I’m so excited to welcome Tracy back to the blog today! Tracy is a fellow milspouse who loves crafting (and makes adorable care packages). She’s also a huge Hunger Games fan– here she is with her husband and their puppy, Rue.
I wanted to make a wreath for my favorite season and holiday – the Lenten Season and Easter! It means the world to me, and I even got married on Easter Sunday last year!
Materials
- 18 in. grapevine wreath
- Sprays of flowers (I think I got Baby’s Breath, but don’t quote me on it, it just looked best for what I was going for!)
- Small wooden plaque – I got a parenthesis plaque, which probably cost about $2-$3
- Brown string – to wrap the cross pieces
- Dark brown acrylic paint – or whatever you’d like to use to make the wood dark like the wreath.
- Purple Fabric – Bought from Walmart, I got 1/4 yard and I still had a ton left over, because I couldn’t estimate how much I needed and how much 1/4 yard was!
- Wooden sticks – These I had cut at Home Depot. I found a cart with a bunch of discarded/”damaged” wood, and found a long stick of wood, about 1 in. in width. They offer you two cuts for free, which works since you only need two pieces of wood! That cost me under 2$, one was 10 in, the other 15 in. Thinking back, I might’ve gone an inch or two longer.
- Craft glue
- Mod Podge – to make everything shiny and pretty
- Paint to write the wording on the plaque – I used white acrylic paint
- Foam brushes – for the paint and mod podge
- Paintbrush – for the “writing”
- Some sort of hook to attach the plaque and cross to the wreath. I used a picture hook thing we had laying around (looks like this)
For the Cross
Paint the sticks for the cross (and the plaque, why not). You can Mod Podge them now, if you want, but I did it at the end. Put craft glue to where the sticks meet, and then wrap the brown string around them for detail in an X formation, and seal with glue on the back. This is where I covered with Mod Podge. Attach one frame hook on the back top area, finding the spot by figuring out where you want the top of the cross to rest on the wreath. Before you attach the cross, cut and drape the purple fabric over the cross. I used craft glue to keep the fabric in place. You’ll place the cross on the wreath towards the end.
For the Plaque
Paint the plaque. Once it’s dry, attach the frame hooks to the back, using the same method as the cross to find where to put the hooks (I used two hooks for a secure latch). After the hooks are attached, use the paint to write the words on the front – I just wrote: He is Risen. I’m not fancy with a paint brush with writing. Once that’s dry, cover with mod podge.
Wreath
Arrange the branches of flowers on the bottom of the wreath, in a way that they go outward – the middle where the branches meet but no flowers are, that’s where the plaque will go. I intertwined the branches around the grapevines, as the “branches” have a metal inside that you can twist and bend into place. It takes some time to place the flowers well, and I would recommend doing it over a work place you can clean up easily if you’re using the same flowers I did, it made a little mess that involved a vacuum in the end. Once the flowers are set, use the rest of the purple fabric and create a loop to hang on your wreath hanger. Attach the cross, then the plaque, adjust as necessary.
Now you’re done, hang and enjoy how beautiful it is :)
PS. Tracy has lent her craftiness to Jo, My Gosh! in the past. You’ll want to see her ultra-cute Minion care package and postcard pillowcase tutorial.