Button Wreath!

This button wreath is the first of many Christmas crafts I will share with you this holiday season, and I thought it was an appropriate start to the month of November, the first time it is almost acceptable to start hitting the Christmas craft making really hard. I made this wreath to hang in my mother's store as an inspiration for her students, but made it in my bright green so it will go nicely in my house come December. This project was super easy and fun. Here's how I did it:

One of my favorite blogs to read, Young House Love, recently issued a Pinterest Challenge asking readers to stop just pinning, and start crafting (see what other bloggers did for the challenge here and here). My inspiration for this project comes from here, found on Pinterest.com, but of course I took my own little spin on the project and added the stenciled border and made it on a canvas for light and easy hanging.

I used these tools on this project... the first is just a regular foam brush (less than a dollar) and my stenciling brushes (they have extra stiff bristles and cost around 3 dollars) - you can read more about them here.

First, I painted the whole canvas green with my foam brush. I used this gloss finish green Apple Barrel paint from Michaels - it was less than a dollar a bottle.

Next I got started with my stencil. This was definitely the most time consuming part. If stenciling isn't your thing, I think this project would also be just a cute with a plain border, which you could create using painters tape... my sister put a border on a canvas recently, you can read about it here.

The stencil I used is from Martha Stewart at Michaels and came with the medallion stencil I put on a chair last week. The pack was about $15 but I actually just borrowed it from my sister... so it was free for me! The advantages of having a crafty family are endless. :-)

The trouble with this stencil is that it has to be lined up, which requires overlapping the stencil with already painted parts. You either have to let it dry in between or blow dry it. I opted to blow dry it which really made the process a lot quicker. Just remember on a project like this - the little mistakes give it character!

Here was an attempted layout of the buttons on the wreath with a iridescent bow. Notice the button mess I was sorting through to find my white buttons. I thought the bow needed to stand out more, so when I brought the project up to my mom's house we found this one, used from a Christmas present in years past (it always pays to keep all the ribbons from Christmas - they will come in handy one day!).

 To attach the buttons I just used a simple glue gun and applied a minimal amount of glue to the back of each button. I laid all the buttons out first, then picked them up one by one to secure them.

The final product turned out pretty darn cute if I do say so myself. The project has sort of given me the Christmas craft bug though... I can't wait to make more fun holiday inspired decorations!