Initial Rag Wreath

The girls and I had an absolutely marvelous summer.  We crafted and created and swam and played and I just enjoyed them so much.  It was a refreshingly recovery from last summer since much of the past year has been a blur of going through the motions as I tried to get a grasp on the grief that I was experiencing from all the tragedies that our family and friends experienced in the year or so before.  I'm finally beginning to feel like myself again.   

Anyway, I have a lot of catch up posts to do including Emma's "real first day of school".  But, this is what I did on her first day back to school with a little "help" from my little hot mess that I call "My Chloe Girl".  

I had been searching around Pinterest for a cute wreath idea for our front door.  I'm just not your typical flowered wreath kind of girl and I was looking for something that just struck my fancy.  Well, eventually, I decided to compile a couple of ideas together and this is what I came up with.  

I posted a picture of this on my friend Jay's facebook wall and my friend Heather requested a tutorial.  So, I'm going to do my best to give you one..   I always have intentions of taking pictures step by step when I do something like this and then I get in the zone and get in a groove and I forget... But, this was so unbelievably easy that I think it could be done with no picture instructions at all.  But none the less, I do have a couple..

Chloe and I went to Hobby Lobby yesterday and we started out with a ball of scrap fabrics in fall, green, browns, yellows and reds and an initial which was on sale for 50% off of 2.99!  Score!  

Side Note:  though I've become a bit of an organizing junky (not by nature but as a coping mechanism to my husband's ADD), you could never tell it by walking in our front door because my dining room is always functioning as either an art or a photography studio and more often than not, looks like this.  

I spray painted the "E" with Krylon spray paint that I used to create the Shrek head pieces for our Christmas play last year.  The color is "Ivy Leaf" but we affectionately call it "Shrek green" and that's a more appropriate description.  I tied a piece of yarn to the "E" before I spray painted it so that it would also get painted and would serve as a way to attach it to the wreath

I was delighted to find a wire hanger after digging through all of the closets.  I'm not sure why I had it but you can usually get them free from the cleaners.  

I sort of shaped the hanger into a circle using wire pliers.  Then I just went to town tying on scraps of fabric.  (This is where I got excited and forgot to take pictures).

Once I got it all together, I decided that the "E" looked too plain so I pulled out the white circle stickers that I used to make everything polka dotted  for Chloe's "Pink Polka Dotted" Birthday Party last year.  

And waa laa, a polka dotted E..  

And there you have it, a wreath that is me and cost about $7.00 to make and is very much my style.  Could be cheaper for you if you actually sew and already have scrap fabric!