Quick Craft: Deathly Hallows Door Wreath

Here's a quick craft I left out of my Party posts, but I think you guys might like: I made a Deathly Hallows wreath!

Someone shared a very different version of this on FOE a while back, and I loved the simplicity of it. If you have a bunch of dead branches around the yard like we do, then that's the hard part already done for you. (See, I knew ignoring the back lawn would come in handy SOME day.)

Since I had plenty of sticks all I had to buy was a small grapevine wreath; for the rest of the decorations I used scraps of garland we already had. If you want to make your own you'll also need hot glue, twine, and floral wire.

This is pretty easy, but let me walk you through it:

First trim some sticks to fit snugly around the grapevine wreath:

You want them all touching the wreath, if possible, so you can wire them together. You also want them to form a triangle. (My triangle is pretty wonky, but I've decided that adds to its charm.)

Hot-glue the sticks in place to hold the shape, then lash each corner together with twine. I started by tying a knot around one stick, then made a figure 8 with my twine around the two sticks at each corner. It helps to hot glue the ends down after you tie off the twine. 

Once that's done, use floral wire to attach the wreath on all three sides of your sticky triangle.

Now the fun part: DECORATING.

I used Harry's wand for the center, but if you don't have a wand you can just use another stick. I thought it'd be fun to make a sprig of glittery branches come out of the wand, so it looks like it's mid-spell. Here I'm just setting stuff down to see how it looks.

I liked the asymmetry of having the garland curl up and over the wreath. Then I found this half-circle of berries in my stash that was perfect for the other side:

I swapped the gold sprig on the end of the wand for a silver feathery thing to match the garland.

(I originally thought I'd hang some bells off the bottom with red velvet ribbon. I still think that might look nice, if you want to add something similar on yours!)

I wired most of the garland in place, but used plain ol' hot glue on the wand and the sprig on the wand tip. I had to re-position everything a few times, so I can tell you the hot glue pops right off the wand, and so far I haven't seen any damage.

Finally I tucked in more silver feather/leaves on the left side, just to fill it out, and then I asked Instagram if I should add greenery to the bottom corners:

There was a resounding YES from the 'gram, so the last thing I did was glue a few green sprigs in place. You could also tie them in with your twine at the beginning, though, which might look even better.

And that's it! 

I originally took the photo on a white door:

   But I gotta say, a black door is where it is AT:

Awww yeeeeeah.

So much better, I think I'm painting our front door back to black this week. :D 

 (Fair warning, John, sweetie.)

 John and I are having a wonderful week catching up on boring Life stuff (doctors and bills and laundry, OH MY) and catching our breath after the last few months. We're looking forward to a quiet Christmas, and I hope you guys are taking some time for those peaceful moments, too. Remember, where possible, it's always better to be guided by gratitude, not guilt. So please, don't let anyone guilt you into gifts or parties or sacrifices you don't want to make this week. Take a walk, look at the lights, visit a friend. Remember this season is for YOU, too, not just everyone else.

I love you guys. TTFN.