Day 1: Wintry Glamour Mini-Wreath with Maybe Matilda

Hey crafty pals!  Today, I'm excited to kick off the 12 Days of Christmas Series with one of my personal faves, Rachel of Maybe Matilda.  Let's get on with the show!

Hi! I'm Rachel from the blog and etsy shop Maybe Matilda! I was so excited to come up with a Christmas project for this series--I've been waiting for an excuse to break out the Christmas music and decor since Halloween, and this was the perfect opportunity to start thinking holly-jolly. I actually don't own much holiday decor (only two decorations are coming to mind) . . . as much as I love seeing homes decorated for the holidays, I just haven't done much myself yet, so this seemed as good a time as any to make my house a little more cheery. 

My favorite Christmas decorations are less red-and-green-Christmas, more silvery-icy-winter. I love light and bright color schemes in Christmas decor, so I decided to try my hand at a piece of wintry glamour--a white, silver, and gold jingly mini-wreath:

This frame has been hanging on my front door for months now--you can see my previous door decor here--so I just swapped out the innards to give it a neat new winter look (even though you might notice in the door's reflection that we're very much still enjoying autumn around here!)

Here's how I made my wintry glamour mini-wreath:

- painted frame (mine was already done)

- small embroidery hoop to fit inside your frame (mine was 6")

- 6 foot feather boa 

- jingle bells (I got mine at the dollar store! They're actually a jingle bell garland, which I didn't realize until I opened it up, so I just cut off the three I wanted to use on the wreath itself)

- silver ribbon

- hot glue

I started by wrapping the boa around the embroidery hoop, tacking it down with a spot of hot glue every few inches. I thought for sure that I'd have plenty of leftover boa and started brainstorming other ways to use it--after all, it was a 6 foot boa being wrapped through a 6 inch hoop . . . but I used the entire length of boa on my mini-wreath. 

I didn't want to squash the feathers flat by wrapping a ribbon around the wreath for hanging, so I cut a long piece of ribbon, folded it in half, and glued the folded end to the back side of the wreath. The ribbon can be tied around the hanging tab on the back of your frame, then hung from the door.

I hot glued a few jingle bells to the boa wreath to add a little extra sparkle:

Ta-da! This was actually how I'd envisioned this door decor looking, but after a few trips in and out of the house, I thought that it needed a little more.

So I hot glued two lengths of the jingle bell garland to the back of the frame, and I think it looks sufficiently festive now. And my 15-month old seems to find it very entertaining--he lunges to grab the bells every time I carry him through the door. He hasn't torn the wreath down yet, but I'm sure it's a matter of time.

I can't wait to see more Christmas fun during this series! Thanks for reading, and I hope you'll come visit me!