Star Wreath Tutorial

July is completely sneaking up on me! I've had this wreath idea in my head for a while, and I finally got it finished...not a moment too soon!

I wish I'd broken this tutorial into 2, but in an effort to share the finished product before July 4th officially comes and goes, here it is in it's entirety!

To make the star, you will need:

• a scrap of wood as big as the star you'd like to make (my star was about 8 inches across)
• a star template (I used my Cricut, but you could print something on the computer, or just free-hand it!)
  
• hammer
• nails
• wire (I used 22 gauge wire...and it's MUCH cheaper at a home improvement store!)
  

You need to use nails with a skinny head like this:

Using your star stencil as a template, hammer the nails into the wood near the tips of the star.

Leave a 3-4 inch 'tail' of wire, and begin to wrap the wire around your nails. You may need to pinch the wire a bit as it rounds each nail to create a crisper-shaped star.

Continue to wrap the wire around the nails several times until the star reaches a thickness you like. Mine had 6 layers of wire. Leave another 'tail' of wire at the end.

Now, scoot the wire to the tops of the nails, being careful not to pop them off the nails yet.

Carefully remove one of the tips with the tail of wire.

Hold the wires tightly, and wrap the tail around the rest of the wires to secure the tip.

After the first tip is secured, move onto the second tip with the tail and wrap the wire again. Cut 3 additional pieces of wire about 4 inches long for the other tips and wrap each one tightly to secure. Now your star will look like this:

Next, wrap the end of the wire around one tip of the star. (I keep the wire attached to the spool at this point so I don't run short)

Loosely wrap the wire around the star form.

Keep wrapping until you are pleased with how the star looks. Complete the wrapping near one of the tips, trim the wire, and secure the wire around the tip.

Take a break for a little star-gazing!

I forgot to take a picture of the next step...I spray-painted the star with glossy white paint and let it dry overnight. You could leave it the color of the wire, but I wanted the white to stand out against the design of my wreath.

For the wreath, you will need:

• Completed wire star
• Grapevine wreath
• Feathers
• Assorted silk flowers
• glue-gun
• wire
  

I wanted my wreath to be asymmetrical, so I began by positioning the feather and the star just to see how things would fit.

I tucked the feather into the wreath, and used my glue-gun to secure it.

Next, I tucked in the flowers and secured them with wire. I just cut little pieces of wire to wrap around the stem of the flower and a few vines of the wreath. When using heavier flowers, I've found this to be a better way to secure the flowers.

After the flowers were in place, I used wire again to attach the star.

Here's the finished product all ready to greet our summer guests! I love how festive and whimsical it turned out.

Happy Independence Day!

Check out these parties for some other creative inspiration!