Back to School Wreath

 Welcome!

For the Back to School theme for Gwen Studios, I've chosen to make a wreath. They make great gifts and I'm sure the kids would have fun creating a special one for their teacher.

I chose a black canvas from a dollar store for my background and some wood letters to spell "Back to School". You could spell the teacher's name or welcome also.

I painted the letters with rainbow colors.  The number of letters for Back to School worked perfectly.  You could also paint them white.

I glued lengths of paint sticks around the edges of the canvas to make it look like a blackboard. 

A wire wreath form from the dollar store and Decorative Mesh from Joann's will form the base wreath.

I made deco mesh bows from 12" lengths of mesh by overlapping the ends, scrunching up the mesh across the overlap and tying them with black craft wire. Since I'd never worked with deco mesh, I watched a video to learn the technique.

I used one roll of deco mesh, which was 30 feet, and 10 more sections from the next roll.  Of course, you can add more bows to make a fuller wreath.

Then, I took 6-8" lengths of assorted Gwen Studios and made sprays to go in between the deco mesh.

I tied these into the wreath in between the deco mesh bows.

To attach the canvas to the wreath, I glued wire to the back and tied it into the wreath frame.  This will make it usable for another event like a birthday party.  

To find all the colorful Gwen Studios ribbon to make your own wreath, try these sources. I've listed a representative link for all the ribbons I used, but each source has these types of ribbon.

Michaels

Sweet Shop ribbon

Joann.com

Print and solid 3/8" grosgrain

WalMart.com

Wide Satin Ribbon

And, you can also search Amazon for Gwen Studios ribbon.  

For more ribbon ideas for Back to School, check out the Designer Crafts Connection.

Designer Crafts Connection