On Saturday night I put on my crafty pants and got down to the business of making a fall wreath. I feel like I cheated a little wee bit, because I bought the wreath base already made, and I used fake berries and flowers and leaves, and it all smacks of bringing Superstore cookies to a potluck but putting them in a Tupperware container so people will think you actually baked them, you know? But I said I'd share, so here it is: the step-by-step of my very first wreath.

Step 1 was to go to Michael's and buy all the materials, seen here:



I got a grapevine wreath base, a roll of orange ribbon, some florist's wire, a berry garland, and several little bunches of faux flowers/wheat/grasses (here's a closeup...you ALMOST can't tell they're plastic):



Everything was on sale or eligible for my little 40% off coupon, so the total cost of all my materials was less than $30.

Step 2 was to start sticking the flowers and grasses into the wreath. I went all the way around it twice and just tried to space everything evenly and avoid any big clusters of one particular colour or type of flower, like so, until I'd covered the whole area:





Then it was time to add the berries. Oh, the berries. I'd had visions of gaily wrapping the garland around the wreath, all easy-peasy like. Not so much. The wires were so skinny they basically disintegrated and all I heard during berry time was the *ping ping ping* of little plastic berries hitting my kitchen floor. It was like that time we went to see Blair Witch Project in Amherst and Angie threw an entire bag of Skittles in a particularly scary part and all you heard was candies raining down on the floor, seats, and people, and then this Amherst guy came back and told us, "IF YOU GUYS DON'T SHUT THE HELL UP RIGHT NOW I'M GOING TO FUCKING PULVERIZE YOU", or something to that effect. Here are the berries--please note the mess of loose berries all over the table:



I debated putting a bow on or not, but it just looked a little unfinished sans bow. Plus, I had invested all that money in a roll of orange ribbon. So I gathered it up into a blob that's kind of reminiscent of a bow and fastened it to my wreath with the florist's wire:



Ta Daaa! The finished product, which is now hanging on our front door:



All in all, this was an easy craft for a pretty inexperienced wannabe crafter--it took about half an hour or so, and I listened to music which made it fly by. At one point Peter came in the kitchen and I was dancing and singing along to Gold Digger while making my wreath so it was pretty fun in a Kanye West meets Martha Stewart kind of way.

Have you made any fall crafts? Share!