Our Beautiful Mess: 'Tis the Season to Be Thankful...

And make another wreath.

I had every intention to do any Thanksgiving projects and my front door wreath before Addison was born. I didn't think I would have think to work on it. I had no idea what to expect from a newborn, so I didn't want to leave it up to chance. I had a plan. I knew what I wanted to do and when I wanted to do it. Then Addison came two weeks early and all those plans went out the window. Just to goes to show you that sometimes in life, plans do not go as expected or plans and you just have to go with the flow, especially with kids.

But we're not here to talk about my plans or how kids will change the plan completely. We're here to talk about what I did get done AFTER she was born. Oh yeah, this mama has been keeping herself plenty busy. And the project I'm proudest of is my front door wreath.

I started this project much the same as the 'Boo Wreath' from Halloween by wrapping a foam wreath with yarn (read all about that project here). But of course this time it was done with Thanksgiving-iquse colors.

My next plan after wrapping the wreath was to paint the letters for thanks and put them on the wreath much the same as my Halloween wreath and the word eek.

But the more I got to thinking about it, the more I changed my mind about that decision. I wanted something different. I wanted to go a different direction with this wreath. So off to Michael we go (didn't have a choice here - Hobby Lobby was closed) to pick up plan B of my Thanksgiving wreath project.

I had seen felt flowers on pinterest and liked the look. I decided that was what I wanted to attempt with some gray and red flowers. I started searching the internet for how to actually make flowers and found a blog with super easy DIY flowers (check it out here).

I found a guide for two different types of flowers. The first one is very easy. You cute out a pile of circles. They don't have to be perfect, but I found making a guide on a piece of cardstock made it even easy so the circles were all similar sizes. You also need to cute out a much smaller circle which won't be seen so it definitely doesn't have to be perfect.

Next you need to fold the larger circle into fourths.

After folding it into fourths, you snip the bottom off, so you have a flat end and not one with a point.

You then take the your hot glue gun and put a glue on the flat edge and then put the flower on the smaller circle.

Rinse and repeat. It's easiest to go around the circle then fill in the middle. Then I usually look to see if there is any spaces that need to be filled in and get to gluing! And before you know it, you'll have a felt flower!

The second flower is not as easy, only because you don't just have simple circles. You want to cut out a pile of flower shapes and again that small circle. None of them need to be perfect, but again I used a template of cardstock to cut them out initially. I'm just not good at free hand cutting.

The shape is the only difference. The rest of the process is exactly the same. You fold into fourths then snip the end to get a flat edge. You then put some glue on the end and put it on the circle then repeat. Once you get past the cutting, it's super easy and fast to put the flower together.

I then took my flowers and used hot glue to put them on my wreath. And like magic I have a fall/Thanksgiving wreath. I love how it turned out. Wrapping the wreath takes a bit of time because I wrap it once then go back over to make sure the foam is completely covered. Plus it definitely takes a lot longer when you switch the colors back and forth, but I like the look of the two colors. The flowers are super easy to make and super cheap to get some felt (at Michael's each sheet was $.29) and make the flowers.