Valentine Wreath

Reader Submission for the Pinstrosiversary Challenge:

My PinWin (thankyouverymuch!) was inspired by this pin:

http://mineforthemaking.blogspot.com/2012/01/heart-argyle-valentines-wreath-tutorial.html

The original inspiration for this blogger’s rendition comes from an Etsy shop that isn’t available any longer. When I searched online, though, there are quite a few bloggers who have attempted this (and even a few YouTube tutorials, as well).

When it comes to being crafty, I’d call myself a serious novice and it’s mostly because my patience for the intricate details often wanes the longer the project takes. I’m happy to say, though, that as I get older (and more frugal) my patience has extended – except when my three-year-old loses interest in whatever he was doing when I try to sneak in three minutes of project time.

I’m not a huge fan of Valentine’s Day, so of course my husband asked why I was doing it. I really like this wreath because it’s not too cheesy and because it is something that I can leave up for the whole month of February without it seeming silly.

Thanks to my awesome teacher’s discount at Jo-Ann, I was able to get everything (with plenty of left overs!) for $8.

First I wrapped the grey yarn around the wreath form. In the comments of the pin I had, someone suggested using a pool noodle. I could have easily found one (I live in the Southwest), but I didn’t want to deal with melting Styrofoam from hot glue. I also think it would have been too wide of a wreath.

I had no idea what I was getting myself into and I was shocked that this took me almost three hours. Between trying to keep the yarn tight around the form to fitting the oblong skein smoothly around the wreath, it was a time-consuming part of the project. I am open to any suggestions that anyone has to offer me to reduce the time this took. You need to make sure that the yarn is wrapped tightly. I really wanted this to look like a sweater, so I wrapped it tightly and made sure that it was pushed close together.

The next step was to cut out the hearts for the wreath. The original pin suggests felt, but I didn’t like the felt colors that Jo-Ann had, so I decided to opt for flannel. I think it provided a similar appearance, and there were more color options. I also am not really girly (did I mention that I don’t really like Valentine’s Day?), so I didn’t want lots of pink, so I opted for a purple and pink combination. I printed a heart template, traced it onto a piece of oaktag, and then traced the hearts onto the flannel. The original pin said she used eight of each color heart. I went with my gut and did six; I lucked out and was accurate!

Once the hearts were cut out, I then arranged them onto the wreath to make sure that they were all spaced out accordingly.

I then hot glued each of the hearts onto the wreath. This was the part that I was second-most scared of because I wanted to make sure that they were spaced out correctly and placed evenly on the wreath. It was actually a lot easier than I anticipated, because it actually looked interesting when it wasn’t perfect (kind of like me – haha).

The next part of the project was to wrap the yarn around the wreath in a criss-cross pattern to create the argyle effect. This was the part I was most anxious about. Was I going to have to take out a ruler and measure it? Would I have to hot glue it each time it wrapper around? The blogger suggested not to freak out about it; she was right. I just hot glued the ends and then rearranged it so that it criss-crossed neatly.

 I am so thrilled with how it turned out. I added a short piece of purple ribbon to the top so I could hang it. I love the heather grey yarn I selected and the purple and pink fabric I selected. I’m just so in love with this wreath, that maybe my anti-Valentine stance may change just a bit : )