$6.00 Autumn Wreath Tutorial!

Happy Monday everyone!  I hope all of you are having a great afternoon.  Last night I finally finished my new autumn wreath so I wanted to share it on the blog today.  The wreath turned out super cute and was very inexpensive to make.  I purchased a straw wreath, two spools of ribbon, a spool of orange glittery tulle, and a bouquet of faux autumn leaves for only $6.00!  I purchased everything from Wal-Mart except the faux leaves which I purchased at Dollar Tree.  If you would like your wreath a bit more rustic, I know Target sells spools of Halloween burlap ribbon for $1.00 in their trinket bins at the front of the store.

I also want to encourage you to find things in your home that you can incorporate into your wreath.  I had a fall swag that was very dilapidated, but was able to save the berries, vines, and acorns from the swag and incorporated them into my wreath.  You could add old keys, lace, feathers, faux pumpkins, glitter picks, mini birds, fabric, faux flowers, or whatever else you find that would work well in your wreath.  If you have a ton of ribbon at home, use what you have rather than buying new ribbon.  Ribbon can easily be colored to suite your project via alcohol markers, acrylic paint, distress markers, dye ink pads, distress paint, or even india ink.   

For this wreath, I decided to stick with traditional Halloween and autumn colors. You can chose to incorporate whatever colors you want based on your style and the materials you have.  If you are doing an autumn wreath, you will want to stick with earth tones or bold gem tones.  If you are leaning towards making a Halloween wreath, you will want to stick to colors like black, orange, green, purple, white, or grey.

Before I go through the entire tutorial, I do want to mention the list of items I used to create this wreath.  Again, your materials may be different depending on the type of wreath you want to create.
The materials include:
1- straw wreath
1- spool of orange glitter tulle
2- spools of ribbon.  (I needed 9' of each ribbon to wrap the wreath not including the bow.  Be sure to have enough ribbon to wrap the wreath and create a bow.)
1- bouquet of faux autumn leaves/flowers
1- hot glue gun with glue sticks
- Silver, copper, and black distress paint or acrylic paint (I used the paint to color the leaves and make them metallic.  This is an optional step I took in creating this particular wreath.)
- Remember, you can incorporate additional materials depending on what you have or chose to purchase. I added the berries, acorns, and vines from an old autumn swag.

Step 1.  The first thing I did was unwrap the plastic around the wreath. This particular wreath is extremely messy, so it is best to open the package outdoors.

Step 2.  Plug in your glue gun so that the gun is hot when you start gluing the ribbon to the wreath. Start by wrapping the wreath with the tulle.  Tulle is a fine netting, so you will see the straw underneath.  I made sure to wrap it fairly tight around the wreath, but did crinkle and fold the tulle to add texture. Be sure to glue the tulle to the backside of the wreath.  I glued down the tulle every third or fourth wrap to keep the back of the wreath looking neat.

Step 3.  After all of the tulle has been wrapped around the wreath, it is time to wrap the ribbon. I started by wrapping the wider chevron ribbon around the wreath. Just like the tulle, you will want to glue the ribbon down every third or fourth wrap.  Be sure that the ribbon is evenly spaced around the wreath. I then added the second ribbon to the wreath by wrapping it next to the chevron ribbon. Again, you will want to glue down the ribbon every few wraps.

Step 4.  At this point, I started to remove the faux leaves from the bouquet. I didn't like the way some of the leaves looked with the wreath, so I decided to paint them. I left the yellow and orange leaves the way they were, but painted the rest of the leaves black, metallic silver, and metallic copper. I also painted the berries black.  I used distress paint for this step, but any acrylic paint or dye based ink will work.

Step 5.  When the leaves were dry, I started to layer them and glue them onto the wreath. I decided to have the leaves on the right hand side of the wreath, but the layout is up to you. I layered the leaves so they would point upwards at the top and downwards at the bottom. This layout provides a space for a bow in the middle. When you glue the leaves down, be sure to only glue the base of the leaf to the wreath so that the leaf maintains its natural shape.

Step 6.  Once the leaves are glued down, you can add whatever additional elements you want. I added the berries, vines, and acorns between the leaves and glued them down.

Step 7.  The last step is to make a bow. I created a bow with the remainder of the black ribbon I had and glued it down in the center of the leaves. I just created a simple bow, but a floral bow would work for this project as well.  You can find a ton of videos on youtube if you are unsure of how to create a ribbon bow.


Thats all there is to creating a seasonal straw wreath!  The hardest part is determining the layout of the leaves. Using large faux flowers in lieu of fall leaves will simplify the layout process if you find it difficult to create a wreath layout you are happy with. This wreath took me two hours to create. It probably would have taken about an hour if I wouldn't have painted the leaves and berries.  I hope this tutorial was informative and leaves you inspired to create a $6.00 wreath!

Thanks for stopping by the blog.  Be sure to subscribe via e-mail or follow via google+ so you never miss a freebie or tutorial like this one.  If you have any suggestions or questions about this tutorial, please feel free to comment below.  Enjoy the rest of your day!  ❤ Tia - Copper Blossom Paperie ❤