valentine’s day diy: xo wreath. – emerald city diaries

less than a week until the big day! this second project {see my diy heart elbow patches here} is super festive & even if i don’t get to see it inside the house, it is fun to be greeted with when we get home from work.

{original pinterest link – valentine’s day decor}

there wasn’t a tutorial for this pinterest project as the original link leads back to an etsy shop. at first i considered just buying this wreath {like i ended up doing with this year’s christmas wreath} but for a $90 price tag, i figured i could give it a try myself.

supplies:

round wreath – i used a grapevine wreath
two straight bundles– i used a grapevine wreath {these are in the same section as wreaths at michael’s}
wide ribbon – i used white wired ribbon
faux berries – i found 6 foot garlands of pink & white {if you wanted red berries, you may want to get some right after christmas on sale}
hot glue gun & glue sticks
garden hand clippers & hedge lopper {for the bigger branches}
scissors

i didn’t need to do anything with the “o” wreath to prep it, so i just set it aside to work on the “x” wreath. the two long bundles were already bound together in the middle, so i just placed them in an x & secured it with very thin wire. once the x was made, i set it on top of the o to determine how much i would have to cut the ends down.

i started trimming the thin pieces with hand garden clippers, but had to break out the hedge loppers to get the big pieces cut. i tried to make the ends pretty even, but didn’t want them to be perfectly straight.

to attach the x & o together {so the x would hang above the o}, i used invisible cord that we have to hang pictures from the picture rail. we strung cord on the backside of the x thru the wire used to hold the x together & looped it to thru a small metal ring on the o wreath that was used to attach the price tag {sorry the picture below is so bad, the camera had trouble focusing on the cord}. we left just enough space between the wreaths for them to hang without hitting each other.

adding the berries was a bit more messy & different that i had anticipated, but in the end it worked out. because i couldn’t find branches that already had berries attached, i had to buy the branches & add the berries myself. i was able to find 6 foot garlands of berries with ivy at michael’s on sale for 60% off {honestly, if these were full price, i wouldn’t have likely used them}. though both of these garlands had a main color – pink & white – they also had green berries sprinkled in which added a bit of spring-y-ness to them. {also, these are foam berries which probably aren’t supposed to be used outside, but our front door is pretty protected from moisture.}

i basically dismantled these garlands, ripping off the floral tape that was holding the berry bunches & ivy leaves together. once i had just the berry bunch i wanted, i trimmed the wire end down & stuck it into the wreath. once i had arranged the bunches on the wreath {all facing the same way even around the o wreath}, i hot glued them down. i did the x in pink & then the o in white.

to add the hanging ribbon, i looped the ribbon thru the wire holding the x together {you can see the invisible cord attaching the wreaths together there} & then tied the ends in a bow at the top.