Carrot Wreath with Bunny Legs Tutorial Facebook Live

Post Updated 2/25/21 - This is a tutorial we did a while ago and the bunny legs are no longer available, but it's an easy way to make a carrot wreath with just Deco mesh.

Here's a tutorial we did on a Facebook Live 2/3/17. The video is also now uploaded to YouTube and you can view it below.

Supplies

XX765408 Gold Open Wall Tree Form (you could use other colors)

RE1301Y3 10” Orange with Copper Foil Deco Poly Mesh – 2 Rolls (won’t take all of the second roll) You can use most any shade of orange mesh.

RE13050 Lime Foil Deco Poly Mesh (use any kind of lime, moss or emerald mesh)

24669 Twig Pansy Grapevine Bunny Hat – Wound up not using the hat on the wreath, but will use later for something else))

Summary

Open Wall Tree Form - we used a gold metallic in the video, but you could use most any color since we tucked the twists to the 

inside once ruffles were secured.

The open tree form comes in several colors and the twists are all of the pencil style.

The form has about 18 twist. The center is raised, same as work wreaths and open in the center.

To use the open tree form for the carrot, we just turned it upside down.

The "trunk" of the tree was now used for the top of the carrot.

The open tree forms measure about 20" in ht, but with the addition of mesh, ribbons, or other embellishments, you wind up with a larger wreath of course.

Next step was to cut the mesh. We used an orange with copper foil Deco Poly Mesh, but you could use other styles of orange, plain, metallic, wide foil, two tone, poly burlap or paper burlap.

Making more cuts in the mesh results in more raveling. So we wouldn't recommend splitting a 21" roll to make the 10" x 10" squares.

We used a 24" x 36" self healing Omnigrid Cutting Mat and a 45mm Omnigrid Rotary Cutter (these are available at Amazon and we have included our affiliate links.)

We are frequently ask if there is anything to help with the raveling. Fewer cuts and handle as little as possible is probably the best answer, but we have experimented with Elmer's Craft Bond Spray Adhesive on paper mesh and it does seem to help for sure.

You just have to experiment and see what works best for your project. Any sort of spray adhesive will be tacky to handle. You have to spray the edges of the ruffle and lift out gently to keep them from sticking together. Your fingers will get sticky and you'll generate some strings, but after everything dries you can clip at the end.

Ruffles

To make the ruffles, cut the mesh into 10" x 10" squares. There are 18 twists on the open tree form, and we used a cluster of three ruffles in each twist. We reserved the top two twist for green leaves.

Since the tree form is open in the center, we took two chenille stems (pipe cleaners) and attached them across the open center, spacing out evenly.

Once ruffle clusters have been placed in the twist on the open tree form, you will still need to place a couple of clusters in the center and you need the chenille stems stretched across the center to have something to attach the ruffle cluster to.

To make a ruffle, lay the 10" x 10" piece of mesh on the table where the edges normally curl under. With the selvage edges to the side, scrunch up through the length of the mesh starting in the center. Pinch the ruffle together, it should short of look like a bow tie.

If you're working along, you can put a clip on the ruffle while you make more, or if you have to you can go ahead and secure the ruffle into one of the twists. It doesn't matter where you start.

Make two more ruffles so you have a cluster of three, and attach the cluster of three into one of the twist. You can turn the twist 3-4 times since mesh is all we're going to be adding to the twist for this project. If you don't want the tips of your twist to show, just tuck them to the inside of the wreath out of the way.

Continue around the wreath adding clusters of three ruffles to each twist. Remember to leave the two on the top of the "trunk" part for your green leaves.

To fill in the center where you placed your two chenille stems across the center, take a ruffle cluster and half of a chenille stem. Place the half of the chenille stem over the top of the cluster where you have it pinched and secure it from the underneath side.

Slide the ends of your chenille stem of your ruffle cluster, over the chenille stem stretched across the center of your wreath and secure from the underneath side. This will be much neater than laying the cluster down on top of the chenille stem across the center and securing with another chenille stem from the top side.

Once all your orange is completed, you're ready for your leaves. Don't cut up all your orange mesh, it won't take it all, and you don't want to cut any more than you need to.

To make the leaves, we cut 10" x 10" pieces of the lime green. This is a lime green metallic Deco Poly Mesh and you could use other styles of green also. Just stick to the 10" width.

You may have a scrap roll of green that you can use, don't be afraid to mix different shades of green, moss, apple green, emerald or textures.

We did the curl technique for the leaves. Just let the piece of mesh lay on the table where it rolls up naturally, and just make the roll a little tighter. Make a cluster of three curls and attach in a twist.

We added a cluster of curls to the top two twist of the form. This doesn't give quite enough fullness so we added more green, but this time, we took the 10" x 10" piece of mesh and gave it a very slight tug on the diagonal, then sort of walk your finger to the center and pinch. This gives "pointy" ends to the piece that make the piece a little longer than a curl.

We did a cluster of three pointy leaves and attached them into the two twists on the top by opening up the twist, making sure the previous curls didn't pop out and placing the cluster of three pointy end pieces right on top of the curls and re-secure the twist. So these two twist at the top have 6 pieces of mesh in each twist.

To give a little more fullness to the top, we made two more clusters of three pointy pieces and attached to the side of the "tree trunk" using the chenille stem method like we filled in the center of the form.

The bunny legs are bendable, and they were attached to the wreath form from the back using zip ties. You may want to attach them in a couple of places just to keep them from twisting and turning.

Position them as long or short as you want, and put a bend in the knee, cross the feet etc.

We showed the Twig Bunny hat in the supplies but really needed more time to position the hat on the carrot than the time we had allotted for our Facebook Live project, so we decided to bypass the hat and save it for another project)))

Conclusion

Hope you can use this tutorial and have fun making your carrot wreath! Thanks to all who watched our Facebook Live episode, we appreciate it so much. We'll be doing more Facebook Live in the future so be sure to follow Trendy Tree on Facebook!