4th of July Deco Mesh Wreath

I made this beauty last week, but am just finding making time to share about it. It's not my best work. I wouldn't coin it a failure, but it's definitely a first attempt at its finest.

Materials:

-Wood letter

-Paint- red, white, blue

-Wire wreath (size is personal prefrence)

-Deco Mesh- I used a burlap and then an actual burlap ribbon instead of mesh for my 2nd layer.

-Pipe cleaners (appox. 20)- these should be the same color as your mesh. (This was my first rookie mistake with this wreath. Because I couldn't find a light brown pipe cleaner, I used a white pipe cleaner which you can clearly clearly see in the wreath.)

This was a two part project. Painting the my wooden letter and then creating my mesh wreath.

Part 1was painting the wooden "S". I bought a white "S" so all I need to do was add the red stripes, blue and white stars. I used a ruler to measure my red stripes. There is no science to this. It's really just personal preference as to how wide you want your stripes and same goes for the blue area with your stars. Each letter will make the difference obviously. For the stars, I used little stickers. I just stuck them on and painted them white!

Part 2, the mesh wreath. 

Step 1- Place wire wreath  face down. Starting on the inner part of the wreath, twist tie your pipe cleaners onto the wreath one at a time working your way around the inner part of the wreath. I followed this great tutorial by Big Bear's Wife.

Step 2- Same as above, but this time working on the outer part of the wreath. 

You should have 2 pipe cleaners per section. One on the inner wire and one on the outer wire. You can add more if needed. 

Step 3- Now that your "work wreath" is complete, it's time to break out the deco mesh. Start by taking the end of your deco mesh and placing it in the center of one of your pipe cleaners (start with the inside wire), twisting the pipe cleaner to keep it in place.

Gather a couple of inches of deco mesh bunching it together and place in the center of the next pipe cleaner, twisting it to hold it in place. Big Bear's Wife also has great pictures and explanation for this as well. Continue to gather and bunch the deco mesh all the way around your wire wreath.

Step 4- You will follow the same instructions as in number 3, working with a different color deco mesh on the outside wire of your wreath. 

As I worked my way around the wreath, I would bunch and move the mesh accordingly to create more fullness where needed.

Once I finished my wreath, I used ribbon to hang my patriotic wooden letter "S" inside the center of the wreath.

Definitely a learning curve with this project. The next go around, I'll make sure to have pipe cleaners that match my deco mesh and use only deco mesh. The burlap ribbon proved to be tough to work with and was hard to bunch. Overall, I am happy with my new wreath for the 4th of July and was happy to proudly display it on our door!