November 6, 2013

Team Colors Mesh Wreath


If you have a favorite team, it just makes your heart skip a 
beat when you see it's colors together, doesn't it?

Make this easy and inexpensive deco mesh wreath 
for your door to show your team pride.  A friend of mine
is a fan of Alabama State University and she wanted a
door wreath in ASU's school colors of gold and black. 

Use your imagination and envision your team's colors
in this fun, fluffy, weather resistant deco mesh wreath. 

To make this wreath you will need:
3 rolls of deco mesh
a wreath form (this one is 16")
pipe cleaners (best in mesh colors)
a team logo if desired

The deco mesh is getting much easier to find and more and
more colors are becoming available in craft stores.
If you cannot find the mesh locally, an internet resource
 is Mardi Gras Outlet.  They also have good tutorial blog.

The gold and small black mesh came from Hobby Lobby.
It is regularly on sale for 40-50% off or you can use a
coupon.  Even not on sale, it is a good price but save a
few bucks when you can. The gold has metallic in it
so it is a few dollars more than the non-metallic mesh rolls.

Michael's has also started stocking some mesh too.
The medium width mesh came from there.
It is about $8 per roll (but you could use a coupon).

You don't have to vary the width of the meshes...
I already had the black rolls and wanted to use them.
At least one of the rolls should probably be the
21" wide to form a good base color. 

For regular deco mesh wreaths, I like to paint the wreath
form the same color as the main color of mesh.  For this
fluffier type mesh wreath (I call it a "ruffle wreath"...
does anyone know another name for it?) it is so thick that
the wreath form does not show through the mesh
(but you can paint it with acrylic paints if desired). 

Cut the pipe cleaners into thirds...for this wreath you
do not need to leave them long.  Some folks use zip ties
to attach the mesh to the form for this type wreath.  
I'm just used to pipe cleaners so that is easier for me.

Fold the cut pipe cleaners into "V" shapes. 

Unroll one of the mesh rolls for several feet.
About 8-10" from the beginning of the roll will
be your first gathering point. You are leaving a "tail".

To make the mesh "pouf", you are going to gather across
the width of the mesh with your fingers.  You can turn
under the edge of the mesh if you want to.

Pinch, pleat or accordian fold the mesh all the way 
across keeping it tightly in your fingers.



(Sorry, I didn't take these photos in sequence...
showing the black mesh being pinched but gold
was the first color on the wreath form...
had to wait for my "photographer" for those photos.)

When you have your mesh gathered, place it on the top side 
of one of the wires of the form. Push a "v' shaped pipe
 cleaner from the back of the wreath underneath the gather.

Twist the pipe cleaner tightly on top of the gather
to hold it in place on the wire of the wreath form. 

(This is the fourth "ruffle wreath" that I have made
but I just looked at one in a store to see how it was 
done...I don't know the official instructions.
It doesn't seem to matter which wire of the wreath
 form you start your attaching with.  This wreath started
with the gold mesh on the third wire from the center. )

From your first gather/attachment, measure down 10"
and make another pinch/pleat/fold.

Attach your new gather about 2-3" away from the first
gather on the wreath form.  Work you way around the form.
I stayed on one wire for each color, not zig-zagging
 between wires like you might for other mesh wreaths.

It helped me to keep measuring the length of the "poufs"
so that they would be the same height in the end. 

It worked out that there are 3 to 4 poufs attached in 
each section of the wreath form.  At first I thought that
there was enough mesh on the gold roll to make 4 poufs
per section but then I realized I was running out of
 mesh so I went to 3 poufs per section. 

Here is a photo of the back of the wreath with
the gold roll of mesh attached:

See the "x"s at the top of the wreath?
That's the 4 poufs per section part.
At the bottom is the 3 poufs per section part...
like "oh no!" I'm gonna have to go buy more 
gold mesh if I keep making them so close.
I can't really tell the difference in the finished product.

The poufs are so close together that they kind of hold 
each other in place but you can twist the ends of the
pipe cleaners around the wires if you want to to keep
 the poufs where you want them. Or glue the pipe
 cleaners from the back when the wreath is finished. 

The "tails" keep the mesh from pulling out of
the first/last pipe cleaner's grasp.  Always leave
some "tail" on the mesh ends and just push/weave
them into the poufs from the backside or attach
them onto the wreath wires with another pipe cleaner.

Next the medium width black mesh was attached to
the outermost wire in the same way as the gold was
attached.  The poufs were still 10" long but a little
more spaced out to be able to get around the longer
wire with only one roll of mesh. 

Here is the wreath from the back immediately after
 the black mesh was attached:




This is how it looks when you pull the black poufs 
forward and in between the gold poufs:

The narrow mesh was attached in the same way
(but with 8" length) on the innermost wire of the form.

Here it is from the back:

I ran out of the "good" color of pipe cleaners and had to
 go with green and purple.  Better buy about 50 pipe
 cleaners for the wreath if you don't want a mix of colors.

Also pull the inner ring of mesh poufs in 
between the middle layer to intermingle the poufs.

I tried to find an ASU logo item that would fit the wreath
with no luck.  The wreath got a homemade logo.

On the internet I found a logo and made an image 
on my home computer.  The back of the logo was 
scribbled on with a pencil and then traced onto a 
piece of foam core from the Dollar Tree.

A cheap boxcutter had to stand in for the lost Exacto
knife to cut the logo out.   The rough edges were filed 
down with an emery board. 

The logo was painted gold and then had glitter sprinkled
on it while the paint was still wet for a little "bling". 

When it was dry, a small hole was punched at the top
and the logo was attached to one of the wreath's wires
 with fishing line (to try to be as invisible as possible). 

There are copyright infringement laws for team logos if
you use the logo for profit so don't make these for sale
with a homemade logo on it. If you buy a logo with the 
official tag on it, the copyright fee has already been paid
so keep the tag and attach it to the wreath if it is for sale. 

You can glue small items on top of the mesh poufs
of the wreath also.

My friend was very happy with her ASU black
and gold wreath for her front door.




The total cost of this wreath was $20 (getting 
the mesh on sale $15...wreath form $4...
pipe cleaners $1).  
Now go make one in YOUR team's colors!

Here are some other deco mesh ruffle wreaths
to show you other color variations:


From the post 

I'm sharing this post at
Inspire Me Tuesday @ A Stroll Thru Life
Open House Party @ No Minimalist Here
Tutorials, Tips & Tidbits @ StoneGable

9 comments

  1. How fun is this. You did a fabulous tutorial also. Thanks tons for linking to Inspire Me. Hugs marty

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  2. Gayle- That turned out great. GREAT WREATH!!! I have yet to work with that deco mesh. It does look like fun though- xo Diana

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  3. The wreath is wonderful and I bet your friend loves it! Thanks for sharing the tutorial at the Open House party.
    Hugs,
    Sherry

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  4. Awesome tutorial, way better than the one I used to make my mesh wreath!

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  5. So Impressive! Wow!!! This looks so great!

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  6. Is there a way to do this with just the 5.5 foot mesh?

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  7. I just retired and wanted to do something to keep me busy. I am having the time of my life learning different techniques. Now I got to decide what to do with them.

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