Valentine's Yarn Wreath

The creativity of people is so inspiring to me and echoes so clearing (albeit, imperfectly) the character of the One that made us, doesn't it?  I think I love crafting so much because it brings me to a place of joy and worship.  I'm so thankful God's made it that way.

Today, I'd like to share with you a yarn wreath I made a couple weeks ago, as the Christmas decorations were going into storage, and the front door was left bare and lonely.  

There is plenty of inspiration for such wreaths on the interwebs if you want to try your own (as many a blogger has done)... just head on over to Knock Knocking for some absolutely artful creations.

That said, without further ado, may I present.....

my Valentine's wreath.

To make your own, just take a styrofoam (or straw, packaged) wreath and a ball of yarn and get to wrapping.  I wasn't especially neat and tidy about my wrapping- just cut some yard-ish long pieces, wrapped and tied.

Be forewarned, it takes forever.  But, once you have the "background," so to speak, your can get on to the fun part!  Making flowers!  I didn't snap any pics of the flower-making (prolly, because I was having too much fun and forgot... and because there was hot glue everywhere); however, you can find tons of tutorials on youtube.  Here's the tutorial I followed most closely.

I made mostly felt ones, and a few out of fabric I had leftover from recovering our dining nook chairs.  The tutorial above shows how to make the felt ones.  The fabric ones aren't too hard either.  See?

Just stitch around the edge and pull it tight.  I used this tutorial from Maize in Montana, which has great pics and is very clear.

Then, just hot glue them in clusters to your wreath.  I actually had a pretty tricky time getting them clustered in a way I liked.  I probably drove Andrew crazy with my "Hey, what do you think of this?  Do you like it better this way?  Or like this?"  I'm glad he humors me. :)

Wanna know the funny part?  The front door is still bare.  When I finished her, this wreath was just begging to be hung inside.  So inside she hangs.... on the door to our bedroom, which I think is appropriate, being that she's a Valentine's wreath and all...