DIY--Tulip Wreath

Justin was getting annoyed with the lack of effort on my part to finish putting away the holiday decorations--I considered them "winter" decorations and spring only began two weeks ago! But we did need something fresh an new on the door so I did what I always do, went to Pinterest. I really wanted something bright and fun & was loving these...

but I have seen them on just about every street that I drive down. I wanted something a little different so I kept culling through all the ideas until I ran across some tulip wreaths. Who doesn't love tulips? And multiple colors of tulips like this one. Yes, please.

So I followed her tutorial. I stopped at Hobby Lobby and bought the branch wreath for like $5, the greenery garland at $12.99 with 50% off and then the tulips which I should have waited for them to be on sale but I didn't. I bought 8-10 bunches, 4-5 in red and 4-5 in white. Again, wait till they are 50%, would have made this project much cheaper, by like $25-$30 cheaper.

Now, I knew mine wouldn't end up looking like hers, I mean, that just looks picture perfect and anything you do never really looks like the inspiration. But I was okay with that because I could tweak mine over time and figured I could still come out with something that I was happy to hang.

I started out first by ensuring that I had a RBV--this is one of my must haves when projecting, it helps me work better. Next step was to wrap the greenery garland around the wreath. I had hoped that the garland would have a few small white or yellow flowers on it but I wasn't able to find what I was looking for so I just went with all green. I literally wrapped it around once and then tucked it into the branches to keep it in place, no tying necessary.

I then used some wire cutters to cut the tulips down to size. The tutorial suggested 10 inches or so, I roughly did that but certainly didn't measure. Some I cut shorter, some I kept longer with the leaves. After having disassembled each tulip bunch I started putting them on the wreath.

I basically took a tulip stem and shoved it through the twigs so the stem came out the backside of the wreath. At that point I just tucked the rest of the stem in someplace on the backside to secure it in place. I worked from the bottom up the left side and then from the bottom up the right side, trying to ensure that the tulips faced a little more inward than outward.

At this point, I thought it was huge and I only used an 18 inch wreath, she recommended a 20 inch or even 22 inch wreath but I was happy I went with the 18 inch one. I hung it on the door, moved a few tulips around and then added our "S" for South to the middle. I literally just hung the S from the hook with the wreath, I just made sure that the length was right. This way, the S isn't attached and I can easily remove it and add something new if I would like. To hang the wreath I took some burlap that I had on hand, folded it in half and then tied it around the wreath--simple. I might need something more like a bow but it will work for now.

Like I said, a few tweaks will need to be made but it has certainly brightened up our space a little. Now we just need to wait for the nice spring weather to come so we can add our planters filled with flowers to the front porch---my favorite thing about spring. Well, besides the endless nights outside playing with the boys.