We are having a Halloween party on October 30th, and if you know where our house is, you are invited! Costumes are encouraged, as are Halloween-related treats. It will be a chili cook-off, so if you’re up to the challenge, bring on the chili. We have started getting the house ready for the party and there’s still a lot to do, but I wanted to share the first of our Operation Spookify projects with you.
How to make a Halloween wreath:
Supplies:
wreath base
black trash bags
black feather boa
approximately 20″ of thin guage wire
scotch tape
masking tape
small square canvas
permanent marker(s) or paint
thick purple or orange ribbon
small length of fishing line
First wrap your wreath base in strips of the trash bags and tape to secure. You could alternatively spray paint the wreath base black to achieve the same effect.
Next, using 3″ sections of wire, bent in the shape of a “U”, secure the black boa to the wreath frame by poking the ends of the wire into the wreath base around the core of the boa. Progress around the circle, securing the boa to the wreath until you have reached the end.
Write or paint a spooky or silly phrase on the canvas using the permanant markers or paint. I used a black marker for the letters and then followed it up with highlights in silver. We decided on the phrase “Trick or Treat,” but you could use “BOO!” or “R.I.P.” or “Toil & Trouble” or any other fun phrases – the sky is the limit!
Tape your canvas to the back of the wreath so that your phrase shows through the center. You could also use a fake spider or a picture of a pumpkin as your center item.
To hang the wreath, I took advantage of a screw we already had in our metal front door when we moved in. I used a loop of fishing line to hang the wreath on the door.
To make it look a little more classy, I took a long piece of my purple ribbon, looped it through the top of the wreath, and taped it with masking tape on the top edge of the door. If the door were wood, I would have used tacks in the ribbon to secure the wreath to the door and skipped the fishing line step, but this method worked just fine for me.
There you have it! A Halloween wreath that didn’t break the bank.
For those of you interested in a cost breakdown, here it is:
Supplies:
Wreath base: $2 (1/2 off at Hobby Lobby)
Black boa: $7 (Hobby Lobby)
Canvas: Free (I’ve had it forever – find one like it at most craft stores)
Trash bag, Tape, Markers, Fishing line, Wire: Negligible (I like to keep these around)
Purple Ribbon: $2.50 if you count the whole roll. < $0.50 for the part I used
Grand Total: about $9.50
Not bad for Halloween decor under $10, huh? Think of all the possibilities for a simple wreath like this. Just by changing the color of the boa and the ribbon, you could make a snowy white Christmas wreath or a pink and lovely Valentine’s Day one. Come to think of it, I may have just added a few more projects to my to-do list… 😉
To give proper credit, I didn’t come up with this wreath-hanging method on my own. I found this creative solution for hanging wreaths here.
