Woodgrain and Burlap Wreath - How To

This holiday wreath card was a ton of fun to make, and required a few "creative moments!"

When I was making it, I had a piece of "woodgrain" paper on my work surface and I thought "that would be perfect." But, I only had one 6 x 6 piece of the paper and I needed to make 27 cards for the Holiday Card Marathon.

I thought, maybe I could "make" some woodgrain paper. So, I took out my mini alchohol distress ink pad, and a piece of kraft cardstock and I pulled the ink pad down the page. The first row was so neat I was giddy with excitement.

When I pulled the second row, I noticed a "blob" on the cardstock and at first I was horrified - yikes, I've ruined it! The "blob" came from a piece of scrap that was under my mat (imagine THAT!).

But then I realized that the "blob" actually looks like a knot in the wood, so when I did the next few samples, I actually put some "scraps" and debris under the mat on purpose to create the woodgrain effect.

Voila!

Then, it was on to the wreath. I mentioned this in an earlier post that I just felt this card "needed" a burlap wreath, but I didn't have any embellishments that looked like that.

So, I used a piece of double-sided adhesive and two circle dies - one for the inside opening and one for the outside edge - to create the wreath shape.

I peeled the top layer of protective paper off the shape and placed jute onto the adhesive and simply coiled it onto the shape, starting from the inside of the circle to the outside. To ensure that the jute didn't unravel, I snipped a small piece of the backing off at two edges of the shape, and then wrapped more jute around (as you can see above) and secured it at the back. Not only did this give the wreath a more finished look, it also helped to secure the edges.

I then cut out a small bird image from the Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge (a Close to My Heart cartridge) and placed it onto the wreath with a glue dot.

I added some "berries" by string three small, red beads onto a transparent plastic wire, and tied a knot tightly in the wire to form a "bunch." I poked the ends of the wire through the wreath and secured them on the back side to hold the berries in place.

Fiddly - you bet! But, the end result was lovely!