Final Retrofabulous Christmas Craftabration Project for 2009! Tinsel Kicking Vintage Ornament Wreath

Retrofabulous Christmas Craftabration with Madge! Final Project 2009!

Tinsel Kicking Vintage Ornament Wreath
Copyright Margot Potter The Impatient Crafter™ 2009

I hope to start this retrofabulosity earlier next year. There are just far too many good ideas in these magazines to waste! Until then...here’s my final Retrofabulous holiday idea for 2009.

I collect vintage mercury glass ornaments and kitschy holiday decorations and I love the elaborate wreaths people make by hot gluing a ton of them on a Styrofoam or wire wreath base. They go for big bucks on eBay. (Check out this fabulous vintage ornament packed wreath from Junkhound Sally!) I personally don’t want to trap vintage goodies into a wreath forever. They’ve survived this long unscathed! I scored four tinsel garlands on super clearance after last Christmas with this project in mind. Flash forward a year...a trip to the craft store for a Styrofoam wreath and some Styrofoam balls and a gathering of pretty pink ornaments...and SHAZAM!

This wreath kicks some serious tinsel!


I could have added a lot more ornaments, but I like the simple and uncluttered look of this wreath with lots of tinsel poking through and the felty good pop art flowers. (Plus those resin and tinsel beads I scored in NYC worked perfectly!) I remembered this project concept when I saw the tin wreath from McCall’s Christmas Make-it Ideas Volume XI above. This is another 60s craft mag without a date...but based on the preponderance of thick fuzzy yarn pom-poms and the hairstyles I’m guessing late 60s. Frankly, I’d really prefer not to have a razor sharp wreath...so this soft and squishy tinsel garland does the trick! (Oh and note that I’ve worked Floam into another holiday craft project! Hee.)

Oh and...two vintage mercury glass ornaments met an untimely death while working on this project. So show me some love people!
Materials
Styrofoam wreath form
4 12 foot long tinsel garland swags
8”x10” sheet hot pink craft felt
8 vintage pink mercury glass ornaments (you can buy these on eBay, but pink is pricey so go for mixed lots and collect the pink as you go, I’m a big fan of Shiny Brites)
9 2” Styrofoam balls
5 20mm and 5 15mm pink plastic beads
Hot pink Floam
18 gauge Beadalon Artistic Wire
2.5” wide silver with holographic glitter wired craft ribbon
6”x7.5” Colorbok chipboard ornament
Ranger paint dabber fuchsia
Ranger paint dabber silver
Floral vine background stamp
2” thick satin ribbon with looped edges
Sparkly pink rick rack trim (mine is vintage, but you can find similar new)
Sizzix Hello Kitty Daisies Die
Aleene’s Quick Dry Tacky Glue
Tools
Sizzix Big Shot
Round nose pliers
Chain nose pliers
Wire cutters
Straight edge item (I used a flat thin plastic ruler)
Non-stick craft sheet

1. Paint the chipboard ornament pink. Allow to dry.


2. Stamp with layers of floral vines in silver. Allow to dry.

3. Glue a stripe of black satin ribbon across center front of ornament. Glue a rick rack trim stripe in the center of the black satin stripe.

4. Cover small foam balls with a thin layer of Floam and quickly remove various segments creating a textured effect. Allow balls to dry overnight on a non-stick craft sheet.



5. Use Big Shot to cut out felt flowers.

6. Use a u-shaped wire to attach one end of a tinsel garland swag to the back of your wreath. (This is kind of like a staple that holds the garland down.)

7. Wrap tinsel around wreath, securing ends with 2-shaped wire segments as you work your way around. Wrap so there are no foam gaps. When you reach the final wrap, tuck that under with another u-shaped wire segment and clip off excess garland.

8. Use looped end 5" wires to slide in 9 Floam balls leaving about 4 inches between each and alternating placement so some are higher and some lower as you work around your wreath. (The chain nose pliers can help you slide the wires in if you get stuck.)

9. Use looped end 5" wires to slide in your beads and flowers; they should be at the same spot as your foam balls but on the opposite side of the width of the wreath.



10. Use u-shaped wires to attach the ornaments to the wreath, in between the foam balls. Leave one area open for your ribbon.

11. Cut off a long section of ribbon and wrap around wreath in open area. Tie into a bow. Cut off any excess ribbon.

12. Hang your chipboard ornament on wired tinsel from the top center of the wreath so it hangs inside.

Check out more retrofabulous vintage ornament wreaths:

Georgia Peachez Flickr

Georgia Peachez Flickr

Georgia Peachez Flicker

Vintage Squirrel


1800 Flowers Blog

Jennifer Perkins


(The adhesive, paints, wire and tools were all donated for use in my work)

13 comments:

Unknown said...

wonderful - i love the pink!
hope you have a wonderful holidays and i truly enjoy following your blog!

Linda Augsburg said...

Check the copyright area on the masthead for a date, as that might be the only place you'll find one. Those used to live in my office "back in the day"--I had a huge set of back issues!

LOVE the wreath!! Fabulous! I love vintage ornaments and what you did with them, the wreath, and the garland is OUTSTANDING!

Margot Potter said...

Jodi thank you. It means so much to me to have such wonderful and creative readers.

Cheers,
Madge

Margot Potter said...

Linda

THANK YOU!

xoxo
Madge

TesoriTrovati said...

That has some serious fun quotient. Remind me to share with you the retrofab package wreaths that my craft Aunt Charlotte made in the 70s...and I continued from the first one I made for my 7th grade teacher up until a few years ago. Not one is the same and I wrapped thousands of raisin and paper clip boxes. Early on, before the invention of glue sticks, they were all constructed by HAND SEWING them to stryofoam bases, using hat pins and white craft glue to stabilize them. Today they are much quicker and no less kitschy! But my husband made me throw out my Sterilite container filled with little boxes that I would collect throughout the years, so alas, it will be a long time before I craft one of those puppies... and come to think of it, I never actually made one for myself! Sheesh!

Merriest of Christmases to the Potters!
Enjoy the day!
Erin

Jennifer said...

I'm a big fan of retro crafts and vintage crafty mags. My plan was to do a few retro x-mas craft projects this year but just never got around to it. Well, there's always next x-mas...Love this wreath!

Margot Potter said...

Erin

Those sound fabulous! What is it with husbands throwing stuff away?! Sheesh.

Happiest of holidays to you and to yours.

Cheers,
Madge

Margot Potter said...

Jen

The holidays get away from us, don't they? I was hoping to get more posts done with this theme, but the straw pile got the best of me.

Happy holidays!

Cheers,
Madge

Eileen The Artful Crafter said...

Cool! I agree on the soft tinsel.

I especially like what you did with the chipboard ornament.

What is Floam? Looks like spray on foam but with white beads like snow?

drew emborsky said...

LOVE the wreath!!!

Margot Potter said...

Eileen

Floam is slime with polystyrene balls in it. It dries hard, but can be reactivated with water, so if you use it to craft you seal it with a varnish or paint. I had to sell it on QVC and make samples, so I came up with some mixed media applications.

Cheers,
Madge

Margot Potter said...

Drew

Thank you!

xoxo
Madge

Eileen said...

It sure looks cool. Thanks for the info, Madge :-)