Whenever I do an assignment, there are always projects that get excluded. I used to take it personally, but now that I have a blog I no longer feel like it was time wasted - I get to share it with an audience anyway. This time, I had two projects that got bypassed and it was for the same reason - the holly intimidated the editors. But it's easy enough and I'll pass it on to you.
Remember the felt dahlias I learned to make from Not Martha? Well, I loved the dimensionality of the middle of that flower and it was so easy to do. Shortly after that, I started working on Christmas and I remembered that technique and thought it would work just as well for berries, which it did!
I used the same technique for the ornament as I did for the wreath - I simply used a shorter strip for the smaller berries. And to make the larger circles more stable, I added dabs of Fabri-Tac to the strip as I rolled it.
The wreath was very simple - I cut strips of felt into various widths, wrapped them around a Styrofoam wreath form, and pinned them to the back of the wreath form with straight pins. When the wreath form was covered, I cut holly leaves out of wool blend felt, folded the leaf in half and ironed it with an iron preheated to the "wool" setting with steam. That gave the holly leaves some dimension. I glued the leaves to the wreath front using Fabri-Tac, then glued the berries on as well.
Resources:
I was completely inspired by the "Taffy" (light aqua) wool blend felt that I found at Felt-o-rama. Photographs don't even do it justice. It's just beautiful. I also loved "Strawberry Parfait" and "Pistachio Ice Cream" wool blend felt from Wool Felt Central. Those three colors made up most of my palette for the entire feature, with other colors accenting as needed. Both sites are great sources for wool blend felt of high quality.
I also discovered that Divine Twine made a much nicer ornament hanger than plain string. It's a small detail, but it made an impact on the overall look of the ornament.
i continue to love your site... and used the above wreath as a jumping point for a valentines day one... love the results... thanks!
link to my wreath....
http://htwoh.blogspot.com/2011/01/11511.html
Posted by: Holly Harris | 16 January 2011 at 08:11 PM
Soooooo CUTE!
Posted by: Ayana Posadas | 30 November 2010 at 12:09 PM
LOVE these! I am making that wreath! :)
Posted by: Lisa (sideoats + scribbles) | 29 November 2010 at 05:04 PM
I just stumbled upon your site/ blog... and I think its divine. Happy Thanksgiving to you.
Posted by: Holly Harris | 24 November 2010 at 05:01 PM
So freaking cute! I'm not intimated by the holly. I'm inspired! I do believe I'm going to make some ornaments for my family this year all due to your fabulous creativity. Off to check out Felt-o-rama. You gotta love any company name that has o-rama in it! Thanks!
Posted by: Whitney @ WhiskerGraphics.com | 24 November 2010 at 11:47 AM
this is so stinking cute. i'm officially making one for my door.
Posted by: Kaelin | 24 November 2010 at 08:23 AM