Front Door

     Today's photo prompt for the February Photo-a-day Challenge is "front door."  

     I had no winter/Valentine's Day wreath to hang on the door.  In fact, nothing has hung there since I took down my Christmas wreath.  And there was no way I was going to take a picture of my unadorned front door for this challenge.  If there were ever a time to show off my front door, it would be now.  So...I went looking for a wreath.  I ended up making my own and writing a little tutorial about how I put it together.

     I was looking for a new wreath for my front door and wanted something that I could use not only for Valentine's Day, but also for the coming months ahead.  Wreaths are so darned expensive, so when I can find one that'll last for two or three months, then I'm satisfied.

     After searching the stores and not finding one that I liked enough to spend 40 or 50 dollars on, I decided to make my own. I really wanted something very simple.  I LOVE how it turned out!

Here's what you'll need:

• A plain greenery-type wreath I got this one at Tai Pan Trading here in Utah.  With my 25% off coupon, it was $30

• A decorative element for the center - look for something that has parts that can be wrapped with floral wire and then attached to the wreath like this bird's legs and curlicue thingies on it's head and tail The little bird came from Hobby Lobby. She was $6.99, but the 40% off coupon made her $4.20

• Wide ribbon I used 2" wide grosgrain ribbon that I already had.  You can buy some at Hobby Lobby or Joann's for about $4.00 for a 4-yard roll.  And if you have a 40% off coupon, you can get the roll for about $2.40

• Floral wire

• Grip-It Rubber Shelf & Drawer Liner I have had this roll forever, but it's available here for $2.99 a roll.  This stuff  is great for putting under a cutting board to keep it from sliding around, or using as a jar grip, etc.  Handy to have around!

• Scissors
• Staple gun
• I also needed wire cutters to remove the bird from it's pedestal (see below)

The first thing I do is create little bumpers for the back of the wreath so that my door doesn't get too scratched and so the wreath doesn't sway too much with the wind.  To do this, cut three 10" x 2" strips of the drawer liner. Fold one in half like this:

Then thread some floral wire through both layers of drawer liner then through the wreath (in this case, through some of the grapevine) and back up through both layers of drawer liner.  One end of the bumper should now be attached to the wreath.

Twist the two ends of wire together to secure.  Repeat at the other end of the bumper.  Do this 2 more times at the top and opposite side of the wreath so it looks like this:

Then I held the wreath up against the door to see if any of the drawer liner showed from the front.  A couple of places did so I just trimmed them a bit, like this:

Next, the bird was attached to a small wooden pedestal that I wanted to remove, so I simply cut the wire legs at the base with wire cutters:

 I then took some floral wire, doubled it up 

and attached it to the bird's legs and curlicues on the top of its head and tail.  After placing the bird at the base of the wreath, I then twisted the wire around the wreath to attach the bird to the wreath.  The nice part about the floral wire is that it just blends right in with the greenery.

Take your ribbon and hold it up to the door, holding the end of the ribbon at the top of the door, and unroll it to the point where you'd like the wreath to hang, like this:

Take that length of ribbon and double it over so that you have twice that length.  Add about 5 or 6 inches to this (to allow for some leeway), then cut.  The length I cut was about a yard.

Find the center point of the top of your door. Fold an inch of ribbon over and staple the folded part of the ribbon to the door:

Loop the ribbon through your wreath and adjust the height.  I used masking tape to hold the ribbon just for a minute while I stepped back and checked the wreath height.

When you're satisfied with the height of the wreath on the door, fold over the ribbon end and staple it to the top of the door, directly over the first stapled ribbon

Trim the ribbon end,

remove the masking tape, and step back to admire your beautiful wreath!

 It's exactly what I wanted: simple and appropriate for Valentine's Day with the red ribbon and the bird's heart-shaped wing.  After Valentine's Day I will change the ribbon to a blue that complements the bird's body and my wreath will stay on the door through the Spring months (except at Easter-time when I'll have an Easter-themed wreath. But this bird wreath can go back up after Easter.)  And that's it!

 Have fun, and let me know in the comments if you tackle this little project.  I'd love to see your custom wreath!

♥C

UPDATED 02/17/12:

Here are a couple of photos of the wreath after I changed the ribbon color (I only wanted the red ribbon for Valentine's Day)

To remove the ribbon from the door I used a flat-head screwdriver to pry the staple up a bit, then needle-nose pliers to pull the staples out.  Piece of cake!

I'm linking up to: