Eek-tastic!

I have never been big into Halloween. When I was a kid of course I loved it, but as I grew up I never really got into it. Never got into the holiday. But that doesn't mean I don't like decorating for it. When we were at the apartment, we never did a lot of decorating. We had a few things and we also did the pumpkins, but otherwise there wasn't a lot of decorating.

But this year with my nesting instinct in high gear and a large new mantel, I decided I wanted to decorate for Halloween. So welcome to part one of a very DIY Halloween. Even though I just mentioned the mantel, today's project has nothing to do with the mantel. It actually was the first thing I worked on and it was for the front door. Any guesses...? This isn't an actual trick, it's really a wreath.

The initial idea for this wreath came from pinterest, but how it looks was all out of my head. I never saw one exactly like the wreath that I created on pinterest, but I took a few different ideas from a couple different pins mixed and matched and before I knew it I had my own creation.

But before I could make this wreath, I had to gather the necessary materials. I didn't have most of the materials, which meant I had to buy most of them but if you hit up a craft store when there are sales then you get things for a decent price. But even luckier is that what I did need was all cheap to begin with and nothing cost much.

Materials needed: orange and black yarn, foam wreath, the letters (EEK), lime green paint, black pipe cleaners

Materials I already owned: white paint, paint brushes, hot glue gun

First I want to apologize for the blurry and horrible quality pictures. I wasn't using a great camera, so my pictures suffered, but I think you can get the point.

The first step was to start by wrapping the yarn around the foam wreath. I highly recommend doing this while watching a movie (or two) because it takes a lot of time (and a little bit of patience at times). I used the hot glue gun to glue down the start then I just started wrapping. I did try to get each piece as close to each other as possible, but it was still necessary to do a second layer so the bottom layer definitely doesn't have to be perfect.

Another thing I wanted to do was not just have it in one color, which definitely would have been easier, but I wanted black and orange so after wrapping some black. I glued down the edge on the back side and did some orange before going back to the black and back again. Overall it probably took me the better part of an hour and half to do this with no interruptions. Once you get the hang of it, it just flies by, but it definitely takes time to wrap and make sure there is no foam showing.

Next I painted the letters. I wanted to make them really stand out so of course I chose a bright green color, so when they are placed on the wreath they would really stand out.

After the green dried. I used the back end of small paint brush, dipped it in white and make the pot-a-dots. This was probably the easiest thing I did for this entire project. I love how they turned out actually. Then I just hot-glued them on where I wanted them on the wreath.

Honestly, I wasn't sure how I wanted to hang the wreath from the door. So the wreath sat unfinished for quite awhile before I decided to just give something a try. What I decided upon was to wrap on strand of the black with one of the orange, then take the three newly-wrapped strands and braid them together. After they were braided, I tied them at the top of the wreath and made my own hanger. I had thought about using a ribbon of some kind and can always change my mind since it is just tied on, but for now I'm happy with how it turned out. 

Just to give it the final Halloween feel I wanted to add a spider. Instead of buying a spider, I decided I might be able to make one. So I wrapped up some black yarn to make the body of it. Then secured the end with some glue. I then used that black pine cleaner, cut them into small pieces, and glued them onto the body of the spider. I bent the legs slightly to give it the feel of a spider and I had my own makeshift spider. Maybe not the scariest or best thing in the world, but for a wreath it definitely works.

After using some clear wine to secure the spider to the wreath, I had my finished product. All that was left was to wait until October and hang it on the door.

And there you have it! My very own Eek wreath. I actually love how it turned out. Maybe this nesting instinct has been good for me because I have definitely been inspired and those few ideas I have had have all turned out really well. We probably won't even be home for Halloween (Addison is being delivered right about that time), but that doesn't mean we can be a ready and decorated for Halloween night!