Fall Berry Wreath with DIY Scrap Fabric Bow…

 

Happy Friday and happy fall!

Well, it’s not really fall here in East Texas, more like the hot and humid summer that will never end (It hit a 100 degrees a couple days ago)!

Before I jump into my fall wreath,  I wanted to tell you guys that I am thrilled to be guest posting today over at one of my favorite blogs, Savvy Southern Style.  Kim asked me to share my favorite room with her readers in her “My Favorite Room” series.  So if you’re curious to see what room I picked as my favorite (Ha! I’m sure you already know), you can come visit me today here.  I would love for you to stop by!

Ok, so back to my fall berry wreath and scrap fabric bow…

First of all, there’s really no need for a detailed tutorial for the wreath itself because it’s pretty straightforward.  You just buy as many berry stems that you want (I used 10 full stems) in whatever color (would be pretty in other colors through out the year) Then all you do is work your stems into a grapevine wreath under the grapevine itself, so it can hold your stems in place.  I just worked my way around the wreath, working in a stem about every couple of inches and then fluff the berry stems up and out.

I do want to go more in depth on I how turn scrap fabrics into thick sturdy bows with tape (no-sew), which is so easy to do and is a great way to use up those fun extra scraps of fabric. I touched a little on Monday post for how I do it for ribbon for for wrapping gifts but I making bows for wreaths, has a few more details.  This is what it looks like now:

 

 

What I did to make this bow was to take some extra fabric that I had and I taped two long strips as long as I needed my fabric to be for my bow.  I prefer to use 3M Blue Tape with Edge Lock.  It has the strongest hold (I think) on the market for a thicker painters tape:

 

By the way, if you want a narrower ribbon, just use one strip, not two.  After I got the tape on the fabric, I used the tape the tape roll itself and ran it over the tape on the fabric to make sure it was smooth and attached well.

The next thing I did was trim the fabric so that I had about an inch and half of fabric to fold over on each side of my tape.  I then folded the fabric over and quickly just ironed it down, folded onto the tape:

 

I then took two more long strips of tape the length of my fabric strip and spray painted the back of them (stick with me on this! I know it sounds like I have lost my mind)…

 

 

Whatever color that you have handy will do, you’re just covering up the tape to make it look a little prettier.  I used Rustoleum in gold and the paint was dry in less than 10 minutes.  Next, I placed the painted two tape strips (side by side) over the fabric folded edges and ran my roll of tape over the painted side really well to secure the edges:

 

 

 

Now I have a pretty double-sided ribbon!

I didn’t mention this on my gift wrapping post on Wednesday, but this is how I also make quick and pretty gold leaf/foil “ribbons” for my gift packages.  All I do is spray paint the Scotch Blue Tape in gold and put it on the package (I know, I have really lost my mind.. But it’s pretty cool isn’t it?)  I could seriously write a book about 101 bizarre (but fabulous uses) for Scotch Blue Tape!

 

 

 

Ok, so I got side tracked..

So, to make the bow itself to keep from really crinkling my ribbon, I also have a little bow tying trick and fold it this way;

I criss cross my ribbon like this:

 

 

I then gather the center of the ribbon like this (with a rubber band on my wrist):

 

 

 

I then wrap the rubber band around the center twice (going over the side of the bow):

 

 

The last thing I do is tie a small strip of fabric (not with the tape on it) over the rubber band and center and tie at the back, so you don’t see it:

 

 

In minutes I have a beautiful sturdy ribbon and bow with a chic gold backside:

 

 

I can’t wait to use all my scrap fabric this Christmas for all all my gift wrapping!  I have bins and bins of fabulous scrap fabric and can’t wait to finally do something with it all.

Speaking of gift wrapping, if you happened to miss Wednesday’s post, I shared a few of my favorite gift wrapping tricks here in honor of the 2013 Scotch Brand Most Gifted Wrapper Contest.  For you creative gift wrappers thinking about entering the contest, remember the deadline is Sunday! I know there are a couple of you who have told me you’re going to enter, so if you need the contest details, you can go here.

Have a fantastic weekend friends and I will be back on Monday with another Paint It Monday!

Cheers!

Cyndy