Preppy Valentine's Wreath

Ah ... love is in the air! Time for showering our loved ones with mushy cards and yummy goodies ... and yet another good reason to eat chocolate in obscene quantities!

I've been searching for a cute V-day wreath for our front door, but wasn't able to find just the right one ... you know, that made my heart go pitter-patter (sorry ... couldn't resist).

Of course, the Net has tons (literally) of ideas ... like this one ... and this one ... and this one...

Cuteness, right? But WAY a little out of my talent range...

And then I went to the Mecca of decorating ... Pinterest, of course ... and found this.

Source

Whoa, hold up now ... what was that I hear? A distinct pitter and a patter?!

A cute argyle wreath?! And something I can totally make?! Woohoo!!

The tutorial at "Mine for the Making" is great ... easy to follow and simple to do. So instead of reinventing the wheel re-writing her instructions, just click here to see how it's done.

Here's how mine came out:

It was SOOOOOO easy and fun to make! The most tedious part was wrapping the yarn around ... and around ... and around ... and around ... trust me, there's not enough "and around's" here to do it justice ... the foam wreath.

Halfway there...

When wrapping the yarn, remember to squish it together (getting very technical here, folks!) so there are no gaps in the yarn. You'll get a rhythm going after a bit ... wrap and squish, wrap and squish ...

In total, it took me about 2 1/2 hours (would've been faster but my felt hearts were too big at first so I had to size them down), and it cost me $11.00 (would've been cheaper but I just grabbed the first cute and soft gray yarn I found and it was NOT one sale).

You will need:

• A foam wreath form (I used a 14" size)
• gray yarn
• pink and red felt
• A glue gun
• scissors (not pictured as I realized after I took the pic that I would need something to cut with)
• Sharpie or other fine-tipped marker
• A heart template (like a cookie cutter)

I purchased 224 yards of yarn (4 oz weight) and only used half. (So I have enough to do another one ... don't get any ideas, Andrea...) The yarn I used was really soft, and it kinda of "fuzzed out" as I wrapped it, making the wreath look like a fluffy angora sweater. LOVE!

Fuzzy!

Also, I bought 4 sheets of felt in each color (is that what they are called? Sheets? Sounds weird ... moving on...) and only needed one of each. I used a heart shaped cookie cutter and traced the hearts on the felt with a fine tip Sharpie ... worked great!

Careful now...

Pretty hearts all in a row

Once you've finished wrapping (and not the Toby Mac kind ... seriously go watch that video ... worth it for the '90s fashion alone [and Michael Tait's arms]), hot glue the hearts (make sure you place them without glue first to make sure they look good ... learn from me, people). Then off to make the argyle-ness come to life.

Wra- wra- wrapping on the diagonal, yo.

And, voila, you have a cute preppy wreath to call your own.

You remember the unfinished chairs from this post? Sneak peek at their current fabulousness!

So, all in all, an easy project you can do with minimal monetary and time expenditure ... and a great project for a Netflix or Hulu marathon. (Downton Abbey anyone?)

What special projects do you have going on?

Oh, and speaking of sneak peeks ... here's a glimpse into my latest project:

Any guesses as to what these are? And, no, they are not Tribbles...