DIY: Yarn Wreath Ornaments

We found this archived ornament tutorial that is so easy it's kind of ridiculous!  We love love love it.  Christopher & Tia have these step by step direction on this budget friendly ornament tutorial.  Be sure to check out their blog for more.

What you will need:


I went to Hobby Lobby and picked out 4 Christmas-ish colors that I thought would be fun to mismatch on all 30-something of my ornaments.


I ordered mine from here. I had looked at both Hobby Lobby and Michaels, but didn't find any that were nearly as affordable. Plus I like ordering things and then getting mail as a result :)


...ok those are totally optional. I did some with, and some without. The ones that I did without, were easier to wrap and send off, and took much less time to make, because- have you ever tried stringing up a jingle bell onto a piece of yarn (ya know how the end of yarn frays and is all puffy and stuff)? It wasn't my favorite part of the craft project, I'll tell ya that much.

Ok now heres how you do it...
Well actually, I'm going to show you how to do two different styles. The "candy cane" style, and then a regular multi color style. Lets start with candy cane...


Start with 2 different colors of yarn. I chose pink and red, because together I think they look a little bit like a candy cane swirl.

So- take two different colors of yarn, put the ends together, and give the strings a good yank. About 4 arms length pulls should do it. And then cut them.

Remember, these are no-glue ornaments. I know that a lot of yarn wreaths are made using hot glue or whatever, but I'm making these with my kids- so the easier, the better.

-Wrap your yarn around your styrofoam.

-Tie a knot.

Simple.

-Pull the short end of the excess string off to one side.

-Now start looping the long end of the yarn around the wreath, going in the direction that your loose ends are facing. Does that make sense?

Here, kind of like this...


See what I mean? If not, then I'm sure you can figure it out as you go. Really, all you're doing is wrapping yarn in a loop over and over again- theres really no way to mess it up.

-So keep wrapping your yarn around your styrofoam. You can do a tight wrap, doing just a single layer of yarn. Or you can do a sort of messy wrap, doing layer over layer. I like the messy look, I think it looks more handmade, and its brighter and bolder from farther away.



After you get all the way around, your wreath should look something like that.

-Now tie it off.

Heres how you do that...
(even though its sort of self explanatory)


-Wherever you decide to end your wrapping, put your thumb down on the yarn, and let the excess hang down.


-Put your index finger on the back.

-With your other hand, wrap the string that was hanging down around again, up and over your index finger that you were holding in place.


-Now take that piece of string that you just wrapped around, and put your thumb on it, like in the above picture.

-Wrap the excess string around again, and then pull your index finger away(we're tying a knot here).

-Pull the excess through the loop. Pull it tight. Make sure you're doing this on the "back side" of the wreath (the side that you weren't looking at, when wrapping).


See, like that.
-Now cut off the excess string with a little bit to spare, and tie those pieces in a knot.
Picture on the way...


It should look something like that.

Now you need a way to hang it up!


-Cut another piece of yarn. Fold it in half. Tie a knot.


-Now tie that, around your wreath (and when you do, make sure that your knot is on the back, so you can't see it). Cut the ends-

And voila!
...Okay, I realize that I could have just said "tie a knot", rather than posting 8 billion pictures describing how to do so, but... that wouldn't make for a very interesting tutorial, now would it? Haha.

But now that you get the point, I'll just post pictures for the single strand style? I'm sure you'll get the idea.


You start with one color, tie it onto the wreath, wrap the yarn to cover the area that you want covered, tie it off.

Lather rinse, repeat.

The back will look messy like this...


But the front should look a little more tidy, like this...


Tie a string on, the way that I showed you up there with the candy cane style, and-

Another one done!

Yarn!
Styrofoam wreaths!

Little decorations and charms!


Wrap wrap wrap, wrap wrap wrap.