DIY Ornament Wreath

It's been an interesting quite few weeks! The most exciting news is: I've accepted a position with North Carolina State University! I'm extremely excited. I start on December 1st, and I cannot wait.

I've been spending a lot of time doing crafts (which I probably shouldn't be, because I've got a ton of homework that needs to get done)! Mainly Christmas presents that I cannot share yet, but definitely will.

I've never been big on the Christmas decorations. I've never really wanted to get a tree and I didn't really care about Christmas lights. Once I moved in with my boyfriend, however, that changed. I wanted to do those things. D: (He hates Christmas, so I did them alone.)

One of the easiest things I've made in a while, Christmas Ornament Wreath! 

I looked around in stores because I wanted one for our front door. But I could only find either ridiculously colored ones, over the top ones, or ones that would break the small bank.

So I made my own. And it was extremely simple and cheap (PS: sorry for the lack of pictures, I didn't expect to do this). What you'll need:

1. Ornaments (obviously.) - I used about 80, I think. All sizes, shapes, colors (of blue and silver).  I went very cheap on these (and at this time of year, it's very easy to do so.) I shopped at Rite-Aid for them. If you have a busy front door, I would recommend non-shatter, but I used glass because my boyfriend and I don't slam our door often. 
2. Wire Hanger
3. Pliers (to unhook the wire hanger from itself and hook it back) 
4. Wire Edge Ribbon (if you want to tie your own.) 
5. Super Glue (possibly, if you want to glue some ornaments together, but you don't have to.)
6. Wreath Hanger/Nail (Our apartment door is metal, so I purchased an over the door hanger from Target: here) 
7. A Towel (if you want to use glittery ornaments. I did so they didn't shed their glitter everywhere!) 

Firstly, take your wire hanger and stretch it into a "circle." Mine hanger was not able to get all the way to a circle, around the edges where the hanger is.. actually a hanger. I'll be honest, I used my foot to pull the hanger into a more circular shape. It wasn't difficult, but I wanted it to be as perfect as possible.

Take the pliers, clamp them on the twisted portion of your wire hanger. I found it easiest to clamp this portion and twist the rest of the hanger, rather than trying to twist the pliers. This stripped a portion of the hanger before I twisted it fully. Came right off after that!

And from there, go crazy. Add in the ornaments in which ever order you please.  I tried to even mine out so that it didn't have too many of the same shape and same finish. It happened, because I ran out of some finishes, but I didn't want to open a new pack of ornaments if I had some left over.

The order doesn't matter. Just make it look the way you like. Slide them down the hanger and place them right where you want them. This was the part that took me about an hour. If you do not want to glue the ornaments together (I didn't) don't get discouraged if they feel loose. As you begin to add more, they will tighten up. I did glue a few, because I wanted them facing forward rather than backward.

Tying the bow was actually one of the hardest parts. I watched this wonderful video (here) to try and get a proper technique. I re-tied quite a few times. I also didn't use the metal bow tie.. thing.. she recommends. I used the tie from a bag of bread (didn't feel like going back to the store and it worked.) 

I actually wanted a few more frills, so I took a little more ribbon and tied it around the bottom of the wire hanger, under the bow. Just to add a few more ribbon strings to the bottom. 

 

 Hope this was helpful. :) I spent, in total, about $15 dollars. I had the wire hanger previously, and I used a lot of the ribbon for Christmas present wrappings (so I only portioned the price out to the amount I used on the wreath!) These are extremely easy to make and can save a fair bit of money.