T-Mac and the Boogers

I thought I would try my hand at a tutorial… it seems all the rage!  So here was a project Sophie and I did, and it wasn’t too hard, and I love the results.  I might be missing a few pictures, I decided to do this part way through.  Anyways.  Here goes:

Supplies Needed:

You need:

A whole wrapping paper tube (not just the partial one shown here), sturdy cardstock (I used the insert from another wrapping paper roll), red and green acrylic paints, foam brush, ribbon, glitter, double sided tape and a hot glue gun.  I also used a 1.5 inch hole punch, but you could just free hand your circles.

First thing, mark off 1.5 inch sections of your wrapping paper tube.  Then cut out as many as you want (I used 13 of them, but just arranged them until I liked the size).  If you used an exacto knife the pieces would be neater… but if you are like me, and you leave stuff out, the exacto knife is not a friend of the 2 year old who is eagerly waiting her turn to help.

Next cut out the holly leaves and the berries from the wrapping paper insert (or the heavy cardstock).  I used 16 holly leaves and 8 berries.  The coolest part of using the insert from wrapping paper to create the leaves and berries is that they curl up, and I kind of liked that effect on my final project…

Next paint the tubes green (this is the 2 year old friendly part… put down some serious newspaper or garbage bag to protect your furniture…).  While you have the green paint out, paint the holly leaves too.  While those dry pull out the red paint and the glitter.  Paint the berries red, then dip them in the glitter… messy with a 2 year old, but if your 2 year old is princess obsessed this is the cool part…. and know that the glitter goes everywhere, I am warning you now.

After the rings are dry, arrange them on your table or floor.  Then take your double sided tape and attach the pieces together to form the base of your wreath.

Then arrange the leaves how you like on the top of the wreath.  I have 8 sections of 2 leaves and 1 berry.  I meant to do 3 berries, but it was a little much when I laid it all out.  They won’t all stay in place, but don’t worry too much, just get a good idea of how they need to be spaced.  Then hot glue the leaves in place on the top side of the wreath.

After you have glued the leaves and berries on, flip the wreath over, and secure the pieces with more hot glue… they are attached to very little surface area, so get the glue everywhere you can.  It isn’t pretty, but who is going to look at the back?

Then attach 2 ends of a 8-10 inch piece of ribbon… I just picked a length that looked good on my front door…

This is what it will look like afterwards… 

And here is the 2 year old with her creation…

And because this is my first tutorial, let me know if there is anything different I can do… I don’t know how many I will make, but I think I will work on putting up more projects in the future.

Filed under: Tutorials on December 15th, 2009