Uncle Sam Patriotic Wreath Tutorial 2016

New Uncle Sam Patriotic Wreath Tutorial - 2016 Supplies XX751526 Silver 24" Pencil Ball Wreath (other colors can be used or style) RE134124 Red Wide Foil 10" x 10 yards RE134141 White/Silver Wide Foil 10 " x 10 yards RE134125 Royal Blue Wide Foil 10" x 10 yards HJ9004 Uncle Sam Wreath Enhancement RG01253A1 Stars/Stripes Ribbon 2.5" x 10 yards (not on website, only in kit) RG0135425 Royal Blue/White Wide Stripe 1.5" x 10 yards (not on website, only kits) RG127924 Red 2.5" x 10 yards (not on website, only in kit) RG0101526 Silver Metallic 1.5" x 10 yards (not on website, only in kit) XS5739P9 Glittered Patriotic Ball Spray - 3 Note: A limited number of kits will be available and will contain the above supplies. When these kits are gone the tutorial will be left up since you can use these same instructions for other styles of wreaths by choosing different products. Click here to purchase kit: Uncle Sam Patriotic Wreath Kit - UPDATE This supply kit is now sold out, but you may find individual items still on the website, or substitute products. The instructions will be left up since other products can be chosen to make this wreath. This wreath was made using the pouf technique. Sorry, but the very first portion of the video did not capture, but we started with a 24" Pencil Ball Wreath. These wreaths are the same size as our 24" Work Wreath and 24" Pencil Wreath. All our 24" wreaths measure 15" across the largest metal ring. These particular wreaths have the addition of small balls at the ends of the twists. A regular Work Wreath, Pencil Wreath or other color ball wreath can easily be substituted for this tutorial. The main thing you need to keep in mind when using a ball wreath, is to close the twists by the stems themselves and not twist them by the balls. If they should pull off, you can easily secure them back on with a little hot glue)) The mesh we chose for this product was 10" x 10 yard wide foil in red, white and blue. This is the shiniest of all our mesh because it has more foil and the foil strips are wider than the typical metallic foil mesh. This mesh is available in all sorts of colors and is a product that we try to keep stocked at Trendy Tree. To make this wreath, we attached all three colors using the pouf technique - all three at one time. This is the part of the video that is missing....sorry. Grasp each end of each color of mesh. Just let the rolls fall to the floor. Grasp each color about 3" from the end and attach to one of the twist of the Pencil Ball Wreath starting on the outer ring. The raw edges of the mesh should be tucked to the inside of the wreath for now. Grasp the mesh where it lines up "side by side" and not each color on top of the other. We started the the red, then white, then blue. Since the mesh is 10" in width, it helps to keep it neat by folding the mesh in half and holding each color folded next to each other. Once the first is attached, measure 14" down the length of the mesh (keeping them in red/white/blue order and folded) and attach in the next twist. You have made your first pouf! You only need to give your twist a couple of turns to secure the pouf because later you will be adding ribbon strips and will need to secure more tightly then. Remember......not to twist by the balls... Continue working around the wreath, measuring and attaching in the same manner. When you have worked all the way around the outer ring and get back to your starting point, take that first twist undone (making sure that first attachment of mesh stays in place) and secure your mesh for your last pouf. Your poufs should be even all around the outer ring. In the image above you can see how we folded the mesh in half and are getting ready to make the last pouf. Once the last pouf is secured, you are ready to move up to the inner ring. There is no need to cut your mesh for this. Just take the mesh, making it snug and pull up to the next twist on the inner right. This will be your starting point for the inner ring. Just attach the mesh and then continue to measure and make your pouf working around the inner ring. Once you have gone around the inner ring completely, the last pouf will be made just like the last one on the outer ring. Open up that twist and secure the last pouf. At this point you are ready to cut off your mesh from the roll leaving a tail of 4-5" We had a couple of yards left on each color. We have tried measuring our poufs to use up all the mesh, but when we have made poufs larger than 14" they seemed to floppy, so we stick with the 14" measure and just deal with the leftovers))) This is our wreath after all the poufs were finished and the mesh cut off from the roll. Tuck those raw ends of the cut mesh to the inside. Flip the wreath over, and find the raw edges at your beginning and ending points, they should be close together. Take a couple of zip ties and secure the raw edges to the work wreath frame. This will keep them from popping out to the front and make the back look neater. Clip off the ends of your zip ties with wire cutters and save your scissors. Our primary embellishment for this wreath was the Uncle Sam pieces. The hat has wires that you can use to attach to the work wreath frame as do the legs. We wired the legs together and attached them as one piece. The legs also have wires down to the feet so you can shape them if desired. These pieces were too small to say have the legs dangle from underneath the wreath, so we attached them to the left front of the wreath. Our next step was to make a big loopy bow out of the 2.5" Stars and Stripes Ribbon. The large wreath bow was secured to the right side of the wreath using the chenille stem. The tails of the bow were made from contrasting ribbon. We wanted the stars and stripes ribbon to stand out more, so we took the remaining ribbon and made two smaller simple loop bows and secured one to the top of the primary bow and one underneath it. We used all 10 yards of the stars and stripes ribbon. The solid red 2.5"; the 1.5" royal blue/white wide stripe; and 1.5" silver metallic ribbons were cut into 13" strips and ribbon strip clusters of all three ribbons were used in each twist around the wreath. The clusters were made with the 2.5" red ribbon on the bottom and the blue/white stripe or silver on top. We just varied the arrangement of these ribbons, but always left the wider ribbon on the bottom. Always attach your ribbon strips with right side of the ribbon facing up, and un-do the twist, lay down your ribbon cluster on top of the mesh, then re-secure the twist with 3-4 turns since this is your last addition to the twist. We added a ribbon cluster to each twist but still had some of the red, striped and silver ribbons left over. You can add ribbon strips in a number of ways, just play with it until you get a combination or style that suits you. You can make loops instead of strips if you like. Typically, you will see us add ribbon strips before placement of larger items like the Uncle Sam or wreath bow, but for this tutorial, we wanted to make the bow first. The last thing we did was add the patriotic glitter ball spray. Two were added to the top of the bow and one from the bottom of the bow. The stems were just worked through the mesh, to the Work Wreath frame and attached with zip ties. You could also use chenille stems if needed. The sprays were attached in two places. Instead of cutting the ends of our sprays off, we just bent them around the metal ring of the wreath form and secured the ends with a zip tie. You can cut your sprays shorter if it's easier working with them that way. We tend to try not to damage items that we use in our tutorials, since we usually take things apart and use for other tutorials. Last step to to check the back of your wreath, look for any sharp edges from your zip ties or chenille stems. You can make a hanger for your wreath by putting two zip ties together. Clip any loose strings, but we really had very little raveling with the pouf technique. Fluff out your bows. The finished wreath measures 29" or so. Be sure and subscribe to our YouTube channel so you won't miss our next tutorial coming out. We have lots more to come! OnSave Save Save Save Save Save Save Save Save Save Save Save Save Save Save