Sometimes it feels good to get out the scissors and glue and make something with your hands. I love designing things but I always come back to my good-ole-crafts. I headed to AC Moore with my coupon in tow, looking for some inspiration. There is so much to choose from. I saw that the paper was on sale so I decided on another faux wreath. Who doesn't need another wreath to decorate the farmhouse look? I chose 3 colors of card stock and a 12" styrofoam ring. It came to about 9 bucks and I was out the door to get started.
I created a magnolia leaf in Adobe Illustrator and saved it as an SVG file to cut on my Cricut. I fit 10 leaves per 12" x 12" page. I cut 40 leaves out of the green, 20 leaves out of the brown and 20 out of craft paper.
Once cut, I folded, creased, bent and curled the paper leaves.
I wanted the leaves to look a little dried. I used a brown ink pad and rubbed the edges and creases to give the flat paper dimension and detail. I tried not to be very perfect with this part. They all should look a little different.
Real magnolia leaves have that awesome bronzy color. I had a very cheap can of Old Gold spray paint. I laid the leaves out on a drop cloth and sprayed the leaves to give them that shinny autumn glow. Again, not being perfect. Some leaves got a heavier coating than others. That's okay.
As they dried, I wrapped the styrofoam ring with floral tape. I love that stuff. Pull and wrap and it sticks to itself covering the white styrofoam.
Hot glue is heating and I randomly glued the leaves around the ring. I made sure I used all the leaves so it was full.
My husband cut a piece of 1/4" plywood. I sanded and stained it. Pretty script was painted on it in white chalk paint. I wired it to the wreath.
Do you like the gate it hangs on? Do you love those antique hinges and distressed paint? More on that later.
