Felt Heart Wreath

So back in December, I moved into my new apartment and had my first party.  I'm hoping it will become an annual crafting event that gets bigger every year!  This year, we traded our favorite holiday recipes then snacked on them while we each made our own holiday wreath.  I got my idea from Food Network Magazine, and ended up making this Andes Mint Wreath:

So, now that the holidays are over and it's time to take down the winter wreath, I felt like my door needed SOMETHING to fill its place.  I've become blog obsessed, so I began looking around at different blogs for ideas of Valentines wreaths to make.  I came across a felt heart wreath from The Idea Room and fell in love.  So simple, cheap, and cute.  Want to make your own?  EASY!

You will need:

• 1 foam heart wreath form (found easily in the wreath making aisle at your local craft store.  I got mine at JoAnn's for $3.99...and used my teacher discount card which gets you 15% off your entire purchase every time.)
• 1 yard of felt off the bolt 
• Straight pins
• Scissors
• Round template for tracing circles
• Ball-point pen
• A little bit of Ribbon

All of those supplies (I bought on my way to craft day at a friend's house) cost me about $18.  However, I bought scissors and ribbon I had at home, but not with me.  If you are just buying the wreath form, pins and fabric it would probably only cost you about $10.  Here's the steps:

Trace circles on your felt.  I just traced circles on the entire yard.  Some tutorials will tell you to use a 3" template to trace circles.  I just used the ribbon spool.  A ball-point pen works best for this because you can see it easily when cutting out the circles, but it's not so dark that you'll see any traced lines after you cut them out.  

When you finish tracing, cut out so you have a BUNCH of felt circles like this.  No, I didn't count how many it made.

Fold a circle in half...

...then in half again.

Use a straight pin, and push through the corner fold.

Then, stick into the foam wreath form.  

 After a few attempts, I found out that you need to spread the pins out far enough where they don't push each other out.  I had some falling out because they were too crowded together.  I also didn't like the look of it because it was too smooshed together and just looked like rows of felt.  You might like that, but I wanted a more spontaneous fold look.  You just need to make sure they are close enough together so you can't see the foam in between the pieces and the pin tips are colored.  When you finally put in all your felt circles, you'll need to attach a hanger on the back.  I used ribbon and pins for mine.

I got this Valentine's ribbon when I was at JoAnn's, but you can really use any ribbon because you won't see it when the wreath is hanging.  

To make sure it doesn't fall out, I added a little dot of hot glue across the center top part of the heart form on the back.  

Fold your ribbon over to make a hook and press into the glue (careful not to burn your fingers)

I actually doubled up and put two ribbons, one on top of the other.  Then I stuck one straight pin into each end of the ribbons to triple secure it!

Here's the back of the wreath.  I didn't bring the felt all the way around because 1) I was running out of felt and 2) I wanted to make sure it laid flat on my door and didn't stick out or pull too hard on the ribbon hanger.  

Here it is hanging on my door!

I think this is definitely a winner.  It looks so much more expensive than it is and it's really easy!  I imagine I'll be fluffing and adjusting the folds, but I love it!  Hope someone gets inspired to make one!  I think it probably took me about 3 hours start to finish, but I pulled out the circles and started over about halfway through because they were too close together.  Have you made any Valentine's wreaths?  Actually...any wreaths?  I can only keep this one up until the beginning of March then will need a new idea!