I am a natural-born organizer. I have no doubt that, as an infant in my crib, I would arrange my toys by order of size. As a toddler, I alphabetized my dolls. And when I played with Barbies, their clothing was arranged by color, natch.
When I came upon this wreath over at The Painted Hive, I thought I might give it a go. It’s made of twigs, and our new-to-us house has lots of woods and trees, and hence lots of twigs on the ground. The twigs in my inspiration project were so pretty and uniform, though. And I have a hodge-podge of twigs that don’t look so uniform. In order to satisfy my inner perfectionist, I used my BFF, spray paint.
Materials:
Elmer’s Foam Board
X-ACTO knife
X-ACTO cutting board
Rustoleum silver spray paint
hot glue gun & sticks
twine
a non-obsessive personality
First, I used a bowl and my Elmer’s Foam Board to cut a circle to serve as the base.
I gathered the twigs with the base, laid it all out on an old shower curtain, and had at it with the spray paint. Since the twigs were from different trees, I thought this would give it a more uniform look.
Next, I took the glue gun and started applying the twigs to the circle form. This sounds easier than it was for me. I had twigs of varying sizes and, quite frankly, it was driving me crazy that they didn’t all fit perfectly together. It was at this point where I briefly contemplated heading out to the craft store to buy nice, straight sticks, but then, remembering my $0 budget, curled into a fetal position, had a moment, then got hold of myself and tried to keep it together.
After a few more panic attacks, I got into the groove and put down the thicker sticks first, then filled in with the thin ones. The result?
Not perfect, and several times I had to resist the urge to cut the branches to the same length. I still may attack them late at night, when no one is watching, just to satisfy myself, but for now I’m going with the term “Rustic Wreath,” meaning that the imperfection is all nature’s and that it’s supposed to be that way. Try to ignore the ugly front door. That’s a project for when it’s warm out, and I’m sure I’ll be asking for advice & help with that!
