A Halloween-ish Wreath

Quick announcement before I get started here... The Utah Craft Night date has been set!!  It will be Thursday, October 13th.  Place TBD but it will be in the Bountiful, UT area.  I'm so excited!  I also think we will be doing one in Logan, UT on the 15th.  So mark your calendars all you good people of Utah!  We will be doing almost the exact same projects we did HERE.  I do think we will switch out a Thanksgiving board for a Halloween one and add some Christmas fabric to the styroballs but otherwise, it will be the same (I'll post the final projects next week)!  Have a look HERE and see what you'd like to come and make.  I'd love to meet you!

K, moving on.... Halloween decor.  ::big ginorm sigh::  I have a love/hate relationship with it.  I love it because you can get as cheesy and over-the-top as you want but I hate it because the color scheme doesn't always gel with what I've got going on.  Case-in-point is my entry way.  I really wanted to add some Halloween decor there but I painted it all a fun turquoise/robin's egg blue a while ago and now the orange and black just aren't working.  Not to mention that the whole "feel" of the place doesn't exactly scream spider webs and witches.

Regardless of all that, I did want to do SOMETHING in this space to celebrate the upcoming season.  So I decided to make a wreath.  I had pinned this fabulous wreath from Desiree at The 36th Ave. and was beyond excited to find the same fabric she had used at JoAnn's!

I'm calling this "The Halloween Version" because this is the same straw wreath I have used for my spring mantel and for the 4th of July.  I love a good recycle project.

I enlisted some help unpinning and unwrapping the patriotic ribbons:

This is an especially fun project when one uses pliers to remove the pins, by the way.

Then I cut my fabric into strips and started wrapping and pinning!

For the "leaves" I took two strips of the contrasting fabric, cut the ends into leaf shapes, twisted and pinned.  The twisting gives the leaves a little 3-dimensionality (is that how you write that word?  You know what I mean).

Then I did the same with a couple pieces of the orange fabric:

I then took a few of these "holiday picks" I found at JoAnn's and spray painted them to give them a more Halloween-y feel.  (I said weenie...::snicker::)  I just stuck them in behind the fabric leaves and they stayed right where I wanted them to stay.

Lastly, I clipped on a pre-made black satin rosette and I was done!

I don't think it SCREAMS Halloween, but it definitely whispers it. I may need to make it scream as October 31st approaches but for now this is perfect.

Side note:  Here is what Brynn (the 5 yo cutie who lives here) made out of a smaller straw wreath and the scraps left over from my craft night.  I helped her tie the bow but otherwise she was a wrappin' and pinnin' fool!  It's now on her bedroom door and she is beyond proud of it.

Link parties I participate in: Tip Junkie, Sugar Bee, Not Just a Housewife, Someday Crafts, Tatertots & Jello, I Heart Naptime, Lolly Jane, Be Different Act Normal, Craftomaniac, Today's Creative Blog, Somewhat Simple, Flamingo Toes, Skip To My Lou, Thrifty Decor Chick