A Winter Scarf Wreath

I've used the same Christmas wreath on our front porch for several years.  But, if you've read my blog for a while, you may remember me telling about some birds taking up residence there last spring(?) before I had time to remove it.  There were two nests, in fact. Needless to say, I delayed the removal of the wreath even longer.  When I went to retrieve it (it may or may not have been summer-time), I realized that the muddied nests were so intertwined with the artificial greenery that the wreath just wasn't worth saving.  I knew I had to come up with something new for 2011.

I've been so inspired by Pinterest and by wreaths like THIS and THIS.  I was pretty sure that I wanted to come up with something new and different -- a variation of these "scarf wreaths."  The scarf theme was perfect, as I wanted more of a wintry wreath than a Christmas-y one.

Recently, I headed out to do some Christmas shopping, with ideas swimming around in my head as far what I might find for a wreath.

I came home with these items to use:

A grapevine wreath - 24" across ($2.99 at Hobby Lobby)

3 "cranberry" picks ($1.90/total at Hobby Lobby)

1 roll of Christmas ribbon ($1.24 at Hobby Lobby)

A red-plaid fringed scarf ($5.00 at WalMart)

2 pr. creamy white mini-gloves ($1.40/total at WalMart)

for a grand total of:

$12.53 before tax

PLUS, I only used one pair of gloves.

So we have a bonus pair for the glove basket!

Of course, I didn't use all of the ribbon either.

There's LOTS left for wrapping presents!

My intention was to take step by step pictures to show you how I came up with the end result.  But I arranged and re-arranged so many times, it was ridiculous.  There's really no right or wrong way.  I wasn't following any directions -- just something in my head that was telling me what looked "right" or "good", and what didn't.  That's all you need to do, too. There's no glue involved.  This is not permanent.  The whole project couldn't be less intimidating -- TRUST ME!

Here's one little step I'll show you, though.  The gloves: 

See what I did?  I placed them wrist to wrist, and overlapped the cuff.  I then used the ribbon to tie them together -- tightly.  What you end up with is a bow-like effect.

You might be wondering why I chose this ribbon.  In keeping with the grapevine look, I wanted the end result to have a simple look.  This ribbon was right in front of me at Hobby Lobby -- and I grabbed it.  Twine would've been good too... but I didn't happen to see that while I was out.  (Even better --> use what you already HAVE.)

Okay, here's the end result:

Here are my steps:

1.  Determine top/bottom of wreath

2.  Wrap scarf around wreath to your liking

3.  Overlap & tie the gloves as shown above (I only ended up using one pair)

4.  Attach the gloves using an additional piece of ribbon & tying through the knot of the scarf

5.  Place "cranberry" picks around the wreath, weaving the wired stem through the grapevine & bending ends to secure at back of wreath

Here's a close-up of my glove-bow.  I admit -- I'm more than a little happy with the results. How about you?  Have you been inspired by something on Pinterest lately?  Join the party!

Here are the rules:

1. Decide which pin on Pinterest you’d like to recreate.
2. Create it!
3. Flop or success, create a blog post about your re-do and include the original pin’s url.
4. Add the Project Pinterest button to your post so others can join in too!
5. Link up and check out other bloggers’ posts!

I'm linking up with Jennifer Rizzo for Fabulously Creative Friday
and also with the following blogs: