Halloween Wreath Tutorial

You may have seen this cute little wreath floating around Pinterest. I was feeling up for a crafty project and needed a gift for a fall decor gift exchange I'm going to next week. The gift is supposed to be around $10 and I am proud to say, I didn't even spend that on this project! All I had to purchase was the foam wreath form, felt, and fabric for the bow. I used a Michael's 50% off coupon on the wreath and got it for $4.99, the felt was $1.74 for 6 pieces, and the fabric was $6.99 a yard, but I only used 1/4 of the yard I bought, so about $1.75, making my total $ 8.48!

An awesome deal for a new wreath! So naturally I bought some extras of everything to make myself one too ;)

I figured I would play around with my new camera and put together a little tutorial for you guys!

What You'll Need : 

1. 16" white foam wreath form
2. 3 pieces black felt - cut in 1"x7.5" strips
3. 3 pieces white felt - cut in 1"x7.5" strips
4. 2 strips of fabric 43"x 5" with the ends cut at an angle (if your fabric has a right and wrong side, make sure you cut the angles so they match with right sides together)
5. Sewing machine with black thread
6. Iron
7. Hot glue gun
8. Vintage skull printed on cardstock - go here to print out the one I used. I didn't adjust the size at all, just copied and pasted it into Word and printed. You could possibly make it a bit bigger though depending on how much of the center of your wreath you want it to take up. 
9. Spray glue
10. Small piece of foam core- 6"x9"
11. X-acto knife (make sure your blade is sharp!)
12. Mod Podge and brush
13. Wooden dowel or skewer cut to 10"

Start buy hot gluing your strips of felt around the wreath form - alternating black and white, and overlapping them just a bit.  Save one strip of black or white felt (depending on the color of your foam core) if you want the back of your skull to look pretty :)

Now for the skull - cut it out and spray glue it to your piece of foam core. Then, using your X-acto knife, cute around the skull again, as close as you can. Now coat the front and edges with Mod Podge and let dry.

Next, hot glue your dowel or skewer to the back of the skull and glue your piece of felt on top to give it a more finished look. (You won't really see it, but I just like the whole thing to look pretty :))

Now you can stick your skull into the wreath. If you used a skewer, you should be able to push it down in through the felt and the foam at the sharp end with a little work. If you used a dowel, you may have to cut a little beginner hole with your X-acto knife to push it down into.

Finally, the bow. I sewed my bow, but if you're not a sewer, you could just tie a bow with your fabric and leave the unfinished edges. It is Halloween after all, and it will just give it a more spooky look :).

If you're up to sewing- put your two strips of fabric together (right sides together, if your fabric has one - mine was the same on both sides) and sew in from the edge 1/4" around, leaving a small opening near the center on one side so you can turn it right side out. 

Turn right side out and iron flat and pretty- making sure to iron in the edges of the small opening. Now, topstitch 1/4" in from the edge around the entire piece.

Finally, you're ready to tie your bow! I think it makes the best bow if you start with 2 bunny ears and tie one around the other. Fluff and pull until it looks good and then hot glue it at the base of your wreath, just beneath the skull.

Viola! You are done! Hang with ribbon or black and white baker's twine.

It has come to my attention that a similar tutorial for this wreath is also featured on BHG. 

Go here to view it!