A dollar store fall wreath

Hellooo there! I’m finally pulling out the fall decor this week! This is SO late for me -- usually I’m itching to get it out in August! This year I wanted to make sure I was completely done going through the basement before I started lugging the (cough. numerous.) bins up.

One of the projects I wanted to tackle this year was a DIY fall wreath. I was inspired by this one last year:

But because I was too ~~cheap~~ ~~impatient~~ lazy to come up with a rectangle shape, I just did a smaller, round one. It’s pretty darn cute, but also a bit wimpy. :)

So this year, I was determined to make a large, square, fluffy fall wreath. I started with some thick foam core board from Hobby Lobby for $5 – it was half an inch thick and it was already 20 inches wide, so I cut it down to 20 inches in length as well:

I wanted it to be four inches thick, so I marked a square in the middle accordingly:

I used my jigsaw to cut it out (it cut like butta!), but you could probably get away with cutting it with something else (especially if you use a thinner foam board – I use scissors on that stuff) – just be careful!

Remember it does not have to be perfect – you won’t see the exact shape when you’re done!

I did a really quick spray of the edges, (with red because it was the closest to me) just in case they’d show through at all:

They don’t, so you can save the two minutes and skip this step.

You’re welcome. :)

Last week I bought four swags of leaves from Hobby Lobby to use for this project, and they were half off, at $5 each. But the $25 price tag for all the supplies was getting a little expensive for something that may not even turn out how I envisioned.

I was trying to think of a cheaper way to do it, and remembered some packets of leaves I bought at the Dollar Tree a few weeks ago for another project. I absolutely loved the colors, the texture, and they were large – perfect for this project!

WHOO!!

I started laying them out to see what I liked:

Hmmm – it wasn’t random enough for me. So I tried a willy nilly way:

MUCH better, but the leaves were a bit flat for my liking. I wanted some POOF.

Because they’re made with wire, that was an easy fix – I crumpled up a few at a time (gently) and gave them some dimension:

(I ended up snipping off the wire stems.)

I fired up the hot glue gun and started placing them here and there, filling in any empty spots:

There was no rhyme or reason to it – just stick ‘em on!

And less than an hour later, I had just what I was looking for!:

(Our door always photographs blue, but it’s a dark brown.)

I love love LOVE these leaves! They look so real! They are made of a material that reminds me of crepe paper – but not nearly as delicate:

You do have to be gentle with them though – they tear if you’re not careful. I didn’t mind though – it made them look more real. ;)

If you have a door that’s exposed to the wind, you’ll want to add weights to the “frame” because it is very lightweight. We don’t have that problem, but I may add some sticky tack to the back just to make sure it stays put. And I’m not sure how these leaves would hold up to the elements – so you may want to test out a leaf or two.

Last year some of you suggested using a large frame as the base, and I thought that was a great idea – it would be heavy enough too!

I absolutely LOVE it – lots of color, texture and it’s simple. The best part is that it only cost $11 total! (Five for foam and six packages of the leaves at a dollar each.) And that’s only because I got the thicker foam – if you got a thinner piece from the dollar store, you’d get this done for well under ten bucks!:

It's gonna look FAB with the rest of the fall decor on our porch! I’ll share that with you next week!

It’s getting just a bit cooler here…slowly but surely. It was in the 80’s today but there was so little humidity, it felt pretty fantastic! Yay…it’s coming!! :)