Spring Easter Wreath

Here's a simple Spring and/or Easter wreath made with upcycled jeans.

Do you like to welcome the seasons with some home decorating? I confess in our house we decorate the house for Christmas each year but don't do a huge amount the rest of the year. So when Hobbycraft sent me some Easter crafting goodies it seemed like a great chance to step out of my comfort zone and make some pretty things to welcome the spring into our home. 

I tried out 2 different garland ideas, one with bunnies and one with flowers, thinking it could be suitable for Easter or more general spring/summer decorating. 

To make an Easter or Spring wreath you will need:
A Polystyrene wreath form, mine is this 25cm one from Hobbycraft
An old pair of jeans
Faux Flowers, mine are these from Hobbycraft
Scraps of scrapbook paper and thin white card
Pom Poms - I had this huge bag from Hobbycraft
Bakers twine or string
A length of ribbon for hanging

You'll also need: 
A hot glue gun, like this one from Hobbycraft
Scissors
A flower punch or cutting machine (if you have either of these it'll be quicker but you can still make this without!) 

Start by cutting long strips of denim from the jeans, about 2 inches wide and as long as you can make them. I used the back of both legs on one adult sized pair of jeans, and got 2 long and 1 slightly shorter strip from each leg. 

Wrap the strips of denim round the wreath form, securing at the ends with hot glue. 

As you come to the end of each strip of denim, just secure the end with a blob of hot glue then start a new strip, overlapping slightly. If you end up with a silly little gap towards the end like I did, just start a new strip then cut off any excess.

Attach a few faux flowers in a cluster on one side using hot glue.

Any idea why I thought my scissors needed to be in this photo??? 

To make the flower garland, punch 10 flowers from thin white card. You can draw and cut them out with scissors if you don't have a suitable punch or cutting machine, it will just take you a little longer! 

Curl the petals on half of the flowers just pinching them between your thumb and forefinger and pulling. Glue the flowers in pairs, a flat flower topped with a curved petal flower, staggering the petals.
Cut a length of string or bakers twine long enough to go over your wreath, and wrap round a few times.
Hot glue the flowers to the twine then add a pom pom to each centre.

I found it easiest to lay the flowers out in a line on a heat proof surface and apply a blob of hot glue and press the twine down into it. I did one at a time  - well... at first I did all the glue blobs together and quickly realised that they cool and harden too quickly for that and one at a time is better!

To make the rabbit garland, make a tiny rabbit template from a scrap of old card. You can use mine, just right click and copy, or look online for a bunny template that takes your fancy.

If you have a lovely cutting machine of some sort I guess you could use that.

Once you have your template use it to cut 5 bunnies from pastel patterned scrapbook papers. I went for the slightly thicker papers, the ones that are like thin card. It's a great way to use up some of those little pieces that get left over from other projects. 
Attach them to a length of twine in the same way as the flowers, lay them face down in a line and then add the hot glue and twine one at a time. 
To finish, hot glue a little pom pom to each bunny as a tail.

Attach the garland of your choice to the wreath. You can just wrap the twine round a few times and tuck the ends under, it doesn't need to be glued. That way you can switch out the garland whenever you like.
I finished the wreath with a length of pastel ribbon I'd had in my stash for years to hang it up.

Do you have a preference? I think I like the rabbits best, or maybe the the daisies ...... I'm not sure!

It has been fun to create some Easter decorations, Hobbycraft have loads more ideas here if you are looking for extra inspiration. 

You might also be interested in:

Carrot Treat Bags

Easter Decoupage Book Bunny

Washi Tape Berry Boxes

Upcycled Spring Vase & Pen Pot

I'll be linking up this project at all these lovely link parties, pop over for a look at loads of projects from other blogs