Happy Tartan Day – Blog Along With Effy Day 6

Hi friends,
I have another home decor project for you today! For this project I am using one of the three wreath rings from this set.  In an earlier post last month I used the largest one to make a pom pom wreath, so now I am using the middle sized wreath to make this home decor project. Firstly, give the edges a wipe down with a slightly damp cloth or paper to remove the residue left by laser cutting. I wanted to make this wreath look more like wood, so I used a woodgrain stencil and some texture paste and left it to dry. I covered both sizes with the texture paste just in case I wanted to make two. While this was drying I selected some fabrics from my stash.  For this wreath I wanted to use a combination of felt and Harris Tweed. I used a couple of Sizzix dies to cut out flower and leaf shapes from the fabrics. If you don’t have any dies like this, you could cut some basic flower shapes out by hand. Some fabrics like this Harris Tweed creates lots of mess with tiny little fibers that get everywhere, so I keep one of these mini vacuums handy to clean up, especially on my die cutting plates and the dies themselves! When you have a nice collection of flowers and leaves to use, and your texture paste is dry, it’s time to move on to the next stage. I painted the wreath shapes with a metallic brown paint and left them to dry. These long leaf shapes are cut out of felt but they are very floppy, so because I wanted to be able to shape them as I wanted, I added some wire to them. Using thin 24ga wire I hot glued it to one of the leaves, and then glued a second one on top to hide the wire. I repeated this twice more so I had three in total. Next I used some thicker wire, 20ga and some pliers to create two words for my wreath, by bending them into shape.  If you have the right selection of pliers you can do this by hand or there are various jigs that make it easier for you. I placed them over the wreath to check the size and placement and moved on to making the flowers. For the layered flowers, make or buy some eyepins.  These are wire pins with an eye shaped loop on one the end, which will hold the bead in place.  Make the eye pin about 12cm/6inches long to allow for wrapping and securing in place, then thread on the bead, and then the layers of the poinsettia from small to large. Keep making flowers this way until you have enough for your wreath.  I am only covering the bottom half with flowers so I made seven complete flowers, some from cream felt and the rest from Harris Tweed. To hide all the wire and glue etc, cut out a backing piece from felt using the wreath shapes, remembering to use the smallest wreath shape to mark the centre cutout. Start arranging the flowers and leaves on the wreath, looping the ends of the wires around and securing everything with hot glue. I used some leftover felt pieces to tuck in around the wreath at various points – a bit like flower arranging! Then decide on the placement for your wire words and secure them in place and then adhere the felt backing piece onto the back. Twist another piece of wire to act as a hook to hang the wreath and glue to onto the back of the wreath.  I also added a small bow at the top of the wreath just to give it more interest.  Rearrange and shape the long wired leaves into a position you like, I have one on each side of the wreath and one on the centre bottom. Remember the smallest wreath shape?  Another option would be to use this extra shape and some of the remaining backing felt, to fill in the centre opening if you prefer it that way, and it might also make the wire words easier to see if you plan to hang it on a light coloured wall. Here are both versions hanging on a white wall. And now you have a sweet little fabric flower wreath to display all year round or it could also make a great housewarming gift. I hope you enjoyed this home decor project and will try one for yourself. Till next time, You can visit the GSL Cuts blog post here and links to the UK shop are in the Project Recipe below. Links to both shops can be found on their blog. PROJECT RECIPE: GSL Cuts – Wreath Rings WR001 Woodgrain Stencil Paper Texture Paste Brown Metallic Paint Gold wire 20ga and 24ga Red beads From Stash: various Harris Tweed fabric and felt scraps, ribbon, jewellery pliers, hot glue gun and hot glue sticks