I just thought I’d see how many adjectives I could fit into that title. Should I have thrown in a few more for good measure? Anyway…I got crafty again yesterday. And I thought I’d tell you about it in case you felt like getting crafty, too! My mother-in-law was hoping to get a wreath or something festive to put on the door, and with the general budget-keeping and crafty nature I’ve found myself in lately I said, “Why don’t we make something!?!”

I suggested using some ribbon or bows and eventually found myself starting at a circle you can arrange flowers in (please tell me what to call it so I can update this post and not sound like a ninnymuggins), a bag of ribbons and bows, some tape, and no clue what I was going to do. Here are said items…

I stared at everything for a while and then decided, “Well, I’ll just get started and see what happens.” I started by taping a shiny piece of string to the base so that it would be easy to hang the wreath (pictured later). In the bow bag, I found one of those silvery wrapper things that a store-bought bouquet of flowers comes in. I started cutting it into strips, and then made the delightful discovery that I could cut the edges into a fringe and curl them with scissors the way you curl ribbon on a gift.  So this became the bottom layer. (I decided to flip the flower sticking thing oasis over since it was easier to tape stuff to the plastic side.)

Since Mark and I decorated the tree in a sort of bright-pastel theme, I decided to choose some bows in keeping with the colour scheme. I untied one of the bows (and stabbed my palm with scissors in the process — be careful!) and began layering it around the circle. I suppose it was around this point when I started to think this project had some potential and I started getting excited. 🙂

I chose a nice matching green for the next layer, and layered it in the spaces between the pink loops.

Next I found a ribbon that looked like it would go nicely in the middle. Since it was wire-tied, I poked some holes through the other ribbons into the oasis (Mark has now told me it’s called that) and pushed the bow’s wires through to the other side. I was excited because this bow was really shiny and I love polka-dots.

Finally, I decided a few old Christmas ornaments we didn’t put on the tree might add a bit of interest and colour, so I tied them in with one of the strands of the bow that I’d just added. I added a little bit of blue ribbon for a splash of different colour and because the ornaments were kind of rough around the edges. I arrived at this delightful sight…

I thought at this point we could add some greenery around the edges, but my mother-in-law liked it just the way it was, and we hung it on the door! I think this would potentially be an adorable (and wonderfully inexpensive) wee gift, that you could put in an interesting container, like a cake tin or a hat box. You might prefer to use some slightly more ‘Christmasy’ colours in your neck of the woods…which I think would be just fine! 🙂

So here’s the final product! If you give it a try yourself, PLEASE let me know!