Lighted Halloween Wreath

I had no idea what I wanted to make for my Halloween Instructable this year. I have made many different kinds of things in the past......a scary hand sandwich, rotating ghosts on a pole, a bloody animated doll, and more. I decided to start at my local thrift store to see if I could get an idea. There I found a 21-inch roll of Halloween deco mesh, a metal wreath form and bags of little Halloween things like plastic rings, skeletons and stretchy bracelets. Okay. I have never made a wreath before but maybe I could make one for my front door. Next I went to a dollar store. I bought some glue, rolls of black ribbon and orange ribbon, a Halloween wreath holder for my door and some purple and black flowers. I procrastinated making it for a while, then a few days ago I finally made myself make it! I was surprised how pretty it came out and it really wasn't very hard to do. Here you can follow along to see how to make one.

12-inch metal wreath form

roll of 21-inch Halloween deco mesh

plastic Halloween decorations

measuring tape or ruler

scissors

glue

newspaper

orange ribbon

black ribbon

Halloween floral stem

Halloween wreath hanger

decorative battery operated light string

Look at the wreath form. There are 6 sections. I want to fill 5 sections, each with 10 deco mesh bows. The 6th section will have a large bow made from the black and orange rolls of ribbon.

For 5 sections of the wreath, I want 10 bows in each section. 10 x 5 = 50 bows that I need to make. The length of the deco mesh roll is 21-inches. For 50 bows, 50 divided by 3 = 16.67 strips of deco mesh. So I cut 17 long strips, each 8-inches wide.

Lay out one of the 17 strips of deco mesh. Cut it into 3 (7-inch) strips. Cut the remaining strips into 3 (7-inch) strips each, forming 51 deco mesh pieces, each 7-inches by 8-inches. There is one extra piece since I needed 50 of them.

Measure and cut 50 (7-inch) pieces of yarn.

Hold one piece of deco mesh with the 8-inch width across. Scrunch each side to the center then tie it in the middle with a piece of yarn. Do this with all 50 pieces of deco mesh.

Turn the wreath form to the under-side. Pick one section to add 10 bows. There are 4 metal rows on the wreath. We will use rows 2 and 3 only to tie on bows. Tie on one bow onto row 3, making a knot. Push each side of that bow through from the back to the front of the wreath. The next bow will be tied to row 2. Alternate tying bows onto rows 2 and 3, pushing each side of the bow to the front. Continue tying and pushing through until you have added 10 bows to that section.

Ten bows was a good amount to tie on to the first section and it is nicely filled.

Tie on and push through 10 bows onto each of 5 sections. Here are sections two and three completed.

Here is the wreath with all 50 of the bows added to 5 of the 6 sections. Now to make a pretty bow for section 6. I had never made a bow like this before!

I wanted both orange and black ribbon in my bow. Measure and cut two 22-inch pieces of orange and two 22-inch pieces of black ribbon, followed by one piece of 20-inch orange and one piece of 20-inch black ribbon, and lastly one piece of 16-inch orange and one piece of 16-inch black ribbon.

Fold each of the four 22-inch pieces of ribbon in half. This marks the center of the ribbon. Open each piece. Pull the sides to the center and overlap by 1-inch.

Scrunch the center and twist each of the 4 folded 22-inch ribbons. Criss-cross the 4 folded, scrunched ribbons, alternating the orange and black. Tightly tie them at the center using a 7-inch piece of yarn.

Fold the two 20-inch pieces of ribbon in half. Lay them out and fold them to the center as before, overlapping by one inch. Twist them together and tie them to the back of the tied 22-inch ribbons.

Lay out the orange and black 16-inch pieces of ribbon. Fold one edge to the center, lengthwise. Fold the other side over that fold. Do this to both the orange and black ribbons. Line up the black ribbon under the orange ribbon. Lay the center on top of the center of the bow. Push the ends to the back and twist. Turn the ribbon over. Tie the ribbon in the back with a 7-inch piece of yarn.

Fluff the entire ribbon by pulling apart and rounding out parts of the ribbon. It's looking very pretty!

Place the bow on the wreath form on the center bottom, using the top-most metal rung. Tie on the ribbon with the yarn, knotting it in the back. The wreath is looking pretty awesome but now it needs Halloween decorations, and I had all kinds of things to choose from.

I had bought this string of battery operated skeleton head lights last year and I decided they would be perfect on my wreath. Hold the lights on the front of the wreath. Weave in the battery pack at the bottom, hiding it in the back of the wreath. If necessary, cut a piece of yarn to tie it on the back. Weave the lights into the front of the wreath, curving the cord in and out and hiding as much of the cord as you can.

I decided to use only the 2 black bugs with black leaves from the flowers I had bought so I cut those off of the flowers. Glue them in place on the wreath, on each side of the bow.

I had so many little things I could glue onto the wreath. I decided not to put too many. I spread a generous amount of glue on the back of the skeleton, little spider rings and little bat rings. Set them on the wreath anywhere you like and press gently to glue them in place. Lay the wreath face up on any surface and allow the glue to dry for several hours. If necessary, add more glue.

Hang the wreath hanger on the top of your front door. Place the wreath onto the wreath hanger. It is now ready to be enjoyed by the Trick or Treaters! And the leftover little plastic spiders, rings and things will be given out with the candy. I am looking forward to it! Have a very Happy Halloween!!!