My Adventures...: Patriotic Summer Wreath

Yes... I made more wreaths... Do I have a problem? Maybe. They're just so easy and fun and there are endless possibilities and seasons to celebrate. From Memorial Day to the 4th of July, a patriotic wreath is perfect for summer. And it is definitely summer here in Texas already. Only just into June and we've already hit the mid-90s.

I found the inspiration for this wreath on Pinterest, as always. I got the general idea: wreath form, clothespins, paint, stars. Got it. I kind of used my imagination from there about how to execute it. I got wreath forms at Hobby Lobby for $2/each and got clothespins and spray paint from Home Depot. Do not buy clothespins from Hobby Lobby- they're like $4 for 30 as opposed to $2.35 for 50 at Home Depot. Don't waste your money on the expensive ones when the cheap ones work perfectly! I had white acrylic paint and paint brushes left over from another project, so I didn't worry about buying white spray paint.

This is how I made my patriotic clothespin wreaths...

Supplies/Tools Needed

wreath form

clothespins (# depends on wreath form size)

red, white, and blue paint

paint brush

star-shaped paper punch

white card stock or thicker paper

adhesive

These are the clothespins that you can buy at Home Depot. 50 pack for $2.35.
They were in the aisle with the spools of clothesline by the yard.

First, you have to put all of the clothespins you can fit on the wreath form. The number of clothespins depends on the size of the wreath. I made two of these using one 12" form and one 16" form (measuring outermost part of wreath form). The 12" form fit 67 clothespins and the 16" form fit 96.

From there, I decided how many clothespins thick I wanted to make the white and red stripes. While deciding, I kept in mind that the star and stripe sections should be somewhat proportional to a flag and that there are 13 stripes (7 red, 6 white). I did some quick math and decided that I'd use 3 clothespins for the stripes on the smaller wreath and 4 for each stripe on the larger wreath. That allowed me to have a fairly representative amount of blue clothespins on each wreath for the stars.

12" wreath: 67 clothespins = 28 blue + 21 red + 18 white.

16" wreath: 96 clothespins = 31 blue + 35 red + 30 white.

First, I took the clothespins that I was going to paint white off of the wreath form and left the others. on. I painted the white clothespins. Don't forget to paint the clippy end (very technical term).

The "clippy end."

With the other clothespins on the wreath form, I divided them into a red and blue group and then used aluminum foil to cover one group while I painted the other. This is a very make-shift way to paint the clothespins w/o having to flip them all over and paint twice. You definitely don't have to use my painting technique if you know a better one! :) I covered the blue ones and painted the red group first.

Then, I uncovered the blue group and covered the red clothespins and repeated. Make sure that all of the spray paint is fully dry before you cover it in foil.

Once all the paint had dried, I assembled the clothespins into 13 stripes and the large, blue section.

12" wreath.

16" wreath.

Then, I took used the star-shaped paper punch to cut out stars for the blue section. My mom came to the rescue again with her endless craft supplies! I borrowed her 3/4 of an inch star-shaped punch and cut out 100 stars. My hand was not loving it by the end, but I made it through. Crafting struggles...

Then I used my mom's sticker maker (a Xyron?) to put adhesive on the back of the stars, then placed them in a scattered non-pattern around the blue clothespins.

Ta-da!