Halloween: Floral & Creepy Crawlies Wreath

Add a bit of spookiness to your door, mantle or a wall with this wreath.

Materials

Crepe paper (We recommend heavier weight rolls for pliability, but you could also use folds. We used blacks and golds/yellows, but use whatever appeals to you!)
Floral tape
Artificial stamens
Child safe cotton swabs
Scissors
Tacky glue
Fringing scissors
Tissue paper
Grape vine wreath (Or something similar. Ours is made of willow)
Sticks
Glitter
Shallow container
Ribbon
Plastic Bugs (I happened to have lots of these leftover from when I was a teacher which served as the inspiration for the wreath!)
Glue gun/glue (sorry we forgot to include it in the photo!)
Smock

Source List

Here is a list of some of the stores that we have used in making crepe paper projects. We selected them both for the products and the customer service that we received.

Double Sided Crepe

This is the fold type and is lighter weight, but what makes it special is that it is often two colours put together so it draws attention in a project.

32° North http://www.vintage-ornaments.com/ or http://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/32NorthSupplies (ships world wide)

The Paper Place http://www.thepaperplace.ca/ (Canadian)

Crepe Paper Rolls

This is the heavy weight variety and has amazing pliability.

Carte Fini http://www.cartefini.com/

Floral Tape

Irina Boutique http://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/irinaboutique or a florist shop

Stamen

32 ° North http://www.vintage-ornaments.com/ or http://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/32NorthSupplies (ships world wide, has a large, unique selection)

Irina Boutique http://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/irinaboutique or a florist shop

Duchess Trading http://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/duchesstrading (vintage and one-of-kind)

Directions

Take a peek at our STEP-BY-STEP VIDEO http://make-it-your-own.com/crepe-paper-flower-wreath/ on making flowers. Then adapt the colour scheme for Fall or Halloween! OR see the steps below:

Go out on a nature walk and collect sticks for a later step.

Flower Centre (Stigma)

For children (or adults) just learning, it is good to start with a child safe cotton swab, as it is easy to hold and manipulate. (You can later progress to spun cotton shapes and floral wire or many other pre-made centres on floral wire). Cut off one end of the swab. Cut off the little tip on the remaining end.

Cut out a small square of crepe paper (that you have already stretched out). Depending on the size of your swab, it will be approximately 2.5-5 centimetres/ 1-2 inches by 2.5- 5 centimetres/1-2 inches in size.

Using tacky glue, fill in a circle of glue in the centre of the crepe paper square. Place the swab in the glue and twist the paper around the stick portion of the swab. Secure with floral tape. One way to do this is to hold the swab in one hand and twist it, while pulling the tape almost up and over (it must be stretched to activate the glue). Once you have wrapped around the bottom edge of the paper, securing it to swab stick, then wrap down the stick at a diagonal angle to hold it in place.

Stamen & Fringe

To cut a fringe, stretch out your crepe paper and then fold it in half. Cut down from the fold (either with fringing scissors or with regular scissors cutting about 3/4 down the height of the crepe, making parallel cuts). If you plan on making many flowers you can do a long strip and then cut it into portions about 2. 2.5-5 centimetres/ 1-2 inches by 2.5- 5 centimetres/1-2 inches for each flower.

If the stamen is double-ended, fold it in half. Put some glue on the bottom of the fringe, making a thin line. Put your stamen in between the flower centre and the fringe, wrapping the fringe around. Secure it in place with floral tape, wrapping down the stick of the swab.

Petals

We show a very basic petal. You can experiment with various shapes and/or ones that are joined. This is just one example to get you started.

Cut strips of crepe paper and stretch it horizontally. You can then stack the strips and cut a few petals at a time to make them uniform or each on their own for a more organic look. You can then stretch the upper portion of the petal (between your thumbs and forefingers, pulling outward to give some shape to the petal (making almost a slightly boat like shape.)

Put a thin line of glue at the bottom two petals and place them opposite each other on the swab stick (slightly overlapping them). Cut a longer piece of floral tape and secure those two petals (leaving the excess tape for the next few sets of petals). Repeat with another two petals, placing them in the open spaces and secure with the tape. Continue until you reach your desired fullness. When you have completed, wrap your floral tape down the stem.

Embellishments

Some basic embellishments might include adding a stripe or dots with a metallic pastel or marker to the petals before attaching or adding similar details with glue and microbeads or fine glitter post forming the flowers.

We then attached the flowers to sticks with floral tape. (Tip: It is important to stretch it and then pull it taut to activate the glue.)

We took the sticks and wove them into the wreath (you could glue them into place with a glue gun should you like) after winding the ribbon around to create some additional interest.