Halloween Craft Fail

Pinterest has introduced me to any number of crafting and home décor blogs. Previously (as you can tell by the bulk of the items I pin) my blog reading has been confined to family, friends, and cooking. I have to say, I’m a pretty darn good cook and Michael agrees (side note: I just made this for dinner last night and we both agree it is so amazingly delicious. Stop reading and go make this now!). However, the decorator gene is not with me – it isn’t with my mom either, so at least I come by my bare walls honestly! Michael is much more interested in home décor and with his and Ethan Allen’s help the house is slowly but surely becoming more magazine ready. With all this sprucing up I’m starting to feel my decorator mojo coming on and this pin just sealed the deal.

http://www.bluecricketdesign.net/2010/07/sock-wreath.html

The lady in this post used a Dollar Store wreath and some (new) socks to create a fun wreath. I thought this would be a cut craft for Halloween – some cheap Halloween socks, the wreath form, a ribbon, and BOOM! a decorated front door for the first time ever. Unfortunately, my Dollar Store did not carry any wreath forms and the craft store forms were all too expensive for what was supposed to be <$10 project. I have seen several posts about using a pool noodle as a wreath form, but October is not the best month to find those. However, in another blog (cannot remember which one) I saw the suggestion to purchase piping insulation from the home improvement store. Score! I was able to pick up a 6' length for $1.23. The blog had stated that you could cut it in half for two 12” wreath, but I wanted a bigger wreath for the outdoors, so I cut off 4.75’ for an 18” wreath. Here’s a shot before I started embellishing. Beautiful, eh?

I was so excited for this wreath – it was looking so good. I should have just left it there. But I wanted a little more bling. First, I added shiny purple bat garland I had picked up at AC Moore – I thought it would be cute like the pennant banners I’ve seen strung across other wreaths, but it was just too stiff to line up properly. Then I didn’t have the right gauge wire to attach the bow so I used this thick green stuff. Still, I was decently ok with the wreath and hung it up on our door with (limited) pride - where it aged like an old lady (read: drooped). By the time Halloween came around, this is what my poor wreath looked like.

 

Let’s do a post-mortem on this, shall we? For anyone who wants to follow in my decorating footsteps (although, why would you?!), what could be done to make this a win? First off, an actual wreath form would resolve the droopiness issue. If that’s too expensive, you might be able to still use piping insulation, but I’d recommend no bigger than a 12” wreath. Another idea would be to unwind a coat hanger and run it through the insulation to give it some rigidity. I may try one or both with my wreath. As for the embellishments, thick wire garland is a no-no. Thick wire in general is bad. I’ll probably try making a paper and string banner and purchase some thinner-gauge wire to attach the bow.

As a coda to this whole story, last night Michael was in charge of handing out candy as I was in the kitchen preparing dinner. After one set of trick-or-treaters, he came back to tell me the news - apparently one of the moms complimented the wreath - go figure!

I’m planning on submitting this craft fail to Pinstrosity – y’all should check that blog out! Sort of like CraftFail but gentler and with better language . . .

ETA:  Yes! I made it on to Pinstrosity! Check out my fail here.