I Made It Monday - Valentine Wreath

I've been wanting to make this wreath for a couple of weeks and just couldn't find a big enough chunk of time to get it put together.  Instead of constantly putting it off, I bit it off in about four mini sessions.  I don't really enjoy that.  I'm more of a sit-down-and-get-it-all-done-at-once-kind-of-person.

I collected my supplies on one of the first days all three of my children were back to school after the Christmas break.  I headed off to Jo Ann's to get the red burlap and a heart-shaped foam form.  I was kind of hoping they'd have pink'ish burlap since our front door is red and I was afraid the wreath wouldn't show up from the road with red on red.  No pink burlap and no heart-shaped wreath forms.  There is a really helpful woman that works at the fabric-cutting counter (she's given me great tips before!) and she was doing some re-stocking in the seasonal aisle.  I truly believe she was right there at that moment just for me.  I told her what I was looking for and what my project was.  She suggested I form a wire coat hanger into a heart... 

...then she recommended using corrugated cardboard and duct tape to further define the shape I was after.

The heart shape was crude, but I held out hope that once
my burlap was on there, it would take on a more refined look.

I honestly don't believe I would have ever come up with that idea on my own.  In reality, I probably would have walked out of that store feeling defeated that I wasn't going to be able to make my homemade Valentine's Day Wreath. 

I purchased 3 yards of red burlap and found an old cup that measures roughly 3 inches in diameter.  I doubled the burlap over so I could cut out two at a time.  I have no idea how many circles I ended up cutting out.  I do know, though, that this was the step that took the longest.

So, take your circle and fold it in half...

Then, you fold it in half again...

Hopefully you have preheated the greatest invention for crafters near and far...

...and you squirt some hot glue on the wreath form and affix the folded-burlap-circle-thingy like so.  I just started doing a row on the outside and then a row on the inside and then a final third row to fill in-between the rows.

As I was finishing and had some extra circles, I went ahead and looked for bare spots here and there.  I didn't want any duct tape or cardboard to be visible once the wreath was hung up.

I really like how it turned out.  I wish it had been a bit larger, but then, that means I would have had more circles to cut out!  I held it up to our front door and decided I needed to add something to give a little more visibility.  I had just picked up the pink-heart wire ribbon at Michael's a couple of days ago and decided to stretch a piece diagonally across.  Another small piece of ribbon was used to make a loop on the back to hang on my wreath hook. 

I got the idea for this wreath from a blog I follow called Little Birdie Secrets.  On there, that blogger made a standard circle wreath with red burlap for Christmas.  When I saw that red, I instantly thought Valentine's Day and decided I would make one for the upcoming February holiday. 

I hope I have inspired you to make something too!