A Pretty Valentine Wreath

Well, here it is...less than a week to Valentine's Day and my last (probably?) Valentine's Day craft.  Now, I'm not going to lie - this one wasn't as easy as the others but I think the finished product is just a little more special.

I love the look of yarn-wrapped wreaths and although I love the typical felt flowers on them, I really wanted to try a different idea I had floating around in my head.

I started with a simple foam heart-shaped wreath form and some white yarn I had on hand from another project.

I wrapped and I wrapped and I wrapped some more - sticking a pin in every so often to keep it from unravelling.

I didn't bother with the pointy parts. You will see why later.

For the flowers, I cut strips of fabric roughly two inches wide, scalloping one of the long sides.

I used hot glue to secure one edge (usually the narrower edge, if there was one) to a pencil. You really could use anything - you will be taking it off the pencil, just using it as a start.

I pinched and glued and twisted and pinched and glued...

Once I got about this far, I took the pencil out and just kept gluing three - four inches at a time.

I pinched and sort of twisted the fabric as I went to make it look a little more full and real...as real as fabric can look!

The back was fine to stay just as it was. In fact, having the back sort of flat worked well for hot gluing them to the wreath.

...the finished product. To make some flowers larger I just used a longer strip of fabric.

Here is my wreath and my big stack of fabric flowers.

Remember, I said I didn't bother trying to cover the points.

I used a length of some ribbon I had on hand and used hot glue and straight pins to secure it to the wreath, and just went to town hot gluing the flowers on...

This is why I didn't care about covering up those areas...


...the flowers took care of it for me.

I really love this project. I had the idea for the flowers floating around in my head for a while. I didn't use a tutorial but I'm not saying I came up with the idea on my own either. I'm sure it was a culmination of several tutorials I've seen.

So, this wraps up my Valentine's Day series. I'm on the prowl, looking for awesome St. Patrick's Day ideas. It just so happens that St. Patrick's Day is one of my favorite holidays...do you have any ideas to share?