I think I'm still peeling the hot glue remnants off my fingers from today's project. Those folks with the lo-temp glue guns might be onto something. Just sayin'.
What do you get when you combine a Dollar Store wreath, coffee filters, glitter, cardboard, paint and a whole lot of hot glue?
A Valentine wreath!
I've been admiring coffee filter (and book page) wreaths for quite a while now, but these two projects I pinned yesterday finally spurred me into action.
Source: velvetstrawberries.typepad.com via Jen on Pinterest
Source: bubblewrappd.blogspot.com via Jen on Pinterest
Luckily I have a fully stocked art room and can pull pretty much any material from my stash. See, there are virtues to borderline hoarding ☺.
I started with this plain, fairly large wreath.
I love the look of the darker coffee filters but all I had on hand was white and not a lot of patience to dye them. I did a fold-glue-fold-glue-scrunch-glue thing with each coffee filter and covered the entire wreath including the inside rim.
For embellishments, I freehand cut a bunch of hearts out of a scrap of cardboard. I painted them, stacked & glued a few and glittered a few others. For the 'Be Mine' banner, I again cut a piece of cardboard for the base. Instead of paint, I glued book pages, then trimmed and edged with an ink pad. I used a Martha Stewart glitter glue pen to write the words 'Be Mine'.
Before gluing the embellishments on, I decided the white filters were just too white. I took the wreath outside (loving this mild, mostly snow-less winter in MA), covered it generously with spray adhesive, and sprinkled it with glitter.
Back inside, I used the hot glue once again and attached the cardboard embellishments. The final touch was a bow and a collection of ribbon tails.
And there you have it: a Valentine wreath.
I enjoyed working with the coffee filters maybe a little more than I should've, especially given the amount of times I glued my fingers. Now I totally want to try dying the coffee filters and making another wreath. Maybe for St. Patrick's Day...
