DIY Christmas Wreath with Yarn

I love decorating for the holidays/seasons/months/birthdays/etc and because our front door is the first thing guests will see when they come to our house, I want to make sure it's always decorated in some way.  Right now, for Florida Football we have the Gator Ribbon Wreath that I made a few weeks ago. The Gators are undefeated right now so it's not going anywhere until after the last regular season game.  

Supplies for the yarn Christmas wreath

I have a couple of Christmas decoration projects lined up in my head, so starting in October seems like the best plan for me to get everything done by Thanksgiving weekend, when I decorate for Christmas at our house.  I decided to make a bright, red and green wreath for our front door.  Our gate is white, so the red and green will really stand out which is what I want to happen.

I was aiming for something simple yet classic looking and also something I should help others make for their homes.  I came up with a yarn wrapped wreath with some really pretty, fake poinsettias and red ribbon.

To make my wreath you'll need:

• Foam circle from a craft store or dollar store.  Mine is a 12" circle
• Fake poinsettias or any other holiday decor you'd like to display.  We toyed with some holly or even some white flowers but landed on the poinsettias because of their bright red color.
• Yarn, any color that you want while matching your flower choice.  I went with a deep green.  The yarn aisle at Michael's had about 10 different dark greens to choose from.  
• Ribbon to hang the wreath.  You could also hang this wreath from a wreath hook, it's up to you.
• Hot glue gun and scissors.   

Wrap the yarn around the foam circle

The first step in making the wreath is to wrap the yarn around the circle.  For my 12" circle it took about 90 minutes to get it wrapped.  It's a mindless and easy process, so sit down in front of the TV and pop in a movie and start wrapping!  To start the yarn I tied a knot in the yarn and just started wrapping around the foam.  I pulled it tight as I went and made sure that the foam didn't show through.  I used a thin yarn because it was the color I wanted, if you use something thicker it might not take you as long.

Yarn wrapped wreath - it's almost done!

Once it's all wrapped I secured it with hot glue.  I made sure the loose end was glued securely to the rest of the yarn.  It doesn't have to look pretty, it won't be seen once the wreath is complete.  

Add the pretty poinsettia to the wreath

Once the yarn is secure, add on the poinsettia or other floral piece that you have.  I cut the flower from the stem and attached it with a TON of hot glue.   I also used some yarn to tie it to the wreath, and hot glued that down too.  I had to position the leaves where I wanted them and glued them down, too.

Give the glue some time to cool down and harden and then it's time to hang!  I used some red ribbon that we picked up at Michaels for our hanging piece.  

I love how the wreath turned out. You'll notice that I started with two poinsettia flowers but when it came time to add the second one I felt that one was enough.  Now i have another flower to use somewhere else.  I call that a crafting bonus.    

University of Florida Ribbon Wreath

I've seen quite a few Ribbon Wreaths on Pinterest and I'm obsessed.  I could probably have an entire board on just wreaths, I love them.  It's a weird goal of mine to have a wreath for every event/season.

My newest Gator decor!

With the start of football season I started a wreath for my team, the University of Florida.  Over the past few months each time I went to Michael's I bought some orange and/or ribbon.  It feels much cheaper if you spread out the cost of the ribbon over a few trips.  I also tried to get as much as possible while they were on sale.

In total, the wreath took me about 4 hours to complete, over two days.  I'm SO happy how it turned out, I'm not sure I've loved any of my crafts as much as I love this one.  Here is what I used to make my Gator Wreath:

1. 14" foam circle from any craft store or dollar store.  
2. Hot glue gun and glue sticks.  I used about 4 sticks on this project
3. 10 or more spools of ribbon, varying widths, colors and textures.  I used some thick ribbon, some very thin ribbon, some solid colors and some with patterns.  I also used some glitter ribbon (I made sure it didn't shed glitter before I bought it!)  I think the variety is important.  Pick one solid color for your base ribbon, different from any of your other ribbon.
4. Wood letters from the craft store
5. Acrylic paint

The first thing I did was to wrap the green foam circle in my base ribbon so all of the green was covered.  I used hot glue to hold it into place.  Then I cut my ribbon in to 4 1/2" to 5" strips.  To cover my wreath I cut 20 strips of each ribbon.  I found that I needed some shorter strips and some a little bit longer.  I measured once and then used that to cut all of the rest, nothing was too exact.  

With all of the ribbon cut I folded each piece of ribbon in half and glued it together.  I didn't make circles because I wanted the ribbon to stand up off of the wreath.  The cutting and gluing of the ribbon might not have taken the longest, but it sure did feel that way.  When all of the ribbon is glued and ready to go, it's time to start placing them on the wreath.  

You can see in the center of the wreath that I used an orange ribbon as my base.

I didn't follow any pattern when putting the ribbon on the wreath, I was only focusing on filling in all of the areas.  I would place the large ribbon first in groups of two then I would fill in with some of the smaller ribbon until it was time to place another large ribbon.  The part of the ribbon that was glued together is the part that I then glued to the foam wreath.  This part of the project took about 3 hours and I have about 5 burnt fingers, but it was worth it.  I also didn't go all the way around the wreath, only the front 2/3 that will show.

While I was finishing ribbon, Stephen was nice enough to paint the UF for me.  When they were dry I glued them to the fatter ribbons where I wanted them to sit and they were set and ready to go.  The last piece was the ribbon that hangs the wreath.  I didn't glue it to the actual wreath because I may use a wreath hook at some point to hang it, so I wanted the option of taking it off.

There you have it!  GO GATORS!