DIY Raffia Wreath Tutorial; Holiday Decorating

I think this is such a cute simple project and you can never have too many ideas for wreaths right?  This on e comes form Amanda at The Hand Me Down House and It is such a great creative idea check it out!

I absolutely LOVE fall -- it's one of those seasons that has completely grown on me.  Ironically, as a kid I HATED fall -- it meant we had to go back to school, stop swimming outside, and start wearing jackets.  But now I adore the change -- the crisp air, the rustling leaves -- all of it.  And this year it feels like the season came overnight!  It got chilly really fast.

So to celebrate the autumn season, I decided to make a Fall Wreath to hang on the front door.

I used some decorating raffia, a wreath form and my glue gun.  

 I got this raffia at Michael's for around $4.00 with my 40% off coupon, and I managed to find the straw wreath form at Goodwill for $2.00.

First I took thee or four strands of each color raffia and glued one end of the bunch to the wreath.

 Then I wrapped them around the wreath tightly.  I glued the end of the stands to the wreath and then started another bunch of raffia, overlapping the end of the previous bunch so no ends would be sticking out.  

 I continued doing this until the whole wreath was covered with raffia.  

At the end there were a lot of loose ends and pieces sticking out.  I trimmed as many as I could with scissors, and then the ones that I couldn't trim short enough, I glued down (I tried to do most of my gluing on the back of my wreath where it wouldn't be seen).

Now that my wreath was done, I decided to make raffia flowers.  First I took the purple colored raffia and grabbed five to six strands. 

 

I wrapped it around a cardboard form (or you could use your hand) so that it is uniform and even, like this:

 Then I wrapped another piece of raffia around the middle and tied it in the back to secure it like a bow.

Then I made another "bow", exactly like the one shown above and glued them on my wreath in an "X" to make a flower.

Finally, I hung it on the door and admired it. :)

What do you think??  I wish there was less pink and purple in there, but I still like it -- it still says, fall, right? :)

Isn't that fun?

Is this a project you might try?