Everything's Coming Up Crawfish: Adventures In Wreath Making

Today I am sharing a deco-mesh wreath I made for my sister.  I love to drive by homes and see the beautiful door wreaths, but for me personally it’s not my cup of tea.  Why would someone who has a knack for crafts not have a wreath for every occasion you ask? STORAGE!  Not that I don’t have plenty of storage, but the thought of climbing the attic stairs every 6 weeks to celebrate the next holiday that has been immortalized in wreath form just sounds exhausting. Don’t get me wrong I have some Easter, Fall and definitely Christmas boxes, but I almost never take them all out and display the many wonders tucked away up there.

So why am I going on about this, well I wanted to try my hand at a deco-mesh wreath and the opportunity presented itself in the form of a crawfish boil.  My beautiful sister celebrated a monumental birthday with a crawfish boil and I knew the time had come to give this craft a try. 

I went in search of inspiration and crafts supplies and came up with a ton of options.  I went from store to store searching out the combination of items I was sure she would like being careful not to go overboard with my theme, and being mindful of the budget.  A $15 bag of faux lemons would have done the trick, but I searched for the three lemons I found at the Dollar Tree. That's my little helper hand checking out mommy's supplies.

I began by watching tutorials on YouTube and was confident I had a good idea of what it was I needed to do.  I added pipe cleaners to my wreath form and began to load the wreath like the videos showed.  

The inner ring went well but I discovered that the outer rings needed extra pipe cleaners to achieve the same fullness I achieved on the inner ring. No biggie I gave myself a do-over and got the look I was hoping for.

Then came the bow and finally the stuff. I found a checked wired burlap ribbon and I like the drape of the extra mesh at the end so I left it hanging.  Then I cut an extra length to match the drape and wired it on so they matched. 

I found a fabulous item in the floral section of Hobby Lobby that looked like chicken wire, but was made of floral wire.  I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to use it, but I knew I had to have it.  I ended up cutting pieces and fashioning miniature crawfish traps. 

And that cute bottle of Tony Chachere's came from my kitchen. It was the right size so I was happy to recycle it into a craft project. 

I placed the other items around the wreath to determine the spacing and when I was satisfied with the spacing I gave them all a healthy glob of hot glue and made it permanent. 

Her party was in March and to date the crawfish have proven too heavy for the hot glue, they will have to be wired in place but the rest is holding up nicely on her front door.

This one was such a big hit I was asked to make others.  So while my door is still pretty plain, others in my family have beautiful wreaths.  I will show you the Spring wreath my mother requested soon.