My {First} Ornament Wreath!

     I've been admiring those ornament wreaths I've seen on Pinterest and elsewhere for awhile now.  The results are always so beautiful and they did not seem terribly difficult.  However, for me it's usually more a question of getting organized and having all the stuff at the right time.  While I was out shopping for other stuff on "Black Saturday" (didn't do Friday), I noticed the ornaments at JoAnns were 70% off so I halfheartedly grabbed a variety that I thought I would possibly use to tackle a wreath. 
     The main thing I noticed on Pinterest was that people were either using a styrofoam base for their wreath or the wire hanger method.  Of course, because sometimes I think I know everything, I never really read any directions beyond that.  Although I had bought the styrofoam form for a wreath, I started to second guess how many times I would actually burn my fingers using the hot glue for the styrofoam method and stringing the ornaments on a hanger started to sound easier to me.  
     Next challenge, finding some needlenose pliers that I thought I would need to untwist a hanger.  Come to find out, I was able to easily untwist a cleaners-type hanger with my own bare hands (didn't have the patience for my husband to find me his "lost" pliers!!?)
    I have listed my basic directions below.  Most of this was improvised and learn as you go. You do need a lot of ornaments.  I had to go back and get one more box of each variety to fill in the entire hanger.  Overall, I am very happy with the results!!  I probably spent about 3 hours on this project (not including the shopping!).  It was hard to keep track of time since I did have quite a few interruptions (a/k/a kids, dog, telephone and husband).  One thing that's nice with the hanger stringing method is that I can literally manipulate the ornaments into position even now once they are on the hanger.  In fact, I can see by looking at it I still need to rearrange them a bit. 
     What do you think??  It's a nice project because the sky is the limit for color combinations, textures, and sizes or the ornaments you use.  Also, check out the awesome job my cousin did on her ornament wreath using a styrofoam form -- love her contemporary wreath!!  I am inspired to make more and hope to stock up on some ornaments after Christmas!!

For those who want the details:

68 miniature ornaments

50 small ornaments

16 medium sized ornaments

(I used some plastic and some glass...plastic might be smarter, lighter, not breakable!!??)

Time:  Approx. 3 hours
Wreath Size 15" (approx.)

Ribbon

6 glue sticks

glue gun

pliers

hanger

iced water

paper plate

towel

 The gathering of supplies (shown above), iced water for hot glue "accidents"!

 The thinner white (dry cleaner) type hangers seem best, some flexibility is good for this project

 If your ornaments are new, keep the trays so they don't roll around while you're working

 I gently slid the ornament "cap" off, leaving the "pin" partially inside the ornament and put the glue in the ornament "cap" and then carefully reposition the "cap".  This is the time consuming part.

 A sketchy layout of the ornaments before starting (the scary old kitchen towel was to keep the ornaments from rolling)

 Time to start stringing the ornaments onto the wire hanger...at first it seems like it is not going to fill in properly

 Just keep placing them and before you know it starts to fill out

 Different lighting...really starting to fill out

All 100 of my ornaments are on...not quite enough for the full hanger so the wreath sat like this for another week until I could get back to the same store...

 Finished side view (still need to fuss with the bow...)

Voila!
(This is not the wreath's forever home...that's our bathroom door!!)