University of Utah School Spirit Wreath

Today I went to Michaels with no real plan on what I was buying. For some reason I decided I wanted to make a wreath and I wanted it to be something that I could leave up all year. What better than a school spirit wreath?

Both Chris and I attended the University of Utah and Chris is still a huge Utes fan. A few months ago I made a Ute clock for the living room. I have recently seen a lot of fall themed wreaths on Pinterest made with yarn. I decided to give it a try...

The supplies I bought were:

• a wooden wreath frame
• (2) bundles (is that what they're called? lol) of white yarn
• glue sticks
• red & black Martha Stewart Satin Paint (I've seen it on a bunch of blogs lately and wanted to try it -- it's awesome!)
• red, black, & white ribbon (I didn't end up using the white on the wreath)
• (2) wooden letter U's (they didn't have 2 of the same, go figure)
• paint brush (I didn't like the way it painted, so I didn't use it.)
• black chipboard letters (I also didn't end up using them on the wreath)

The supplies I had already and used were (not pictured):

• glue gun
• red and white twine
• white paint pen
• sandpaper
• foam paint brush
• spray paint primer (safe to use indoors)

#1 - Sand both wooden letters so they'll be easier to paint. The white U has a crack in it, but you can't tell once painted.

#2 - Use primer spray paint on both letters.

#3 - While the primer dries, tape one end of yarn to the back of the wooden wreath frame, and start wrapping. Keep the yarn pulled tight and just go around and around...don't worry about wrapping it perfectly. Seriously. I had a hard time with this, but it was the best idea because it took me about an hour to completely wrap the whole thing...and that was just wrapping any way it would go.

Here's what it looked like after one whole bundle of yarn. It was covered pretty well, but in spots you could still see the frame through the yarn, so I decided to get the other bundle and keep wrapping. I guess I could have painted the frame white first, that would have made it easier and then I could have used less yarn.

#4 - Once the frame looked how I wanted it to, I stopped wrapping. (I didn't use all of the 2nd one...maybe 3/4 of it.)

#5 - Once the primer is dry, paint the wooden letters with a foam paint brush. It will need two coats of paint -- wait one hour between coats.

#6 - While the paint is drying, (carefully) tie small pieces of ribbon to single pieces of yarn.

#7 - Wrap twine around opposite side in a pattern. (I felt that the other side was too plain and wanted to add something without over doing the ribbon.)

#8 - (I forgot to take pictures of this.) Once the paint is dry, hot glue the letters to the wreath. To make sure I put the hot glue in the right place on the letters, I placed them on the wreath, then flipped it over, while holding the letters in place, and traced the outline of the wreath onto the back of each letter. This allowed me to see what areas would be on the wreath itself and that's where I put the hot glue.

#9 - I needed a way to hang the wreath so it'd hang straight. Tying ribbon to the wreath didn't work out because the wreath is heavier on the side with the letters. I used a soda pop tab, washer, and screw to hang the wreath. I placed it slightly off to the side where the letters are, so it'd hang straight. It worked great and it's hanging straight -- no issues.

#10 - I wanted to "of" between the U's, but couldn't figure out a way to do it without it looking awkward. I used my white paint pen to "dot" the word "of" on the black U.

I love it (and Chris does too). It will look great in our apartment all year long.

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