Halloween Wreath

So, the other day I posted (posted?)... whatever... about Making Memories Halloween wreath that was created by Making Memories designer Leah Fung.  I loved it!  LOVED it!!!  I knew instantly that it was something that I was going to have to do and so on Friday afternoon, I went to my local, newly designed, Michal's and bought a few things that I would need... i.e. the foam wreath and some Halloween paper.  Now, I know this was/is a Making Memories project and that probably dictates that I should have used all Making Memories products... but when I saw all of the Martha Stewart Halloween products, I knew what my wreath was going to be made from... I just love Martha!  So, here's a quick look at my supplies:

OK, I promised you some short-cuts for this project and I'll keep my promise.  Now, the MM instructions said to cut 1/4 inch strips of paper.  Well, I have to tell you, the idea of doing that was not a fun idea at all.  I had 7 sheeds of 12 x 12 inch double sided designer paper and I just could see my hand cramping after a few minutes of doing that and this was a project I wanted to finish in a weekend.  Then the light bulb went on!  Hmmm... I have a paper shredder!  Let's test a sheet.  B-I-N-G-O baby!  It's perfect.  I had to cut the sheets in half to fit the shredder and then it was just feed, feed, feed.  Next, came the teedious part of rolling the papers around a pencil.  This is the next short-cut.  Find a friend :)  Mine was my hubby... we watched our Friday night shows and rolled Halloween papers.  Yes, I do realize how lucky I am!!!  After that, it was just glue, glue, glue.  Be sure to have some kind of stick to help you tamp down the ends of your paper... save your fingers, because that glue is HOT!

I used a 3 1/2 inch scalloped circle punch for the black and orange circles that went around the back of the wreath.  I started out with just the black, but it just looked too thin, so I beefed it up by adding the oranged to it... so it was black, orange, black, orange... etc.  Plus, the black and orange papers are glittered, so it really picks up the light.  I love it.

After all the curls were glued into place, the fun really started, glueing the buttons and candy stickers and signs...  The buttons were a bit too lost in the curls so I used a small scalled circle punch on the remaining orange glitter paper and glued the buttons to the paper and the paper to the curls... looks fabulous!

On one of the sheets of paper were various "signs" I cut them out and glued them all over the wreath along with the candy stickers  the signs have glitter on them as well, so they pick up light too.

Really fun project, super easy and can be done in a weekend.  Not too expensive to make... especially if you already have most of the supplies on hand.  I went for double sided paper, which tends to be more expensive, but I wanted the "look"... you know, more bang for my buck.  No white showing from the underside of the paper.  Great project for the kids to help you with... just don't let them near the glue gun, because that thing is HOT!

Again, this is totally a Making Memories project, designed by Leah Fung, this is just my interpretation of it.  I hope you like it.