Crepe Paper Rose Wreath

Valentine’s Day is coming soon. That’s what they say, anyway….
And guess how many Valentine’s decorations I have? None. In fact, I still had Mary and Joseph on my front door until this beauty came into our lives. 
{P.S. it only cost 2 bucks to make!}
I first saw these little crepe paper rose thingies made by Shelley at House of Smith’s. She did an amazing job at teaching me how to make the little roses, so now I want to show you how I took her tutorial and made my very own Crepe Paper Rose Wreath.

Wanna make your own? Here’s how.

You will need the following items
Ribbon {about 2 feet}
Glue gun and TONS of glue sticks
A Styrofoam wreath {found mine at the dollar store}
Crepe paper {I used 1 1/2 rolls, also found at the dollar store, 2 rolls for a dollar. Score!}

The dollar store didn’t have any Styrofoam wreaths with rounded edges, and I wasn’t going to run all around town to find one, so I made due with this one.
I cut my crepe paper into strips about 2 feet long.
Then I crinkled them all up.
Start making your roses by rolling your crepe paper really tight at first.
Keep rolling it up, but start twisting your crepe paper. I found that the tighter I rolled it and the more I twisted, the better I liked my roses.

Once you’ve rolled it all up, hot glue the end down.
{Yes, this was my first rose, and yes, I know it looks like junk. Trust me, they got better as I went along.}

Make all of your roses before you start gluing them on your wreath, because as I said, they get better as you go. So then you can put the prettiest flowers on the front. But, honestly, once they are all on the wreath, you can’t tell which is which. 

Start gluing your flowers on the wreath. I found they stayed on better if I put the glue on the flower, then stuck to the wreath. {instead of putting glue on the wreath then sticking the flower on.}

Keep gluing them on.

Take a break for target practice.

Once I got all the roses glued the the front, I started gluing them on the corner/edge. I ended up doing 4 rows of flowers. The front, the side, and then right on the outside and inside edges.
I’m not sure the best “technique” for this, but I just tried to smoosh my flowers as close to each other as they could get.

Once all of your flowers are on, you can hook your ribbon on. Or, if you wanted, you could probably do this BEFORE you put the flowers on, but let’s face it, I didn’t think about it.

I found a spot that looked kind of bare and that’s where I hooked my ribbon on.

Hot glue your ribbon to the back too. This is how you’re going to hang your wreath, so you want it to be a big loop.
{you may notice that I didn’t put flowers on the back. Really, no one is going to see it. And I wanted it to lay flat.}

Then I hot glued a flower on top of my ribbon so you couldn’t see where I attached it to the wreath.

Tah-Dah!

I used 57 flowers. It took me about an hour and a half. And cost me a total of 2 dollars {I already had the hot glue and the ribbon}.
Good luck!

22 Comments

  1. If you don’t want to see the base of the wreath wrap it in a layer or two of your crepe paper before putting the roses on it and that way if there are small spaces you won’t see that gray (or whatever color your base is) through the gaps. Other than that I think this is beautiful 🙂

  2. Just finished making this for my mom and am giving it to her tomorrow for a “just because I love you” present. Thank you SO MUCH for the idea and tutorial!!!!

    P.S. It took me more like a total of 4 hours to make (over this weekend), but I suppose speed will come with time and practice! haha 😀

  3. Love this! I've included it in my feature slideshow for this month. (You can check it out at childmade.com.) Since Valentine's Day is well over, I think I need to make for myself in spring colors. I have nothing on my door right now and it would look fabo! Thanks for sharing!

  4. Hi Natalie! Ok.. I did it! I tried the one out today, though I had to make some modifications based on what I could find at my Dollar Store. Check out my blog (I've linked back to your instructions here).

    http://sunscholars.blogspot.com

    Thanks for sharing Natalie!

  5. Love this…so adorable…visiting from 30 handmade days 🙂

    lauren@ warmfuzzypurpleandgold.blogspot.com

  6. I LOVE THAT!! I wish I had the patience to do that- I made a kissing ball with those flowers and almost lost my mind! Great job!

  7. Whoo!! I love this idea! So cheap and easy, but turns out just lovely!!! Thanks for linking to Fancy This Fridays!!! Can't wait to see your next project!!!

  8. Love that House of Smiths! 🙂 Thank you so much for leaving that fun comment on my blog! Love your wreath! I thought I was finished with the tissue roses…but I really like this one you did!

  9. Wow-what an adorable wreath-love the texture of the crepe paper and the roses look fabulous-I found you on a blog hop and I'm a new follower-stop by to visit sometime! Claire

  10. This is just beautiful. I'm working on a felt flower one for my front door, but maybe I will do this one for inside. Amazing!

  11. Hi! Thank you so much for your sweet comments on my blog. Congratulations on starting your own blog!!

    To link up at my party, first choose the blog post on your site you wish to link up. Then click on the post title so that you are taken to a web page that only shows that one post. Copy the URL for that page.

    Then on my blog, on the link party post, click the button that says something about adding your link. Paste your URL in the URL spot. For the name type in the name of your post. You will also he prompted to add a photo and it should be pretty self explainatory at that point I think.

    Thanks again for your wonderful comments and I look forward to you joining my link party!!

    Ashley
    http://www.simplydesigning.blogspot.com

  12. Super, super cute!! I love it. I actually have the same styrofoam wreath…prolly from the same dollar store. {The one by Harmon's right?) haha! I might have to make something similar… 🙂 Welcome to crafty blogging. 🙂

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