I am normally not a huge fan of Valentine’s Day. It’s just always seemed so unnecessary (and really pink)! Why do you need a particular day to show love and appreciation for someone special…why can’t you just do it all the time?! Not to mention, what a bummer of a day it must be for those that don’t have someone to tell them how loved and special they are.
Well, I still think it’s more important to show love every day, BUT, over the past few years I have softened on the idea of Valentine’s Day. I really freaked my husband out last year and bought him a Valentine’s gift! My biggest reason for changing my tune about the holiday is my two boys. I was worried that their future girlfriends/wives would be awfully upset with me for teaching them that Valentine’s Day was no big deal : ) Not really…(well kind of)! It just occurs to me that it’s really hard to teach them that God calls us to love one another (1 John 4:11) if I don’t take every opportunity to show love, especially on a day that is supposed to be all about love. Does that make sense?!
So over the past few years I have eased into this new found enjoyment of Valentine’s Day and this year, thanks to Pinterest, I’ve even embraced decorating for the holiday! Which is where this wreath comes in. I’ve seen several other Valentine’s wreaths on pinterest and thought it would be a good way to get my “pink” decor feet wet : ) At first I was going to do a ribbon wreath, but then I found this heart shaped wire frame at Hobby Lobby!
With the ridiculous amount of fabric in my “stash” I didn’t really HAVE to buy any fabric to make the wreath, but like any good fabric-aholic, I did! Just a small piece with hearts on it though!
So, are you ready to make one for yourself? They really are very easy to make and the best part is you can make it for any holiday or to match any decor! Hobby Lobby carries several different sizes of round wire wreath forms, and I’m sure other craft stores do as well.
Once you’ve got your wire frame, the next thing you need to do is pick your fabric. For mine, I chose to go with a pink and black color scheme because I new I had plenty of that on hand. You can also use ribbon, but just keep in mind that you will use A LOT of it!!
When you’ve picked out your fabric you’ll need to cut it into strips. I cut mine 1 inch wide by 5 inches long. You can cut them shorter, but the shorter they are, the trickier they are to tie. And just like the ribbon, you’ll use A LOT of fabric strips! I ended up having to cut strips 3 different times because I ran out. Depending on how many different fabrics you have, you’ll use about 1/4 of a yard of each.
Using a rotary cutter will make the cutting go much faster, but it’s not a necessity. If you use scissors, just make sure they are good and sharp. Take a ruler and a fabric pencil and mark your fabric before cutting and that will help too.
Once you’ve got your strips all cut, just start tying them on the frame! You can do it one of two ways. 1) Sort out your strips and create a pattern as you’re tying them on. For example, with mine I pretty much alternated between pink and black strips. Or 2) just dump all your strips in a pile and tie them on willy nilly.
No need to tie the strips into a knot, just tie once and pull tight and it will stay on just fine. I started by just tying the fabric onto the outside two layers of the frame. I was happy with how full the wreath was so I didn’t finish the last layer and you couldn’t see them empty wire, so I just left well enough alone.
Besides being super easy to make, they are also really light weight when they’re finished so you can hang them pretty much anywhere with nothing more than a straight pin. I used a small suction cup hook to hang it on my mirror above the fireplace in this picture.
Now you have a super cute Valentine’s decoration. Or even better, a fabulous Valentine’s gift! Perfect for a teacher, friend, or someone that otherwise may not get a valentine : )