Go Tigers! Wreath

If you walk into our apartment right now, you would have no doubt in your mind that my boyfriend and I are Clemson Tiger fans. Since football season began, our apartment has been decked out in purple and orange. I had a very crafty weekend in about mid-August and made some decor to get even more excited about football season starting.

After a weekend of crafting, this was my favorite project...

It was a little bit time consuming, but nothing about it was too complicated. And the materials are really basic.

• 1 straw wreath (Mine is 12 inches, but you can do any size. Just keep in mind the bigger it is the more work it'll be!)-$7 (I bought mine at Michael's I think it was about $7, but you can definitely find them cheaper online)
• Yarn-1 scan of purple and one of orange, $3 each
• Felt-$0.60 a piece I bought a bunch but I only used about 2 squares of each color
• Small Wooden Letters-$1 each
• Tacky Glue-$2
• Silk Pins-$4

When you buy the straw wreath it should be wrapped in plastic...keep this plastic on! You can use as many or as few colors as you want. To start just wrap the yarn around wreath once and tie off. Then comes the fun part...continue wrapping the yarn around the wreath. Make sure that you are wrapping tightly and keeping an eye on the wreath. It's easy to start wrapping quickly and then end up with big gaps in the yarn...and it's no fun undoing all the work you just did! Trust me, I got too into whatever was on TV and had to do this a couple of times!

Anytime you want to start a new color just wrap the yarn a final time and tie it off. Cut the yarn and then start new. For your new color I recommend actually wrapping around the last color, just a bit...it helps you get better overall coverage of the straw.

Continue wrapping until your wreath is covered! Yay! The hardest part is over!

Now for the flowers. I just searched "How to Make Felt Flowers". There are TONS of tutorials out there and you'll be able to pick out your favorite style. They were very simple to make though. For mine, I just cut out a circle and then cut a spiral shape all the way until the center of the circle. Then start at the cut on the outside of the circle and begin winding it in. It should start to look like a rose as you wind from the outside into the center. You want to twirl the felt in so that it starts to stand up.  Use tacky glue to keep it together.

I then cut out a tiger paw shape.

Next I attached the flowers and paw using the silk pins. I was too impatient to wait for glue to dry. I actually like that you can see the pins in the paw. For the flower I just stuck the pins down the center of the flower and you can't see them at all.

I attached the C and the U  wooden letters with tacky glue, since I could lay the wreath flat and let it dry.

And tah-dah, all done. (I also realized I desperately need to invest in a hot glue gun. That would've been awesome for this project.)

OK, I promise more tutorial pictures for the next post!

Hope you enjoy!