Christmas Wreath

I found the most amazing DIY Christmas wreaths for this past Christmas season.  I loved them so much, I made two for outside the house, one for inside the house, one for each of my sister's and my Mom.  They were super easy and looked great!  I got the idea from Pinterest, of course :)  To make this Christmas wreath you will need:

• Wire Hanger
• between 60-80 shatter proof Christmas balls (depending on how big you want your wreath to be.  I got my Christmas balls from Wal-Mart and opted for the shatter proof ones so they didn't break while in storage.
• hot glue gun with glue sticks
• pliers

You have two options for the glue gun:

1. take off all the tops of the Christmas balls and hot glue them back on.
2. hot glue the balls together as you string them on the hanger.

I opted to glue them together as I strung them. Either way, you need to glue the Christmas balls, otherwise they will keep popping off. And yes, I learned this the hard way ;)

I started by taking a plain wire hanger from my husband's closet.  (Finally, a use for all those wire hangers we get from the cleaners!)  I used a pair of pliers to untwist the hanger.  You might be able to do this without the pliers, but I have rheumatoid arthritis, so sometimes my fingers don't work very well and my hands aren't ever very strong.  Once it was intwisted, I straightened it out as be as I could.  I left the hooked end still curved so the christmas balls I used didn't fall off at I strung them on the hanger. 

Next, start stringing the Christmas balls onto the hanger.  If you let the hanger hang down as you do this they balls will fall into place.  Or, you can string a few at a time, then shake them down so they settle into place.  I used both methods throughout this process and each worked fine.  I did stop every few minutes to hot glue the Christmas balls together.  This way, I knew exactly where each ball would lay so I could continue choosing the ball colors. 

Here is the wreath about 1/3 of the way finished.  When I did this without glue the balls as I worked, they were constantly fall off and I would have to stop and put them back on.  So make sure you don't skip that step.

Once you've make your wreath the size you want it, bring the 2 ends of the hanger together until they meet.  This may cause the Christmas balls to protest a little bit (another good reason to buy shatter proof ones) but the ends will come together.  Use your pliers to twist the ends together tightly.  You will probably have to bend the wreath in places to make it a perfect circle.

The finished product!  I used around 65 Christmas balls to make this and it is a good size.  I estimate that I spent about $12 making this wreath.  And for something that can be used year after year, or given as a Christmas gift, I consider that money well spent!