Summery Felt Poppy Yarn Wreath

It's no secret that I'm a sucker for a colorful front door wreath, since I've made one for just about every major holiday now. But what I didn't have was a fun flowered wreath for late spring and summer. And considering that before our vacation I had been itching for a smaller, hands on project, making a wreath for our bare front door was just the thing I needed!

I already had everything I needed except for the wreath form, so this was also a pretty cheap wreath project. And like with other yarn wrapped wreaths I've made, I started by brushing a quick coat of paint on the white styrofoam wreath form. I've learned in the past that I don't like the little bits of white that inevitably peeks though the wrapped yarn, so a thin coat of paint on the top layer of the foam is a quick way to get around this. I just used acrylic paint I had on hand in a close color to the yarn, but you can probably use any random paint you have laying around, as long as the color is similar.

Another trick I've learned when making yarn wrapped wreaths is to make a spool for the yarn. Just an empty toilet paper holder with some cardboard squares hot glued on the end works great. I've found that to get a good and tight wrap job with the yarn, it's a lot easier to wrap the yarn off of a cardboard spool, rather than a squishy yarn ball, or dealing with the easy-to-tangle yarn skein straight out of the package.

As usual, I had a crafting helper. Hailey decided that my basket of felt squares was a good napping place (and she was angry I interrupted her paw licking to snap this photo!). As a side note, these green canvas baskets that I got from Target to organize my craft supply wall have worked out great. It's so much easier to just grab the basket or two I need to haul all my supplies downstairs, where I still more often than not end up crafting in the evening with the TV on.

Once my wreath form was completely wrapped in yarn (which took me several hours, over about a two week period of time--I've been busy!), it was time to make some flowers.

I'd already made a Home Sweet Home wreath with felt roses, plus I'd had my fill of felt roses for a while, with all the centerpieces I made for the charity auction I worked on last winter. And I'd mastered felt poinsettias a couple of years ago. So it was time to try out a new type of flower--poppies!

These were the supplies to make the poppies: felt, some rhinestones for the center, my glue gun and scissors (and yes, wine is a necessary supply too!). I started with cutting 14 squares of red felt, 11 that were 3" x 3" and 3 that were 2.5" x 2.5". Exactness doesn't matter, so don't stress about the measurements too much.

To make the poppy petals, fold each square in half, and then in half again.

Then round off the top with scissors. Again, exactness isn't that important, since flower petals aren't exact in real life either.

Unfold the rounded felt piece, and use your scissors to cut a slit from one edge to the center of the felt piece. Then using your glue gun, overlap the cut sides of the felt piece just a little and glue into place. Do this for 5 of the felt squares.

Then, do the same for the next 5 felt squares, but glue these five with a bit more overlap. Here's an example of the first 5 overlaps on the left and second 5 overlaps on the right.

Now, 3 of your final 4 squares should be 2.5" x 2.5". Follow the same steps on these smaller squares, gluing them with an overlap similar to the second set of larger petals. You'll save the last felt square to mount all of the petals you just made.

Glue the first 5 petals to your remaining felt square.

Followed by your second 5 petals layered on top.

And your final 3 petals on top of that.

For the center of the poppies, I dug through my supply baskets and found some medium black rhinestones and small green rhinestones, which I glued to a small scrap of felt. I used tweezers on the tiny green rhinestones, so I wouldn't get hot glue on my fingers.

Glue the flower center into place, and you've got a fun felt poppy!

I proceeded to make two more felt poppies the same way, with one a little larger than the others, hot glued them to the yarn wrapped wreath and added a length of ribbon to hang it. So simple, yet so bright and fun, and perfect for summer!

I often have trouble deciding where to mount things when I'm making wreaths; along the bottom, to one side, on both sides? So for this wreath, I actually didn't attach the hanging ribbon to the wreath form at all, I just tied it around with a knot at the end. Now I can slide the ribbon anywhere I want, so it hangs with the flowers oriented on the side or along the bottom. Hey, I like options!

 

What have you got hanging on your front door for summer? Have you done any wreath making lately, or tackled a new kind of fabric flower?