tulle

Rudolph the Reindeer Tulle Wreath
Crafty!

Rudolph the Reindeer Tulle Wreath

by Jill
written by Jill


This reindeer wreath can be done a few different ways, so please feel free to be creative! Eyes and nose on the top? Makes a surprised reindeer. Eyelashes? Turns it into a girly reindeer. No eyes? A more subtle reindeer.

I settled on this look after asking people on Instagram (do you follow me over there yet?) which they like best. And yes, I know his eyes are a little wonky. I’m just going to pretend that’s because I like how goofy he looks and not because I’ve been crafting for 48 hours and simply don’t care to fix them anymore.

Here’s what you’ll need to make the reindeer wreath:

1 14″ wreath form
75 yards of brown tulle on a spool (or the equivalent, cut from 4.5 yards of tulle) cut into 15″ strips
1 large styrofoam ball (I prefer the smooth styrofoam)
1 12″ wooden dowel (can find these in the cake decorating section at the craft store)
Krylon Glitter Blast in Cherry Bomb (or some other way to cover the ball in red glitter – I HIGHLY recommend this spray!)

If you plan to add eyes, you’ll also need:

2 styrofoam balls (mine were the same size as my nose), with pupils painted on them
A handful of toothpicks (you really only need 2, but sometimes they break)

And you might also want to accessorize your reindeer with a large jingle bell and a bow.

There are 2 different types of antlers you can make. For this post, I’m going to use the antlers made from craft foam. You’ll need:

1-2 sheets of white craft foam
2 wooden dowels (the same kind used for the nose)
Hot glue
Pencil & scissors – obviously

First, spray your styrofoam ball you’ve set aside for the nose with the Krylon Glitter Blast (OMG THIS IS SO MUCH FUN!!). I recommend doing it outside, on a tarp. I stuck the wooden dowel into the ball and propped it inside an old water bottle so I could spray the entire ball and not worry about it rolling around. You can do this the day before to be sure it’s completely dry, but you should be okay to use it (carefully) after an hour.

Next, tie the 15″ strips of tulle around your entire wreath until it’s nice and fluffy.

Cut your wooden dowel down to where only about 2″ sticks out from the ball. I use this to secure the nose instead of a toothpick because the nose is sitting right on the front of the wreath, not on top of it. Before you stick your nose onto the wreath, use a piece of the dowel you cut off to “pre-drill” the hole, in a sense.

GLITTER! By the way, a big reason why I love this glitter spray stuff so much is because there is minimal glitter shedding with it. It all pretty much sticks to what you spray it on.

Free-hand your antlers (or check with Google for a template), and cut them out of the craft foam. Mine were about 10″ high, leaving 2″ of the wooden dowel sticking out after I hot glued it to the center back.

If you want to give them so extra pizzaz, you can always cut them out of glittery craft foam, or use some Krylon Glitter Blast in Diamond Dust. I swear these people are not paying me, I’m just obsessed with this stuff.

After your antlers are done, just insert them into the top of the wreath, again “pre-drilling” the holes with another dowel. And there you have it!

Now I have one more version to show you. This guy is a little more subtle, a little less goofy.

I’ll have the tutorial on how to make his more realistic antlers up in just a bit. Make sure you check out my Santa Tulle Wreath, too!

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Tutu cute Halloween wreath
Crafty!

Tutu cute Halloween wreath

by Jill
written by Jill

Today I was in the mood to craft. It’s a mood that strikes a couple times a month, usually when my house is at it’s messiest and I have about a million other things I should be doing besides going to the fabric and craft store, but I just have to run with it when it comes along.  I love the look of wreaths on a front door, always make the house seem so inviting, but I loathe the country style of so many of them and the exorbitant cost of many more. I really wanted a fun, funky wreath for Halloween and immediately bookmarked this tutorial when I ran across it. (From thelongthread.com) It’s for a simple ribbon wreath. I figured I could make it with some brown or burnt orange ribbon and call it a fall wreath instead of just a Halloween one.

However, after waiting too long to order the ribbon in bulk online (was thinking of getting it from JKMRibbon.com) and discovering that purchasing that amount of ribbon from Hobby Lobby or Hancock Fabrics would set me back close to $40, I decided to rethink my crafty plan of attack. My creative muse perked up as I walked past a display of spools of black tulle. I’ve made many a tutu for various little girls in our lives with spools of pink and purple tulle and they are SO easy. I figured I’d just apply the same concept to the wreath.  I love the way it turned out and figured I’d type up a quick tutorial for it. It’s really not much different than the concept for the ribbon wreath, but it ends up looking a little more fanciful to me.  I think it would be really fun to do the same thing in bright colors for a birthday party, and will store that away in my crafty mental box for next year.

Supplies:

1 14 inch straw wreath ($4 reg price, got it for $2 on sale at Hobby Lobby)
3 15 yard spools of black tulle ($4 reg price, got for $2.50 each at Hancock Fabrics)
1 10 yard roll of 2 inch black floral ribbon ($10 reg. price, got for $5 on sale at Hobby Lobby)
1-2 yards of orange floral ribbon (purchased a 10 yard spool on sale for $3 at Hobby Lobby, reg. price $6)
a couple pins to hold ribbon in place
small black scrap ribbon to make a loop at the back of the wreath for hanging

  

I kept the plastic wrapper on the straw wreath because I didn’t want to deal with all those bits and pieces of straw flying everywhere. Then I just wrapped the black ribbon around it tightly, securing it at the end with a straight pin.

Then cut the tulle into 18 inch long strips. I used all three spools to make it really fluffy.

Tie the tulle around the wreath and knot it with a square knot (right over left, left over right)

Continue to tie the strips all the way around until you have it as full as you want it. Make sure you keep all the knots lined up (I kept mine to the center left when looking down at the wreath). Don’t worry if it looks lopsided to you. You can always give it a haircut when you’re finished.

When you’re done, and it’s nice and fluffy and even, tie a simple orange bow to the bottom and a small loop of black ribbon at the top and hang. I have mine on a white Command adhesive hook.

Happy Crafting! (And yes, Sallie, I still owe you a pillowcase dress tutorial! It’s just a wee bit more complicated than this one, but I will get it done soon!)

Oh, and Kendall says hi!

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