Bubble Wreath

Who would have guessed that Christmas is my favorite holiday?  I love EVERYTHING about Christmas though...the shopping...the music...the decorations...the TREE...I love Christmas trees. Real Christmas trees. They smell amazing and I am a sucker for ornaments. Opening them up every year is like opening 100 tiny presents. So naturally ever since seeing them on Pinterest, I have loved the idea of 

making a Christmas ornament wreath

Of course, instead of reading one of the thousand sites that have great directions on making these wreaths, I decided that it would be easy to figure out how to do it myself. I hit some snags but I think it turned out okay (shockingly enough).... Here are my directions tips and ideas so you can make one of your very own.

Materials:

18" wire wreath frame (I got mine at Michaels...similar Here)

Plastic Christmas Bulbs (Target)

Scrap string/yarn

Large Needle

Craft Glue (choose on that dries clear)

Large Ribbon (10-12 feet)

I started by tying my yarn to the wreath then started to string the ornaments onto the yarn. I did three at a time and looped the yarn through the wreath wire. Make sure to evenly vary what ornaments you're stringing so that you will have an even assortment of styles through your whole wreath. Pull the string until its taught (not so tight that the ornaments start popping off though). Even doing this, the ornaments will be a bit floppy but that's okay we'll fix that later.

Once all the ornaments are on the wreath, you'll notice that there is still an exposed bit of wire on the wreath but that's OKAY! Lay the wreath on a flat surface and finagle the ornaments so that they are to the sides of the wreath, not behind it (you want the wire back of the wreath to rest flat on your work surface). The string should generally be holding the ornaments in place but they are still movable if you want to switch one ball with an adjacent one. Once you are happy with how the ornaments are arranged, take some craft glue and put a glob between every single touching ornament. Leave the wreath overnight to dry.

Once everything is dry you should be able to pick up your wreath without any of the ornaments moving. Now you just need the bow! Get your big ribbon and unroll the full length and find the center and fold your ribbon in half. now figure out how long you want ribbon to hang. Mine hangs from above the window on my front door to just below it (See image below). once you find the appropriate length, tie a knot, Then make a big bow (You can do this by repeatedly doing the "bunny ears" version of tying shoes). Once you have a big bow with a few feet left of ribbon on each side, tie the bow to the exposed wire part of the wreath. this should hide any wire. Loop the remaining loose ribbon through any large gaps between the ornaments and VOILA you're done!

Tips and notes:

These directions were for my wreath but if I had it to do over I would change a few things. So I thought I would make some suggestions for making you're weather even better:

• Buy some smaller balls to mix with the big ones. That will help fill in those pesky gaps that you cant hide. It will also help fill up the wreath so you don't need a big bow to hide the top of the wreath when you run out of ornaments.
• Buy PLASTIC ornaments. I know I already said this above, and I did happen to buy plastic ones but I considered glass ones. I guarantee I would have broken them ALL when trying to make the wreath and even if by some miracle they had made it through the construction process unscathed, I would be breaking one every time I shut the door and the wreath bounces against it. 
• Try some COLORS. I did all gold because I'm married and my husbands a lame wad, but you're not married to my husband so presumably you have no such restrictions. be colorful!