Thursday, January 31, 2013

Exploring Cricut - Shamrock Wreath

I have a fun project to share with you today for Exploring Cricut. I have been wanting to make a burlap wreath for quite some time and hope that you will be inspired to make one too:) Sorry if the picture looks a little dark. I took this on my garage door and the lighting just wasn't cooperating.


The process is very simple. Any craft store should have the items necessary. You will begin by weaving the burlap through the wire holes. As you can see, there are 3 different rims and I chose to weave the burlap through all three. I started with the bottom and worked my way up and back down leaving a loop through each layer. You will also be pushing the burlap together after each loop to alleviate any gaps (the wire rim showing through).  Make sure to keep the loops the same dimension and then at the end you can fluff the loops up.



This is the back of the wreath when finished. The ends were all just tucked inside the wire.


I started with about 6-8" burlap tail and once finished I just weaved that through the back so that it would not hang down. I have about 5 to 6 yards left over of the burlap when I completed the wreath. It is surprisingly sturdy and the burlap doesn't really have room to move around.

To create the shamrocks, I laid them out on my Gypsy to select the sizes that I wanted. The foam that I used had adhesive on the back, which allowed me to layer the shamrocks together to give them more height on the wreath.

I used the deep cut blade to cut the foam with the speed being 3, pressure 4, multi cut 2 and blade depth 5. I also placed the foam on the mat right side down because the rollers will leave an indention. So, when using the Gypsy you will need to flip your image so that the roller marks will not be there and your cut will come out correctly.


After adhering the shamrocks together I decided that this wreath would be great for lots of different uses and I wanted the embellishments to be able to come off easily. I cut the stems down and then wrapped the heavy twine around the flowers. I hot glued them together to give more stability. The shamrocks were hot glued onto the flowers and each other. I then took the heavy twine and tied the embellishment to the wreath so that when I am ready to change the look I just snip the twine and save the look for the next time. I did tie the twine through the rim of the wreath in 3 different places. This is very sturdy and hopefully will withstand the elements of outside.

I will warn you that I have heard that burlap doesn't smell so good in the heat. I would suggest, if you have a storm door, to not put this in between the storm and your front door. Rather, if you front porch is covered to just put on the outside of your storm door. Now, of course, this can be easily used inside as well. I think over a mantle would be very pretty as well. Oh, there are so many choices. Maybe, I will need to make more than one of these:)

Recipe:
18" wire wreath
Burlap 2 rolls (10 yards each)
Shamrocks - Paper Doll Dress Up 5.71", 4.53", 2.76"
8 1/2 x 11 foam (2 sheets - 1 glitter and 1 regular; both sticker backs)
3 St. Patrick Flowers
Twine, hot glue

Thanks for stopping by and remember our challenge ends this Saturday:)

Annette

6 comments:

Diana said...

this is too kewl! ;) Love it!

Lisa said...

This is fabulous!! I love, love the look of burlap!! What an awesome wreath!! You did a great job!! Happy Thursday :)

Lisa
A Mermaid's Crafts

Sharon said...

How totally awesome!! I so love it! :)

snappy scrappy said...

Gorgeous! Lee-Ann :)

Nana said...

Awesome Annette. Love the shamrocks. Thanks for the detailed instructions.

Nana

Scrapping Girl said...

This is so cool! Excellent instructions and pictures. I like the idea of being able to change it out for the seasons with different embellishments. Awesome project!