I have been wanting to make something for my front door ever since I took my Christmas decorations down. So, I decided now was the time and love was my theme. It works because Valentine’s Day is coming up soon along with our wedding anniversary. This is my first time posting a tutorial for anything I’ve made, so bear with me. If you have any questions, just leave me a comment.
This project started off with a simple grapevine wreath I bought at Wal-Mart for about $3. I decided to spray paint it pink in keeping with my love theme. I then wrapped some pink ribbon I already had around the wreath and hot glued it into place. I didn’t get any pictures of these steps, sorry!!
Next step was getting the garbage bags ready for use. I found these at the $1 Store, the perfect size for my bathroom wastebasket. But, as I was getting one out of the package I couldn’t help but notice the great pale pink color and neat texture and my brain started working on weaving them into a future project. These come in a pack of 50 and are 4 gallon size. To start off, I trimmed off the end of the bag, where it is fused together and lays in the bottom of the wastebasket. This will leave you with a strip that is 17.5″ long by 4.5″ wide. Fold this strip in half, which leaves you with a strip that is 8.5″ long and still 4.5″ wide. Fold in half yet again, and your final dimensions will be 4.5″ by 4.5″.
Now using your scissors, fringe the bottom 3″ of your strip. Open the strip all the way up to the 17.5″ length and staple the ends. Cut this strip in half. These two strips will be the ones you attach to the wreath.
Using double sided tape, attach the strip of garbage bag on top of the ribbon previously glued to wreath. Do the same with the other strip. Then you will need to cut more bags, until you have enough to cover all the ribbon on your wreath.
At this point, I added a 3/4″ polka-dotted pink ribbon on top of the garbage bags adhered to the wreath. I am always in the camp of “More is Better!” It is up to you how much extra you put on your wreath!
I’ve seen some amazing things done with old book and book pages. At my church there is a group of amazing artists that create the coolest art displays. This month they created stuff out of old books. I’ve also seen some awesome stuff online, like wreaths & flowers made out of book pages. So, that was my inspiration to make the book page hearts for my wreath. I used my old school Coluzzle to cut the hearts out. I’ve had it for years and years and it still cuts just as well today as it did back when I first got it. I use it often to cut basic shapes. Anyway, I cut graduated sized hearts out of both book pages and a cute patterned paper I dug out of my stash. I inked the edges of the hearts with both red and pink dye ink, alternating colors. Next thing was to rough them up a bit, I spread them out on my kitchen counter and spritzed them with water, then crumpled them and sort of smoothed out the wrinkles. Not completely just a bit! After they dry, they retain the crumpled appearance. You can see the difference in the crumpled vs. smooth hearts in the first picture.
The last step was to stamp the sea glass. I used some cute Valentine’s Day stamps and my trusty Staz-On ink pad. Find a piece of sea glass that the stamp will fit on and get to it! To make the image stand out more, I backed the sea glass with a book page. Glue the book page to the back of the sea glass and then use an Exacto knife to trim the paper.
Hot glue the sea glass here and there on your wreath. That’s it! Find a happy spot to hang it, where seeing it will make you smile and remember those you love.
