Christmas Deco Mesh Wreath

So thanks to Pinterest I have a ridiculously long list of recipes I want to try, activities for my classroom I want to do with the kids, and crafts I want to make. Since we had a day off today for Veteran's Day I decided that a trip to Hobby Lobby was in order because I wanted to finally try and make a Deco Mesh wreath. I already had a 4th of July Wreath and a Halloween wreath so when I entered Hobby Lobby I had every intention of getting some items together to make a Thanksgiving wreath. Unfortunately their fall supplies were condensed into 2.5 small aisles and Christmas/Winter decorations had taken over ENTIRELY! So I picked up a few pumpkins and a roll of gold deco mesh to hang on to until I gather enough supplies to make an entire wreath. I decided to just get some supplies for a Christmas wreath instead (and a few supplies for a UNC/FSU wreath that I will make once I get a few more embellishments for it).

So in the picture below you will see all of the supplies I got. I ended up using everything except the 4 pack of large ornaments and the box of gold snowflakes. I also used my glue gun but that was it.

Step 1 was to take all the tags off and open up all the supplies. I used a red 21 inch roll of red deco mesh and a 5 in roll of bright green deco mesh. Normally I would tend to stick to more traditional holiday decorations as far as more of a hunter green and plaid ribbon instead of the bright stuff but I decided I wanted to do something a little different and more modern.  

The next thing I did was tie the pipe cleaners onto the wire wreath form. Then I unrolled the mesh and decided to go ahead and do the 2 colors at the same time. I gathered the ends together and twisted it down with the pipe cleaners, left about 6 inches and then twisted another gathered bunch and kept going all the way around the inside then the outside, puffing the loops up as I went. 

This is what it looked like once I had gone around both the inner and outer edges. 

Then I hung it up to make sure there weren't any huge gaps. 

The next things i did was add the ribbon. I started on an outside loop and rotated inside then outside though I'm not sure you can totally tell. That one weird loop on the left that somehow seems to be going the wrong direction kind of annoys me but I'll get over it :)  Then I started using my glue gun to glue in the embellishments. 

I kept hanging it up periodically to make sure I was adding things somewhat evenly and that I wasn't adding too much. I decided to leave off the ornaments I had bought because I thought it would look a little overcrowded and this is what I ended up with. Try to ignore the fact that it's not centered on our back door :) 

For a first try I'm happy with it and I plan on hanging it on our front door for the winter. I just have to hope that the little frogs that hang out all over our house/neighborhood don't get all over it!! The joys of living in Florida!