Wordless Wednesday: Lorimer Park

DIY (reusable) burlap wreath for Valentine's Day

I don't usually decorate for Valentine's Day, but this year I held a (fun!) Valentine-making class for 11 children and I wanted the house to reflect the theme. I made crayon hearts (here's a link to a tutorial for them), a red heart banner for the dining room (where the class was held) and a wreath for the front door. In the spring I made a butterfly wreath, which was cute, but the butterflies faded and it needed to be recycled. So I took the butterflies off, got out my burlap and started…

The wreath is a foam one from Michaels. When I made the butterfly wreath, I had wrapped it in old book pages. I left that on, but took the butterflies off.

The best thing about this wreath is that it's reusable! You can easily remove the Valentine decorations, and you're left with a plain burlap wreath to redecorate! Read on for the supplies and directions.

You will need:

wreath (mine is 12")
burlap
hot glue gun & sticks
white and red cardstock
embroidery thread
markers
thumbtacks

Directions:

1. Cut strips of burlap that measure about 12 inches long and 1.5 inches wide. (If you cut smaller ones, you'll just have to use more of them.) I only needed five or six total.

2. Wrap the strips around the wreath, hot-gluing it as you go. It's messy. Don't worry about it.

3. Get out your cardstock. I used red and white, but you could use any color you want. I cut 4 small hearts (1.5") and one large (4.5") from the white. Then I used Sharpies in red and black to decorate the small hearts. I printed L O V E on the small white hearts, and then doodled with red around the edge. One red heart (3.5") was cut out of the red cardstock with fancy scissors. I glued the red heart to the large white one, and then doodled around the edge with a black Sharpie.

4. Punch two small holes in each of the small white hearts. Thread a piece of embroidery thread through the holes to make a mini banner. My thread is about 18" long. I used an orange one, but you can use any color you'd like. (As you can see below, the lettering isn't really neatly done. That didn't matter to me because it's not noticeable when it's hanging on the door.)

5. Now for the thumbtacks. I used them because then the plain burlap wreath is reusable. If I used glue to adhere the mini banner and the larger heart they wouldn't be as easy to remove. You can tack each end of the mini banner to the back of the wreath, and use a red one to tack the larger heart to the front.

 

6. Hang it on your door! (I covered a small section of the wreath hanger with burlap because the silver was distracting to me.)