my first wreath-making class...

Yesterday, my DIL2B came over with my lovely granddaughter.  She wanted to make a wreath for her mother as a birthday present; her mother's birthday is in December.  So you could say that I gave my very first one-on-one class yesterday.

Before heading downstairs to the wreath making workshop, I walked Peyton over to the nearly bare Christmas tree in the living room.  She was awestruck by the lights; she just stared and stared.

Then off to go work on wreaths...however, missy Peyton had other ideas for a moment.  She cried like I'd never seen her cry before - for a good few minutes.  Sam thought maybe she was overstimulated, so I turned off the overhead lights and Sam gave her a bottle to calm her down and then put her down for a nap by making a makeshift bed from one of the chairs using the throw pillows to block her from rolling over.  She slept for almost an hour which gave us plenty of time to work on our wreaths.

Sam picked Pink, Red and Gold bulbs and because I was making one for my sister Terry who had already told me that she wanted one in Green, Red and Gold, those were the colors I was working with that afternoon.

Normally it takes around 2 hours from start to finish but today it took about 4 hours, with Peyton on Sam's lap for the last 5 or 10 minutes.  By the time we were done, the house was completely dark.

Well anyway, I tried to "instruct" without leaving blanks in my sentences - a difficult feat if you know me - I rarely complete a sentence.  I think I did OK...you'd have to ask Sam for a more accurate critique.  I should have made her fill out an end of class survey - Haha.

Both wreaths turned out well - first time I didn't use a ribbon.  I find that when you hang the wreath from the ribbon that the top portion falls too far away from the door - as though it is top heavy, so I decided that we'd use a wire hoop/hook.  This brings it much closer to flush against the door.  But it is missing the extra loveliness of a pretty bow.

So, other updates to the wreath making and selling process...so far I've made 6 wreaths.  I've sold only one so far and made one for each of my sisters and one for my friend Diana at work.  The other two are still for sale on Etsy.  Maybe I should knock off $5 or $10 from the price...I don't know,...I think I will.

Today I heard from the lady that purchased my wreath.  She lives in North Carolina and told me that the wreath is beautiful.  There were some broken ornaments (2 white ones with the candy canes) and a few bulbs fell off but she hot glued them back on. Parcel post only took half the time they claimed it would.

I'm sad about the issues, but happy that it wasn't worse.  She still seems to be happy with it, so I'm going to not dwell on it.  As I had stated in my previous post, that one was the one I was worried about since it was on that evergreen wreath form.  NEVER again.

The wreath that fell, I was able to repair.  It's great that when I buy the ornaments from Estate Sales that I get the whole box of stuff as well, because in the box were these pointy sticks used for floral design that I pressed into the styrofoam wreath form and secure the broken form.  Then it was just a matter of cutting off the ornament fragments and regluing some new ones in their place.  You can't even tell that anything happened.  Oh, and I wrote 3M, they responded and asked me to call them. I did. They were interested in hearing about what type of surface the product was stuck to, etc. They said that on the packaging it says not to use them on heirlooms or irreplaceable items. I'll have to check that out next time I see them in the store. Then they asked what I would like 3M to do for me...I told them I have no idea. It's not like they could replace the wreath.

I also made a smaller wreath using a grapevine wreath form for the base.  This one was for my sister D. - I don't think she reads my blog, so I'm safe putting the pic up here. She wanted a small Silver wreath.  I didn't have much Silver ornaments left, but I did have some White, so she's getting a Silver and White wreath.  It's a little kitschy, but it grows on you.

Well, there you have all the updates about the different wreaths I've made so far.  I hope that I can sell the others...otherwise next year I'm going to look into being in a Christmas craft show or two.  I do like making them - I like the way they turn out for the most part and I'm starting to perfect my method.

There's a lady on Etsy that makes vintage ornament wreaths and I absolutely LOVE THEM!  According to her profile, she spends all year hunting down the most beautiful vintage Christmas ornaments.  Shiny Brites, Polands, West Germany and Made in the good ol' USA. (kinda like me :D).  Then she spreads them all out and crafts wreaths until all the ornaments are gone. Each year is a limited production. Once they are gone, that's it until this time next year.  I really like the way hers turn out.  Anyway, she's sold out already this year.  I think I will try to be more like her; creating wreaths in her style...we'll see if I can.