Third Time's a Charm!

Getting time to chisel away at my 40 projects is proving to be harder than I thought! Especially when I get distracted by the new Nora Roberts novel, The Dark Witch. (The only problem with reading a new book in a Nora Roberts set is having to wait months to get the next one!) Ireland and magic - great combo!  It's on my list of books I have read so far since the big 4-0, along with a few Christmas novellas that "appeared" on my Kindle. Great for curling up on the sofa with a throw blanket and a cup of hot cocoa.

But for now, it's still Thanksgiving time and I have one more Thanksgiving craft to share.

I have a my ups and downs with a favorite new project - ribbon wreaths.  I saw a few different styles on Pinterest saw it as a fantastic way to use up the yards upon yards of ribbon stashed away in the Crafting Oasis.  I started with the Back to School wreath that turned out really cute - until the Styrofoam wreath form broke.  I tried to redo it on a wire wreath frame, but let's all admit it.  It turned out a hot mess.

My Halloween wreath, made on a much thicker straw wreath form, came out nicely, but when I happened upon a beautiful set of fall colored ribbons for a Thanksgiving wreath, I wanted to give the wire frame a try again.

At first, I wrapped the whole frame in a thick ribbon and tied the ribbons around the whole frame, as I had done with the Halloween wreath.  But, that wasn't working for me, so I went back to the drawing board, or rather the Pinterest board, and looked up other ways to do it.

I found a pin on my Halloween board that suggested tying the ribbons, cut only about six inches in length, all over the wreath form. 

Here's the result, and definitely my favorite choice.  I had a variety of patterns, widths, and types of ribbon (grosgrain, sheer).  It's proudly hanging on the door to my kitchen. 

 

I've been working on a Christmas one (and this time I ONLY used ribbon I already had) that's my monthly gift for my BUNCO group.  We use gifts for our prizes, but you can only spend $5.  Since all of the ribbon came out of my stash, I figure I only spent $3.50 on the wreath frame, right?

 

Here's an "in progress" shot, so you can get a sense of how to fill in the frame.

 

 

 

As tempting as it is to go restock my Christmas ribbon supply and make a wreath for myself, I do have a whole list of projects that I want to get started on for Christmas for others over the next several days.  (Maybe I'll hit the after-Christmas sales for ribbon for me.)  I do know that when September rolls around next year, and I pull out the bucket of decorations that holds the Back to School wreath, I will rip it all apart and retie it. 

 

Isn't that the great thing about crafts? If it doesn't come out "right" the first time, you can redo it, or tweak it, until it does come out the way you want.  And if it doesn't look exactly like the picture that inspired the project, who cares?  We get to make our own interpretation of the ideas we see and give them a punch of our own personality. 

 

Something I'll try to remind myself of as I roll up my sleeves and dive into Christmas-time.