice and then made a half batch using the metallic vinyl.

Here's a little shopping list, if you'd like to make your own ...

Felt (wool or wool blend preferred), ~1/2  to 3/4 of a yard
Metallic leather or vinyl (optional), ~ 1/8 a yard, probably much less
Marker for tracing on fabric (Sharpie is fine, or fabric marker)
Leaf templates (you can use my file or a picture or you can trace actual leaves)
Sharp scissors
Wreath frame (mine was about 14" across)
Ribbon, for hanging
Hot glue gun