So happy to have my cousin Shelli here to craft with. We decided to make Easter gnome wreaths with mainly Dollar Tree accessories.

We started with a 15″ foam wreath from Michaels, link: https://tinyurl.com/54cz8zm8

Then took white ribbon (I used seam binding as you can color it whatever color you choose with re-inkers, markers, watercolors, etc.) link: https://tinyurl.com/mrthd27w

Start at the back of your wreath form, and lay the end of the ribbon onto a line of hot glue (I used my Gorilla Glue mini hot glue gun link: https://tinyurl.com/38rdkbt8). Lay the ribbon into the glue on a slight angle as you’ll be wrapping it around the wreath form and it works better if there’s a slight angle. Each time you wrap the ribbon around the form, make sure it overlaps the strip you laid before it, and put a small drop of hot glue on the back of the wreath, to hold that strip in place. Keep wrapping it around until you’ve covered the entire wreath.

Next, I took Dollar Tree tulle link: https://tinyurl.com/yckzdb3v and laid it out flat on a newspaper and sprayed it with Aleene’s Repositionable Tacky Adhesive link: https://tinyurl.com/2p8t9p36 and sprinkled a matching fine glitter from Arteza, to create a glittery tulle. Dollar Tree does sell glittery tulle but my store didn’t have any link: https://tinyurl.com/bdfhhkz8 We cut the tulle in half so it was roughly 3″ wide and starting from the back of the wreath, wrapped it around like we did the white ribbon, until the entire wreath was covered. I thought my wreath needed more color, so used a glitter tulle I bought at Joanns in their fabric department, where I bought 1/2 yard in Blue Radiance link: https://tinyurl.com/2m76p42w that I cut into 2-3″ wide strips.

After I covered the wreath form with glittery tulle, I took a popsicle stick or tongue depressor, or skewer to attach the gnome to the wreath. With the popsicle stick and tongue depressor, you’ll need to cut the bottom to form a point so you can push it into the base of the wreath inside the center of the wreath. The skewer you’ll want to push through the gnome and into the center of the bottom of the wreath and cut off any skewer that sticks out the top of the gnome. After the popsicle stick/depressor is shoved into the wreath form, hot glue the back of the gnome to the stick and the bottom of the gnome to the wreath form. Hold them until they stay where you’ve glued them.

Decorate the wreath how you choose. I used carrots from the Dollar Tree link: https://tinyurl.com/27p4pk9p .. I used a sign from DT similar to this one. link: https://tinyurl.com/2p89he84 and hot glued it to the top of the wreath, and Shelli used another portion of my sign for hers.

Hot glued some glittery balls that came from DT floral picks similar to these link: https://tinyurl.com/29brcn9b and then Shelli used some things she brought with her to finish her wreath including jute string to tie to the sign on her wreath that acted as a hanger. I took a piece of the white ribbon about 4″ long and formed a loop then tied a knot in it and trimmed off the excess ribbon. I attached a couple of short straight pins into the ribbon and pushed them into the top back of the wreath, then to reinforce it, hot glued it as well. I used yellow decorative shred from the DT link: https://tinyurl.com/2ad9r475 and hot glued it on either side of the gnome…built up layers by putting down a zig zag of hot glue and then pressing the shred into it, then repeating the process until I had it built to a height I liked. I did the same thing on both sides of the gnome and a small amount around it on the back. Make sure there’s not so much shred that the wreath won’t sit flat on the wall…

The gnomes I bought on Aliexpress link: https://tinyurl.com/bczn6p55

We were both happy with our wreaths. Mine was over the top with carrots, and Shelli’s was simple and elegant.

• Uncategorized