Ornament Wreath

This year I was determined to make an ornament wreath but wanted a reason to do it (just wanting one for our house wasn't a good enough reason!).  So when my Secret Santa listed that they wanted something "pretty to hang on a door for the holidays" I jumped at the chance to make one.  I scoured Pinterest for tutorials and armed with my hot glue gun set out to make something pretty. 

Here is what I learned - you need way more ornaments that you think you need, you will spend way too long in the craft store ornament aisle trying to come up with a color scheme, you will get hot glue everywhere, and it will turn out great! 

Step 1 - Select Your Colors
For my color scheme I finally settled on dark jewel tones - purple, blue, green, red and gold.  I ended up finding a box of mixed ornaments in that pallet that I loved and used it as inspiration to find the bulbs that matched. 

Step 2 - Purchase Ornaments, Filler, and the Wreath Ring
Buy more than you think you will need, vary the textures and vary the sizes.  Also a good idea to pick up some wreath filler like sprigs of holly, glittered beads, etc. to help fill in the gaps. When selecting the wreath ring, remember that the bigger the ring the more ornaments you will need to fill it up.  I chose a styrofoam ring, but I saw other tutorials that used wooden rings and even wicker rings.

Step 3 - Remove the Tops & Start Gluing 
Remove all the tops of the ornaments and start with the middle of the wreath.  Glue the ornaments in place and then do the same for the outside of the ring.  Once that's done, flip over your wreath and start gluing in the bulbs to fill in the space. 

 

Here's how mine turned out!