A couple weeks ago I showed you how to use the Best Glue Ever to add gilding to leaves from your yard (and if you need leaves, please, let me know. I’ve got more than enough to share!)
I like to use the leaves on my Thanksgiving table instead of a centerpiece as well as lay them on top of the folded napkins. Today I’m going to share a quick project you can do with your gilded leaves – make a fall wreath.
I started with a straw wreath form from the local craft store, several spools of velvet ribbon, a sheet of gold glitter foam, a sheet of DCWV blue cork paper, stick pins, and the Best Glue Ever. I used the Tattered Leaves die from Tim Holtz’s Sizzix collection to cut leave shapes with the foam and cork sheets.
To start I gathered up my gilded leaves and arranged them on my wreath form to get a good idea of what I wanted the finished wreath to look like. I then put drops of the Best Glue Ever on one side of the wreath and let them dry until they were tacky. The glue will hold the ribbon to the wreath as I wrap it around the form. I wasn’t sure how far I’d get with the ribbon, but I figured any extra dots would be used to hold the cork and form shapes. Word to the wise: buy extra spools of ribbon, as you never seem to have enough.
I knew I would be covering the bottom of the wreath with leaves, so I concentrated the ribbon on about half the form. The remaining dots of the Best Glue Ever were used to adhere the cork and foam shapes to the straw. These help fill in as a background and provide a bit of color.
Next, I took the gilded leaves and attached them to my wreath with decorative stick pins, overlapping them. I decided not to seal the leaves I gilded two weeks ago, which let them dry out more and curl. It gives them a lot more interest, however, since I didn’t seal them they won’t last more than a week or so outside before they really start crumbling — which is fine since it will be time to switch to an evergreen wreath.
Using the stick pins on the leaves will let me easily remove them while preserving the rest of the wreath to reuse, perhaps in the spring with paper flowers or plastic eggs.
