Confession: I love crafting, but I loathe wreath making. The art of floral arranging is just so dang loosey goosey; you plop flowers here or there 'til you like the look, because there are no wrong answers, and I hate that. I need rules! I need exact check boxes and instructions! How else will I know if I did it perfectly?! So anyhoo, today we're making a wreath that should take most of you about an hour or two to whip together, but took me an agonizing 7 or 8 hours spread over 2 days. I am not proud of this. My brain battles are exhausting and joy-sucking. But! After multiple go-rounds of ripping things off and trying again, I'm reasonably proud of the finished product: ::exhausted jazz hands:: ta-daaa I genuinely love this DIY in theory: it's a clever twist on traditional wreaths, you get to hang fun dangly things off it, it only costs about $10 to make, AND you can find everything you need at Dollar Tree. Here, let me walk you through the basics. YOU WILL NEED: This wreath form from Dollar Tree. While you're there, you'll also need: - 2 rolls of burlap ribbon - 4 or 5 bunches of silk flowers & greenery - Duct tape - (optional) twine or string and pretty beads to make the dangly bits Cut a section off the wire wreath form so it looks like the letter C: Next use duct tape to wrap each end into a taper, like this: Wrap your wreath form in burlap ribbon, hot-gluing here and there to keep it all in place: This takes slightly more than one roll of ribbon, but you'll have most of the 2nd roll left. The ribbon gives you a base for hot-gluing everything that comes next. Now the hard/fun part: decorating. ::shudder:: I recommend googling "crescent moon wreath," because there are some GORGEOUS styles out there: everything from succulents to moss-and-mushroom covered pretties. I only wanted to use what I found at Dollar Tree, and happily I found some long floral branches that taper, perfect for each end of the moon: Look, we're 2/3rds of the way there! Now all we need are some accent flowers to hot-glue in the center. That should take, what? Maybe 20 minutes? Hours. IT TOOK ME HOURS. It also took 3 John interventions, 2 melt-downs, 1 rage quit, and constant pep-talks/exasperated eye-rolls from my friend Karen. I genuinely don't know how I ever thought being a perfectionist was a benefit; this inability to let go of something is just... so awful. Ug. Anyhoo, here are some progress shots I took between all the dramatics: I've been hoarding those glass drops for YEARS: they're broken pieces from an old chandelier, and make the perfect dangly bits. Easily my favorite part of the whole wreath. (I almost went with antique keys and keyholes instead, but the sparkly drops were the clear winner. Heh.) I find it helps with projects to stop and take pictures: looking at something on your phone vs in real life can often show you what the thing needs or doesn't need. Those are the leftover neutral butterflies from my rainbow butterfly wreath - but Dollar Tree sells larger butterflies that are similar. I was originally aiming for a Spring-style wreath, but as with so many things in life, I decided it needed more orange. :P Oh, and here's Eva "helping: "WHAT ARE YOU DOING AND WHY ISN'T IT PETTING ME" This was during our weekly Craft Night, so there were 3 of us round the big table (all masked, of course). Arielle knitted, Karen and I tackled Moon Wreaths, and Eva stalked the flower pile: This was actually a yawn, but look at those toofs! Both Eva pics were taken by Karen, who can and absolutely will drop any craft to do a photo shoot with the cats. :D Most of my adult life I've wistfully watched other peoples' Craft Nights and wished I had a group like that myself. It's strange that it took all of ::gestures vaguely:: this - and of course my recent mental health crisis - for me to finally take the plunge and host one. Some weeks there are only 2 of us, some weeks we get 6, but regardless it's been genuinely life-changing for my state of mind. A little forced socialization around a creative play space? That's good medicine, y'all. Anyway, just throwing that out there in case you're like past me, and wondering if it's worth trying to host a weekly gathering: if you can do it safely, then it absolutely is. While I'm bragging on my group: Arielle is into baking right now, so lately we get amazing treats like this: Carrot Cake Cupcakes! Follow Arielle on IG for more jaw-dropping sweets; she's been blowing my mind lately. Ah, I've really detoured off of Moon Wreaths, huh? Hopefully the cats and cupcakes were worth it, but let's dive back in: Here's Karen's wreath in progress: she went with the mossy look, and used bits from her own floral stash. She also brought over her own beads, crystals, and pretty rocks to string together to make extra danglies: Swoon. SO so pretty! And here come some close-ups of mine: If you're eagle-eyed you'll notice I changed a little something mid-photo-shoot, because I just can't STOP with this wreath: I think it's better, though. And here it is on our front door, which is a little more orange than it looks in these pics: Obviously this isn't staying here; the glass drops aren't very conducive for door-hanging, ha. In fact, this wreath isn't staying at all; even though I'm satisfied with how it turned out, looking at it STILL makes me twitchy. So it's gotta go. Otherwise I may start ripping things off it again. Instead this moony baby's going on the Squeegineer prize board, and one of YOU lucky ducks will get to bring her home. If you'd like a chance to win her, make sure you enter by e-mail by midnight tomorrow, the 31st! Or if you've given any amount via Paypal to us this month, then don't worry; you're already entered. So tell me: what would you put on your moon wreath? Mushrooms and moss? Stars and sparkles? Black cats and creepy eyes? SPILL. Or better yet, make one and tag me online somewhere so I can see!