Project: Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Wreath!

I figured it had been long enough since we had a craft project on here. I have lots lined up for Christmas, but obviously I can't share any gifts on here until January. I can show my wreath, however. :)

I've had the bells in the picture below for years. In fact, I've had them since Pier's closing down sale, which coincided with the Iceland financial crisis, so you can tell how long ago that was. I never knew what to do with them, or rather, I could never think of a project good enough for them. Then the other day in one of my many Christmas magazines I spotted a beautiful jewel-colour-themed wreath, using baubles rather than bells, but it would still work!

I decided that I didn't want to spend too much on the project (the bells should have cost me £24, fortunately I got them 50% off), so I hit up Poundland for the rest of my supplies.

(Please excuse the state of my carpet in the following photographs. . . I was NOT about to hoover before I started chucking tinsel about!!).

My eyes were definiately bigger than my wreath, because I didn't end up using the small baubles or the crystals. I used: 1 wreath, 4m (2x2m packs) of tinsel, 1 roll of gold wired ribbon. 1 roll of gold elastic cord.

This is the wreath you start off with. Originally I was just going to trim the tinsel down, and glue the new tinsel over the top. I'm glad I fiddled around a little longer though, because the tinsel does come off very easily, leaving you with this:

The pattern for wrapping your tinsel is:

 

Fully wrapped!

 

Happy little pile of Christmas! :D

The strings on the bells really weren't that long, so I cut them all off, and replaced them with the elasticated cord. Using each of the 10 "full" bars on the wreath, I tied a bell into each of the three grid sections along the bar, to attach three bells in a row to each bar.

Voila!

 

It was at this point that I decided the baubles and jewels were a bit of a waste, because I just couldn't figure out where they would look right!! I did decide to add a bow on the bottom, using the wired ribbon. I folded the whole rolls' worth in half (I think it was 2m), cut into two pieces, and tied the two pieces together into a double bow.

 

Then I threaded another piece of cord through the back of the bow (actually, that is the front of the bow, I decided the back looked better than the front!!).

 

All finished and on the wall! :D My husband did make me take it down as "It's only bloody November...". Booooooooo!! But, come Dec.1st it will be back in pride of place above my fireplace.