The past two nights have been all about wreaths! One of which was my “September” wreath which I decided to make football themed to both support our favorite team and because I felt weird putting out a fall themed wreath when it’s still too hot to go outside most days, lol. The other was a faux succulent wreath I made for our dear Aunt Maryann who patiently waited for it while my scatter-brained self took forever to get around to making it (and even longer to send it out, shame on me!) but I finally got them both done – yay! In this post I will be sharing my September football wreath which happened to be my first attempt at a mesh wreath. While we have been transplanted to the south we’re still NY fans to boot so since we don’t have cable at casa de Schulze (we pinch our pennies, remember? lol) this wreath will be our method of team support for the season. Aside from the fact that this wreath turned out HUGE (which I decided was fitting because “Giants” lol) I was very happy with the results and even happier with how easy it was to create! My only gripe with this wreath is that mesh is more expensive in comparison to burlap, however, I do like that mesh gives you the option for super bright fun colors which are great for holidays like Halloween and Christmas which is what will keep me coming back to this method. If you’re yet to jump on the deco mesh bandwagon give this method a shot, it’s just as easy as creating a burlap wreath and super fun!

Squishy baby wearing his Giants tie onsie! 🙂

SUPPLIES:

• Wire Wreath Frame – I used a 24″ frame because my craft store was out of 18″ frames but I would definitely suggest going with the 18″ or even a 12″ frame unless your door is exceptionally massive. The mesh adds a LOT of volume to the wreath so a small frame goes a long way!
• Blue and Red 5″ X 45′ Rolls of Wired Deco Mesh – I used two of each, but if you were to use a smaller wreath frame you would definitely only need one of each.
• Red and Blue Pipe Cleaners
• NY Giants Scrap Fabric – left over from my DIY Little Man Tie Onsies
• Mini Giants Football
• 2 Mini Giants Helmets
• Blue 1/4″ ribbon
• Scrap Burlap Fabric – left over from my DIY Rustic Burlap Pennant Banners
• Stick-On Fabric Letters
• Glue Gun & Hot Glue

WHAT I DID:

Step 1: I began by cutting the pipe cleaners into thirds to shorten them, then twisting the shorter pieces around the wreath frame wherever I was planning to bunch up the mesh. Then I used basically the same method I used to create my 4th of July Burlap Wreath, by weaving the mesh in and out of the wire frame (in an over-under-over-under manner) using the pipe cleaners to secure the mesh to keep it “poufed” up. NOTE: Another method would be to use a styrofoam wreath frame (as I did to create my Chevron Wreath) and create loops out of the mesh by stapling them directly to the styrofoam frame to achieve the same look.

Step 2: After I had finished creating the mesh portion of the wreath I attached my embellishments. I cut a small hole in the back of the mini football and threaded a pipe cleaner through the whole and attached it to the wire frame. I did the same with the mini footballs which already had holes in the sides that were perfect for threading the pipe cleaners through.

Step 3: I then moved on to my mini “Go Giants” pennant banner which I created by cutting mini triangles out of my scrap burlap and then smaller triangles out of my scrap Giants fabric to fit atop the burlap triangles which I attached using hot glue. After I had created all of my little triangles I went ahead and attached my fabric letters which were actually stick-on but I used a bit of hot glue on the backs of the letters as well to ensure that they really stuck since my wreath was going to have to brave the elements. After adding the letters I created the pennant banners by gluing the triangles to my blue 1/4″ ribbon, one reading “go” and the other “giants”. I secured it to the wreath by tying each opposing end to the wire frame.

Step 4: My final step was not planned but after finishing my wreath the episode of SVU I was watching still had a few minutes left (lol) so I took that time to play around with the idea of adding the Giants logo and helmet to the mesh. I cut the logos and helmets out of my fabric and used hot glue to secure the fabric to the top of the mesh and another piece of scrap fabric to hold it in place on back (inside of the mesh) since the hot glue would not fully secure the logo/helmet to the mesh without a backing.

please disregard my disgusting doormat! hehe This is the GIANT wreath in all it’s glory, you can see it from space! ha

TA-DA that was it! Now that I’ve attempted this method I will most likely be making another deco mesh wreath for my Halloween/October wreath (except I will use the appropriate wreath frame this time, haha).