Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Peppermint Wreath Tutorial!

Hi All! I am so sorry for the delay in getting this post up, but as we all know the holidays just seem to make the days go even quicker than usual. It's just plain crazy!

I don't know if you know this about me, but I go gaga over wreaths. I have always been drawn to circular objects as I think they just look so clean & crisp. All of the flowers at my wedding were in circular form - see the photos below for proof!

 
Church Floral
Reception


Early in December my mom had asked me to make her a DIY gift for Christmas. I began brainstorming and  realized I not only wanted to make her a wreath for her front door, but also personalize it so that it reminded me of her. I then thought of starlight mints as my mom always has a million in her purse & is constantly offering one to me (Ok, Mom...I get the hint, ha!) I began perusing my online love, Pinterest, and found a beautiful picture of a mint wreath and knew this was what I need to make.  Here is a picture of the finished wreath I made for my equally beautiful and sweet Mother.


What I used:

(1) 10'' styrofoam ring
(2) 120 piece bags of Starlite Mints
(2) 4 yd. red ribbon
(1) hot glue gun & a ton of glue
(1) spray can of acrylic sealant
Green ribbon for fun accent

How I made the wreath:

I hot glued on end of the red ribbon on the backside of the wreath. I then wrapped the entire styrofoam ring in ribbon. Doing this makes it much easier to glue the mints onto the ring as the ribbon is not as porous as styrofoam.
                                 

After I wrapped the entire ring, I heated up my glue gun & unwrapped 240 mints. Thankfully I was watching reality tv while unwrapping the mints, so they incredibly time consuming task wasn't as bad as it sounds. I began gluing the mints to the ring one at a time. I started at the top of the wreath & then would move directly below it & glue on another mint. I did not glue the mints to the back of the wreath as you cannot see the mints and I was afraid the mints would hit the door and begin to chip. With a 10 month old crawling around our house, we didn't want any mint fragments ending up in her mouth :)

Once I thought the wreath looked nice & mintiful (ha!), I brought the wreath to my 3 seasons room and covered it with acrylic sealant. This helps give it a nice shine and prevents the mints from melting. After the wreath was dry, I took my green piece of ribbon & wrapped it around a part of the wreath that I thought looked a little funky. The mints didn't line up perfectly at that point, so I simply covered them up with the green ribbon. I then made a bow with the leftover red ribbon, glued the bow to the green loop & then glued to the loose ends of the bow to the mints. 

It was a fun project and my mom loved the wreath. She thought the mints created such a cool visual effect and hung it up right away (score!).

If you're looking for more mintastic crafts, check out my friend Rose's blog from Be Rosy Events. She's super crafty, talented & really fun!

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