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I don’t know about you, but most of my “free” time is spent menu planning, making to-do lists, and trying to find new things for my boys to do. This means that I spend a significant amount of time on Pinterest. Browsing Pinterest can be an amazing time-sucker, but I do occasionally get some good ideas out of it, and I try to only use it for good! :)

So as I was browsing a few weeks ago I saw a Fourth of July Wreath made by Capital B. She was shocked by the amount of traffic her wreath started, but I’m not, it’s really cute. Since my newly painted front door needed some love, I figured I would try this out. She uses felt, so I packed up the kiddos and headed out to the fabric store. Lucky me, the felt was on sale ($2.99/yard and 72 inches wide, that’s a lot of felt for a little money) and I picked up a straw wreath while I was there. I realized when I got home that the wreath was a touch small to stand up to my front door, but since packing up the boys and heading back to the store was not in the cards, I decided to improvise. Here’s what came of it:

Fourth of July Wreath with Firecracker garland!

Cute, right?

I used Capital B‘s tutorial as a jumping off point. In all it took me two episodes of Downton Abbey (and I’m hooked!) and a viewing of Bridesmaids (that was less than productive because I spent most of my time red-faced and embarrassed) to complete the felted part of the wreath (cutting and pinning). I used my rotary cutter for the felt which sped things up, and used dressmakers pins for the pinning.  Note: If you do this, use a thimble to push the pins into the wreath through the felt, my fingers were sore until I figured that out!

The firecracker garland was my own creation. I didn’t think the wreath could stand up to the door without something more to it. Originally I was just going to cut felt stars and add them to ribbon, but then I remember making some firecrackers in a craft during my years as a Girl Scout (I think that’s when it was anyway).

Firecracker assembly materials

The Firecrackers are toilet paper tubes wrapped in scrapbook paper. I made the cones for the end out of thick card-stock scrapbook paper – cut circles, then make a slit from the outside of the circle into the center so you can wrap the circle into a wide cone with a point. (I should have taken pictures of the assembly, but it was trial and error for the most part, so the photos I have aren’t good, or even useful.) I used hot glue to adhere the cones onto the end. Then I used my stapler and stapled the half assembled firecrackers onto the ribbon and in turn the ribbon onto the wreath. Then I used my hot glue gun again to adhere some “fire” coming out the back-end of the firecracker. In my case the “fire” is a curled pipe cleaner and some table decor frilly thing I found in the craft store. I added a felt star to the end of my ribbon to give it some finishing.

Oh, did you see that? My front door is no longer white! It’s now Glidden’s Sweet Tea! It feels much more welcoming!

Much better!

How do I know it’s more welcoming? Well we now get about five solicitors per week! Five! So this weeks project is a “No Soliciting” sign for the front door!

Paint the door, add some flowers, and a wreath, and suddenly people come out of the woodwork trying to sell encyclopedias, vacuums, frozen meat, and yard services. Oy!