Yarn Wreath

I've seen yarn wreaths for a while and really liked them.  But, being crafty myself, I knew I'd rather make one than buy one already made.  That happens a lot!

Anyway, here's one of my latest craft projects:

This is not the actual wreath form, I used a white styrofoam one but I didn't get a picture of it.  This one is for another project, but it's the same type.

I thought it would be easier to use these and wrap yarn around them than to make actual yarn balls.  Also, it would use less yarn and I could control the size of the yarn balls easier.  I didn't want them to all be the same size or color.

The yarn balls are easy to make, I wrapped the yarn around them and then I used a yarn needle to run the yarn end back into the ball or stuck the end underneath the wrapped yarn.

To wrap the wreath, I took a small piece of double-sided tape and attached it to the wreath form.  Then I started the yarn wrap on the tape which also kept the yarn in place.  When I decided that the yarn color was wide enough, I did the same thing with the tape and that also held the next color in place.  I made the yarn sections different sizes.  The final section was a little bit trickier, when the yarn was fully wrapped I gently pushed the strands aside enough to stick the yarn to the original piece of tape.  During the wrapping process, I stopped frequently and pushed the wrapped sections together as it was hard to keep the yarn close enough so that none of the wreath showed through.  It had to be held fairly tightly during the wrapping process.  The particular yarn I used on the wreath is rug yarn and it is rougher to the touch than regular yarn.  You could use regular yarn, I just had some rug yarn on hand that I wasn't going to use to crochet with so I used it.

Because my wreath was intended to be a Crochet theme, I found a couple of plastic hooks that I wasn't going to use.

I used the glue gun to attach the pieces to the wreath.  It seems to last better than other types of glue for this type of project.  Also, hot glue doesn't have an odor.

I glued each yarn ball on, I used quite a bit of hot glue, I also held the wreath up during this process and held each yarn ball on until the glue was dry and cool.  For things like this, things need to be held on with some force until the glue dries/cools or they will not stay on.  After the glue was cool, some of them needed a little more glue to hold them in place.

I added extra glue from the back of the wreath.  Also visible is one of the yarn ends and it may be the final section judging by the way the yarn looks.

When I had a few balls in place, I put more glue in between two of them and inserted the crochet hooks.  Hot glue does cool quickly, but I had enough time to put the hooks in place and get them where I wanted them.  They also had to be held in place until the glue cooled enough to hold them.  If you use something like crochet hooks, make sure you insert the plain end and that the hook end is on the top!

After the hooks were in place and I was confident that they would stay, I glued the rest of the yarn balls on.

The completed wreath!

It's on the door to my craft room, I put two nails in the door near the top but slightly on each side of center to hold it in place evenly because the weight of the attached items kept shifting it.

It turned out well and I can see a lot of other ways to make wreaths with yarn or ribbon, and any individual items you like can be used to personalize it.

Working with glue or any type of paint or liquid, I always work on a covered surface.  The desk I use for my crafting is a regular desk and it's covered with plastic.  I bought a plastic table cloth at the dollar store and cut it in half.  It works great for what I need and it can be replaced fairly easily and cheaply.

Also, when using hot glue - keep in mind that it is named HOT for a reason!