Hydrangea Wreath

Hello again.  It has been a LONG time since I last got on here (because hubby has been home) so I decided I would just put on here all the things I love to do/make/think/read on a regular basis.
For my new years resolution (usually I use a move to make changes, but we don't have another move for another 1.5 years, so I actually made a resolution this year) I decided to live more simply and more frugalishous and pay CASH!
So for my first day back I am posting this wreath I made today.  I absolutely LOVE hydrangeas!  All the wreaths in stores are sparse and still $20 - $30.  So before Christmas I fell upon a tutorial for a hydrangea wreath here and I KNEW that I had to make this.

So I had checked out Michaels the other day looking for ribbon and noted that their stems were on sale.  So this was going to be the weekend...I needed to first go home (shopping with a very busy 2 year old makes it difficult) and research the project (and would go back on Saturday).

This is what  I needed...
10 hydrangea stems
1 - 14 inch grape wreath
glue gun
wire cutters (or tin snips as you will see and a VERY strong husband)
and a Michaels coupon for 40% off (the wreath because wasn't on sale...for a coupon go here)

So Saturday morning was here, and once I looked at the budget and made sure I had enough money left in the household envelop (part of the new years resolution) I could hardly contain myself...I NEEDED to go now!  What if all the stems they had yesterday were gone?!?!  I was irritable until we loaded up the family and headed off to Michaels..with my freshly printed coupon in my sweating hand.

It is a cold rainy day here, perfect for crafting.  So I hop out of the van while my dear hubby parks the van and unloads the crew (in the rain) and go to Sears...brave man..love him!

I already had the glue gun and "wire cutters" so I purchased the stems and wreath and spent approximately $35.

I assembled my items

According to the tutorial, she said to cut off 3 inches, so my handy husband came to my aid and easily cut all 10 of them for me.

He tried using the smaller red cutters but it couldn't hack it, so he used the tin snips..not the best but got the job done.

Next I started placing (no glue yet!!) the blooms.  I tried to either put them in the middle of the wreath or in the top third.  Each stem was place about 3-4 inches apart (I just eyeballed it, but you are going to push some of the bloom out of the way when placing the next bloom).  

To insert into the wreath gently separate vines and gently push it through until the base of the bloom is resting on the wreath. This took hardly any time at all.  I was super surprised.  

After I finished placing the blooms I took a look and then started fixing some areas I thought could be spaced better.

This is how it looked

In following the tutorial and leaving 3 inches of stem this is what I was left with...

See the excess here...

My kids were excited about it standing on the table..me not so much

So I had the hubby come and trim off the excess to make it flush with the back of the wreath.  

Now it is time to glue.  I was thinking that you probably don't really have to glue (depending on where this is being displayed)  Then you could just change out the blooms for the season but I LOVE it so I wanted it to be permanent.  So next I plugged in the glue gun and waited..

Then I lifted up the bloom (once the gun was ready) and found the base of the stem and placed a glob of glue around the base and if some dripped down the stem I thought it would help secure it more.

The stem

The glob of glue

I could only wait two minutes before I HAD to hold it up and check it out but I was dry.  I was in shock at how quickly and painlessly this took and I think it is beautiful..you must do this!!

It's done..not in it's exact home, but this is close to what I am thinking in my mantel redo..this would be step two