Re-purposing an old grapevine wreath

I've had this grapevine wreath sitting in the corner of our spare bedroom since I moved in (which, admittedly, was not that long ago, but still). My mom gave it to me when I first began to decorate our home. She had bought it a number of years ago. She seemed quite glad to get rid of it, and I don't really blame her. It was ugly. The greenery on it was old and faded, and just loved to collect dust. Whilst cleaning the spare bedroom one day, I decided that I was going to re- purpose said grapevine wreath, and make something bright and feminine to hang on our door when springtime rolls around. I raided my craft supplies, and came out with some felt, a hot glue gun, and some gray spray paint. I like the end result a lot, and figured I would share it with you guys, along with a tutorial on how to make some easy (but cute) felt flowers.

Re-purposing an old grapevine wreath

You need:
An old grapevine wreath, stripped of all decoration
A can of spray paint (color of your choice)
A hot glue gun and glue sticks
Several sheets of felt (in the color of your choice. It usually takes one sheet per flower)
A pair of rubber gloves (to wear whilst spray painting)

Here is a picture of the grapevine wreath that I decided to re-purpose. It isn't very attractive.

The very first step in this process was removing all of the raffia and greenery from the wreath. This wasn't so easy for me, because most of the greenery had been hot glued on. After thirty minutes of scraping and picking at it, I finally got it to come off. After your wreath is clean, and decoration free, take it outside and prepare to spray paint.

 

Start spraying! And make sure to get the edges covered! The only thing that makes this tricky is getting all of the little in-between-spaces filled in. It looks better already, doesn't it?

Leave the wreath outside to dry for a while, and move on to making flowers for your newly painted wreath. Firstly, trace six circles onto a piece of felt. I used candle lid to trace my flowers, but you could use the bottom of a mug, or a soda can the same way. Also, free hand a smaller circle onto the same piece of felt. After, cut these circles out. As you can see, they don't have to be perfect.

Next, plug in your hot glue gun, and let it get nice and hot. Then, fold one of the large circles in half.

Fold it in half again.

Place a dab of hot glue near the bottom of the folded circle, then press onto the smaller circle. This step will be repeated three more times, so make sure you save room for the other 'petals'.

Here is what your circle should look like with two of the 'petals' glued down.

Here is what it should look like with four 'petals' glued down.

After gluing four 'petals' down, you will have two big circles left over. Fold these like the previous circles, and snip a little off of the bottom of the triangle. This will make it easier to glue down. Place a dab of hot glue onto the bottom of the triangle, where you just snipped, and place it in the middle of the other petals that you have already glued down, sticking straight up. Repeat this step with the remaining circle. Now, you have a finished flower!

After finishing all of your flowers, arrange them on the wreath however you like. Once you're satisfied, glue them down! Voila! A beautiful wreath from an old, ugly one!

I love it! I can't wait for springtime to roll around so that I can actually use it! Hope that you have good luck re-purposing your old wreath! Happy crafting!