Fall Deco Mesh Wreath- So Easy!

Hope you all had a great long weekend! I wasn't as productive as I hoped to be, but I enjoyed myself, and that's what matters. We had a great time watching the Alabama football game with Zach's dad on Saturday, then we had some restful days after church on Sunday & again on Monday. We spent a lot of time moving things around and out of certain rooms, in preparation for our new flooring!! We will hopefully have ceramic tile in our kitchen, laundry room, and two bathrooms within a few weeks!! It's been a lot of decision-making & preparation, but it's almost time for the last (and most important) step- installing. They will start soon!
I'll share pics when it's done!

I got a lot done in the project department over the weekend. A couple of them that I wrapped up are gifts, so I'll have to wait & post pics on those once they are given to the recipient. :)  My sweetie worked his tail off over the weekend, trying to wrap everything up before our anniversary vacay. That's one downfall of owning your own business. I am wrapping things up at work too & trying to clean off my desk, but I do have the comfort of knowing things are taken care of while I'm gone. We're so thankful to have the opportunity to take a break & relax every once in a while! We ended the long weekend with a great family dinner with my family on Monday night.

So, I'm really into wreaths recently. I think it's just the change in seasons coming up that has me wanting to create things with new colors. I just posted my framed Fall wreath a couple weeks ago, and here I am creating another wreath for Fall. I'm going to run out of spaces to put these, I'm sure.

Anyway, I bought some Fall deco mesh at Hob Lob (if you don't already know, I'm in love with this stuff), so I was thinking up ways to use it. I had gathered some inspiration from this pin on Pinterest, and I also knew that I could just copy my same routine for the deco mesh bows I made at Christmas last year to make more pretty bows. Deco mesh is pretty much a foolproof crafting accessory- take it from me, a fool in crafting. :) You basically just gather the mesh & tie it up with a twist tie or some wire, and it turns into a pretty bow. Or, you can use a wire wreath form & it just shapes the wreath for you. This is what I wanted to try!

I scored this wire wreath form at a yard sale a few weekends ago...

I took off the silver branches. (I may find somewhere to put them for Christmas, but if not, the purchase was still worth it for the wire form.) This process was rather messy...

After the quick clean-up, I was left with this...

I looked to Pinterest for the best way to create a deco mesh wreath, and found this awesome pin, originating from this site. (I confess, I first attempted to just wrap & weave the deco mesh throughout the wreath form, but that did not work at all. So, I then decided to look up instructions.) :)

There is a secret ingredient to the mix that I was missing!
Pipe cleaners!!

My local Dollar General had these for $1 a bag, so I grabbed up two. I figured the orange ones would work ok, since the Fall deco mesh has orange thread throughout. Ha- not the case! I ended up spray painting both the wreath form & the pipe cleaners with brown spray paint, so they would not show through.
This worked like magic!

According to the site I used, you basically tie the pipe cleaners at intervals around the wreath form. Then, you start at one end, tie the deco mesh to the pipe cleaner, then bunch the deco mesh & continue tying it to the form with the pipe cleaners. EASY!!

Since my wreath form had two wire levels, I started a second layer on the second wire, making it fuller.

I then took to my first plan & wrapped some deco mesh around the wreath, filling in any gaps. This made it even more full.

I then hung it on the laundry room door to make sure it was even, and fill out any parts that looked sparse. It needed something added- just something! It was way too boring for my taste.

Then comes the idea of some glittery leaves that I actually already had. These leaves were in an arrangement of my dad's, and I used them last Fall on my dining room table. I grabbed up a few, and began hot gluing them to the bottom on one side of the wreath.

Yep- that was exactly what it needed!

Here is the finished product, now bringing a little Fall beauty
to our front door...

A little closer look...



LOVE!