Basic Red Valentine Wreath 2016

1/17/16 Here's a easy tutorial for a basic Valentine wreath. It's very bright and colorful and easy to make! It does take a little more time than a ruffle or pouf wreath, but you can grab your supplies and sit down in the living room and work while watching TV with the family)) Supplies - Limited Number of Wreath Kits available 1/18/16 Update - Sorry, but the kits are sold out and no more available. We will have a pink version in just a few days. XX764924 Heart Pencil Wreath Metallic Red RC126602 Black Tulle 6" x 25 yd RC126624 Red Tulle 6" x 25 yd RC126627 White Tulle 6" x 25 yd RS4024K1 Red/Black Flex Ribbon 1.5" x 30 yd (sold out) RS400676 Red Flex Ribbon 1.5" x 30 yd (sold out) RS400327 White Flex Ribbon 1.5" x 30 yd (sold out) RG178102 Black/White Stripe 2.5" x 10 yd RG1531 Dark Red Hearts 1.5" x 10 yd We started with an 18" Red Metallic Pencil Heart Wreath. This wreath has about 26 twist ties around the form. We didn't use the ties for our tulle and flex ribbon, just push them out of the way for now. The first step was to cut the 6" tulle into 12" lengths. We cut all three colors at one time using a rotary cutter, but you can cut with scissors. By the time we finished, we did not use all the black and white tulle, but we did use all the red. (We filled in with more red at the end just because we wanted the wreath to have more red than the other colors). You may want to just cut several strips, and then when you tie them on, go back and cut more. The three colors of flex ribbon were also cut into 12" lengths. It will not take all the flex ribbon so just cut several strips and re-cut when you need to. The flex ribbon is very stretchy so be sure to just let it lay flat when cutting. To attach the flex ribbon the wreath form, fold the ribbon in half. Take the folded end and slip under the metal ring on the form. We started with the outer ring. Slip your fingers through the folded loop and grasp the cut ends of the ribbon and pull through making a slip knot, securing the flex ribbon to the wreath form. Pull the knot snug, but pull close to the knot and not at the end of your flex ribbon - it will stretch out of shape. Sometimes you have to pull gently on one piece of the ribbon to make it snug. Try to keep your ends even. But it's very important to pull close to the knot and not at the end of your ribbon. The strips of tulle are tied on the same way. Fold the tulle in half, keeping the ends straight. Slip the folded end of the tulle under the wreath form. Put your fingers through the folded tulle and pull the cut ends of the tulle through. Make the knot snug. This was the first heart wreath we had made like this so we were not sure how many pieces of flex ribbon and tulle it would take to go around the wreath. We didn't want to run out of a color or anything, so we started just adding one piece of each of the three colors of flex ribbon and three colors of tulle in between each of the metallic twists. We just alternated a color of flex ribbon, then a color of tulle. This was the wreath after the outer ring had been completed. It needed to be fuller, but we still were not sure how much product it would take, so we continued on in the same pattern with 6 pieces of product between each metallic twist on the inner ring also. This is the wreath after the inner ring had been completed. You can still it's still not as full as we would like, but also we could tell now about how much ribbon and tulle it was going to take. We cut more pieces of tulle and ribbon and wound up adding about 16-18 pieces of product between each metallic twist. It will be easier if you add this many pieces initially instead of having to go back and fill in as we did. We did use up all the red tulle, just because we wanted more red in the wreath. There was several yards of the black and white tulle left over and several yards of each of the colors of flex ribbon. You might choose to use more flex ribbon versus tulle, it just depends on the look you wish to achieve. It does help on the tulle I think, to put two pieces of tulle the same color side by side. Since the tulle is thinner than the flex tubing I think it helps to use two pieces in between the flex ribbon. Next we cut the black/white 2.5" ribbon into 12" strips. We did cut up the whole 10 yards, but you might only want to cut 26 strips since there are 26 ties on the wreath. It would have only left a couple of feet on the roll, which really isn't enough to do much with, so we cut up the entire roll. The ends were finished off with a chevron cut. The 1.5" heart ribbon was also cut 12" in length, and we cut up the entire roll. The heart ribbon was layered on top of the striped ribbon and pinched in the center. A ribbon cluster was secured in each twist around the wreath. There were still ribbon strips left over, so we randomly applied an extra ribbon strip into a twist here and there just to use up all the ribbon. The finished wreath measured approximately 28-29" in width. You can hang the wreath as is, or you could always add a Valentine sign, sprays, etc.