2018 Hot Cocoa Wreath Tutorial.
This wreath was made using Trendy Tree supplies and a limited number of supply kits will be available. The tutorial will remain up even after the supply kits sell out since you can select similar products and follow the basic instructions to make a similar wreath.
Wreath Supplies
XX748840 - 24" Chocolate Work Wreath - 1
MD0386 - 12" Metal Hot Cocoa Sign - 1
RY800531 - 10" Chocolate Jute Mesh - 1
XB97410-18 - 10" Ivory Burlap Mesh - 1
RN5662 - 2.5" Plaid Ribbon - 1
RG0167718 - 1.6" Natural Stitched Squares - 1
RG0176314 - 2.5" Light Blue Snowflake Ribbon - 1
RW7620F3 - 1.5" Red White Glitter Ribbon - 1
Purchase Kit: 2018 Hot Cocoa Wreath Supply Kit
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Fiskars 60mm Classic Stick Rotary CutterFiskars 60mm Replacement BladesOmnigrid 24″ x 36″ Gridded MatSummary:Wreath Form: We used a 24" Chocolate Work Wreath for this project, but you could use a work wreath or pencil wreath of the same size, other colors would work well too. Our 24" Work Wreath measures 15" across the widest metal ring. With the addition of mesh, ribbons and other embellishments, you wind up with a wreath that measures 24" or greater. This wreath measured about 27"
Mesh: We used two different styles of mesh on this wreath, both were 10" in width and 10 yards in length. One was an ivory jute mesh and the other chocolate/natural burlap mesh.
The ruffle technique was used and we cut 18 pieces of each color mesh, in 15" lengths. We made ruffles with each piece of mesh and placed two ruffles in each twist. There are usually 18 twists on a work wreath. We alternated the colors by placing an ivory on the bottom, and next time a chocolate on the bottom. It doesn't have to be this way....you could just randomly alternate, or do all chocolate on the bottom and ivory on top, etc.
Ribbon: Four rolls of ribbon come with this kit. Two were 2.5" in width and two were 1.5" in width. All the ribbons were 10-yard rolls. Ribbon can be applied to a wreath in many different ways. You can do ribbon strips, bows, big bows, loops and tails etc. For this wreath, we cut our ribbon in 12" lengths. We finished off the ends of the 2.5" ribbon with a chevron or dove-tail cut, and on the 1.5" ribbon, we just cut at an angle.
We cut 18 pieces of each color of ribbon, but we wanted more of the light blue to show so we cut as many 12" strips from the rolls that we could. I think it yielded about 30 pieces. We also wanted to use more of the glittery red white stripe and we cut all of it up also.
We made clusters of ribbons by using all four ribbons and adding in the extra blues and reds. We started on the outside ring first when placing the ribbons using a ribbon cluster that had the extra ribbons, then on the inside just alternated ribbon clusters that had 4 ribbons and some that had 5-6.
Again, ribbons can be added in any number of ways, you might opt to just make three large bows with the ribbon. There was extra ribbon left over in the plaid and natural stitched ribbon.
Sign: The sign measure 12" square and was made of metal. It already has holes punched in each corner. We used full length chenille stems in the four corners to attach the sign. You don't want the sign to be pressed too far down in the mesh, just position it loosely until you get it position like you want. We did ours in the center, but you could off set it to the side and put bows opposite to it etc.
Clip your strips and fluff your ribbons. All mesh ravels and you will have some raveling, but really not a lot with this method. The fewer cuts you make in your mesh and the less you can handle it, the less raveling you will have. I would not recommend splitting a 21" width of mesh to make 10" ruffles. It works better to use 10" wide mesh. You can make this wreath just using two rolls of the same color mesh and instead of making two 15" ruffles, you could just cut 30" pieces. Fewer cuts = less raveling. It doesn't quite take all of two rolls, but one roll is not enough.
Happy Wreathing!