The Wreath that Ate Manassas

At least you'd think so looking at these two "Stampin' Fools"!

That's Laura and Betty - two of my favorite stampers - clowning around after finishing their Pleated Paper Wreath project.

This project was awesome, and everyone had a great time making them!
I held my class for my clients on Saturday and my downline team had the chance to make it on Sunday afternoon.
They worked hard at it for the whole class time - it's honestly never been so quiet during a class in my studio - ever! I think they were ALL really glad to finish and go home!
Thank goodness though, the final result was truly worth all their effort.
Here, take a look at my sample wreath:

and the full on front view:

One side close up:

And some more closer detail:

And here's the REAL Laura and Betty - all smiles!

Ok, so here's a few things I did to create my version of this wreath. Most of you who have seen the Holiday Mini Catalog know that it's the featured project in the front of the catalog and it's been duplicated many, many times by demos all over the place. This was just what I did to make it work for me. It's by no means a comprehensive tutorial, but in reality, it's a pretty easy project even if it's a bit tedious.

I used printed 12" cardboard Cake Circles for my backer board that I found at a local big box craft store. I used my Craft and Rubber Scissors to cut out the middle circle - worked like a charm! The remaining border was the perfect size for my wreath base. There are sawtooth picture hangers hot glued to the back of the board for a hanging mechanism. These will fit either over a nail in the wall or on one of those over the door wreath hangers like in my photos.

My cardstock and dsp strips were cut in 1", 1 1/4", 1 1/2", 1 3/4" and 2" wide x 6" long strips.
For the 1 1/2", 1 3/4" and 2" strips, I cut 4 pieces making 24" total.
For the 1" and 1 1/4" strips, I cut 2 pieces making 12" total.

I cut my strips in 6" long pieces because for me, folding all those little score lines along a 12" piece was difficult. I got frustrated after trying to deal with that length and just cut them down. It made it much easier for me. Since the time I've finished my wreath, I had a demo friend tell me to just cut 6" square pieces, score them, then trim to the width I need. THAT would have been handy to know ahead of time and I think would have saved a little cutting time, but not necessarily FOLDING time. There's just no way to avoid that.

I attached all the edges with Tombow and let them dry before adding a backer cardstock circle with more Tombow. I just used my circle punches to make the backers in sizes that would fit and not show. That was a great way to use up scraps of retired cardstock.

Everything is glued together with Tombow. I did find it easier to assemble one rosette at a time - fold and glue the strips together, flatten out and glue on the backer circle and then decorate the top by gluing on the pieces for it. The Tombow dries pretty quickly, but I did need to hold everything place while it set for about 30 -45 seconds. My downline got creative on Sunday and started using all my drink coasters in the studio to hold the rosettes in place while they dried. Brilliant!

I used Mini-Glue Dots to attach the buttons, pearls and leaves.
The leaves were cut from 3 pieces of 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" cardstock that I smooched ahead of time with Gold Smooch. Hard to see in the photo, but it's really pretty in real life.
I also embossed them with the Vintage Wallpaper folder before cutting them with the Leaves Die. It made 12 leaves and I used all of them.

You can see that I made 5 of the large, 2" strip circles. They took up more space and helped me to finish it faster. That's my only reasoning behind it. I've seen some of these wreaths with upwards of 20 rosettes - I couldn't do it, I just couldn't.......
All the scoring on all the rosettes was done at 1/4" increments. All the rosette pieces were hot glued to the base and to each other so it would hold up well.

The ribbons are 1 yard each, tied in separate bows and tied to the button with Linen Thread. I hot glued them to the rosette and that was THE END!

Here are Linda and Lin showing off their finished wreaths:

Amy with hers:

Val and Marcie (who I have to thank for cutting cake circles when they arrived early! They were so kind to volunteer to help!):

Here's a few of my downline.
This is Mary:

And the photo of her entry display in her home:

and last but not least, Nancy and Michelle:

That's not everyone who made the wreaths, but some just didn't get finished during the 4 hour class, so they took theirs home and have promised me that they are finishing it!!

If you are brave enough to tackle one of these beauties on your own, please let me know. I'd love to see your finished ones and hear your experiences!

Have a great evening everyone,
~~Robin