I made mine without looking to see if I had pinned a tutorial or not because it looked so simple (and it is certainly simple enough to do but does require some patience). In fact, the image I pinned links to an etsy listing by Embellished Living. I did a little Googling, though, and found out that Chelsea over at two twenty one has a tutorial you can follow if you wish, which reproduces the inspiration wreath almost exactly.
Here's what I came up with:
I'm afraid I don't have a full tutorial with accompanying pictures for you, but I can give you a quick run-down. The steps of the project are fairly simple, but be aware that they do take some time, partly because of the nature of the project, and partly because you have to wait on things to dry. Don't expect to finish this in one sitting.
A quick list of the supplies I used, all of which I purchased at Hobby Lobby:
- 13.5" wood letter
- 4" wood letter (came in a pack of 2)
- Crochet thread, size 3 (one color for each letter)
- Mod Podge
- Foam brush
- Clear acrylic gloss coating
- Floral stem
- Owl accent
- Felt
- Velcro
- Ribbon
- Hanging hardware
A couple notes on changes I made from the inspiration wreath:
- I chose not to use jute for wrapping mostly because I wanted the look of something thinner. Jute also is easily degraded by water and sunlight, so it's really not a wise choice for a door hanging anyway.
- You probably noticed that I chose to use my first initial, rather than my last. I did this because it seemed more appropriate for a single woman. You wouldn't refer to a single person as "The Smith" the same way you might refer to a family as "The Smiths."
- I added the first initial of my furbaby, Tucker, because I thought it would be cute to include him. He is a part of my household after all!
- What I liked most about the inspiration wreath is how much it looked like a blank canvas - something you can hang on your door all year long and modify to suit the seasons, the holidays, or your mood - so I designed the embellishment to be removable.
Basically, I just wrapped the letters as best I could. I had to experiment a bit to figure out what was going to work the best. I wanted it to be as consistent as possible - all horizontal or all vertical. Originally, I wanted the T to be wrapped the opposite direction of the J, but that didn't work out. I started by gluing down a tail on the back of the letter, and just wrapped over that tail as I went. How close or far apart you wrap is totally up to you; I wanted mine to be very close. It worked best for me to wrap from the middle outward on the T, so I used two strands for that, but the J was wrapped in one continuous strand. I used Mod Podge to secure the thread, and I found that applying it both to the letter and the previously wrapped sections as I went produced the best results.
When I finished wrapping the letters, I applied a coat of Mod Podge over the whole thing and hung it up on a wire hanger to dry. I wish I had a picture of that because I used little paper clips to keep too much of it from touching the hanger and risk getting stuck. It looked funny!
After I had everything wrapped and dried, I added the embellishments to the T (which are not the ones that are removable). I wanted it to be fairly obvious that it represented my pet, so I punched holes out of a piece of felt and arranged them into a paw print shape. I used Mod Podge to secure these too. If I could go back and do it differently, I probably would have used hot glue or something that allowed me to be a little more precise. These were a pain to get in place the way I wanted them.
So that brings us to the main embellishment.
The leaves and berries I snipped off a floral stem from Hobby Lobby and arranged as I liked them. I hadn't planned on having an owl, but he was too cute to resist when I saw him at the store. He has a piece of wire attached to his back, which was helpful in tying together the stems from the leaves and the berries. As I said before, I wanted this embellishment to be removable, so that when I get tired of looking at it, I can just take it off and put on a new one, rather than create a whole new wreath. So the whole thing was glued to a piece of felt, and I attached a piece of Velcro to the back of it.
Because I want to hang this outside for a long period of time, I sprayed everything (including the main embellishment) with a couple coats of a water-resistant gloss acrylic. The gloss really amped up the glittery strand in the crochet thread, which I love. After it had time to dry, I glued the T in place and attached the Velcro for the embellishment.
I haven't found the right hardware to hang it just yet. I want to use a ribbon like the original wreath, but I also want to be able to change it, so I need to go peruse the hardware aisle at Walmart. I have purchased an orange/gold ribbon to match this fall theme for now.
So there you have it. A sort-of-tutorial for making a wrapped monogram wreath.
I leave you with this little guy. May he melt your heart as he has mine.
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