Red Feather Valentine's Wreath Tutorial

 

Ready to glam up your Valentine's Day decor?  I've got the perfect project for you.  It's fancy, easy, fairly inexpensive, and a little bit unusual-- the Red Feather Wreath.  This was a project that my mom did first, then I followed her creative lead (and used her leftover feathers).  I ended up having everything else I needed for this wreath, so it cost me nothing!  

Here's what you will need, besides a few hours and a little bit of patience.

-Wreath form.  You can really use any kind, since you will be covering it up.  I had an extra styrofoam form in my closet.
-Red fabric.  I used five 2-3" strips, so you should be good with about 1/2 a yard.
-Red feathers.  Mine are from Hobby Lobby, and I used two packages.
-Glue gun
-Ribbon for hanging.

First step, cut your fabric into 2-3" strips if you haven't already.  Plug your glue gun in, and get wrapping those strips around the wreath form, gluing as you go.

You don't have to do a perfect job, as you will be covering it up anyway, but you do want to make sure that everything is glued down tight so you have a solid base to work with.

Now comes the fun part!  Starting on the inside, glue your feathers down in a staggered row, like this:

*This part is very important!!  Glue each feather along the bottom half of the stem only.  This will allow you to finish the wreath when you have glued feathers all the way around the form.  Following your first staggered feather line, glue feathers overlapping the stems about halfway.

When you get all the way around (you will get there faster on the inside of the wreath), slide the stems underneath the feathers that are already there and glue in place.  Since each feather has only been glued down halfway, you should easily be able to fill any other holes you might have where you can see the fabric underneath.

I just love the feather texture!  If you don't want to hang this, you can just stop at this point and be done.  This wreath would make a great centerpiece with a big glass jar of Valentine's candy in the middle, or with whatever else you have that is round.

If you do want to hang it, grab your ribbon.  I just did a giant loop of ribbon and tied it in a knot.  Since I have a hook on the inside of my pantry door, I put the ribbon over the top of the door and hooked it around the loop, like so:

If you don't have a setup like this, just do the ribbon loop smaller and tie a knot where you want it to hang on the wall, like I did with my Halloween tulle wreath.

I'm loving this wreath so much that I am tempted to make another one in brown for the fall!  I also thought that a couple of little white doves would be a cute addition, but I haven't found any yet.  I probably won't change it, though, because I like the simplicity of the feathers, and the texture is already so interesting.

Also, here's a little announcement that I already made on Facebook:  Since I received such an overwhelming response on my Valentine's Subway Art Printable, I will be doing at least one free printable on the blog per month.  If you have any requests for themes, quotes, art, etc. that you would like to see in a printable, leave me a comment or send me an email.  Most of the printables will probably be seasonal, but I'd love to hear what trends you would like to see.

Linked up: Tatertots and Jello, Michelle Paige