Colorful Ribbon Wreath

Today I'm sharing my very first ribbon wreath!  I've seen several of these on Pinterest & decided to give it a try--I'm very happy with the end results.  I now have a colorful decoration in my craft room & best of all, I got to use up a ton of ribbon scraps & ribbon in general!

This wreath was made for the promotion currently going on over at the Authentique blog with both Imagine Crafts & May Arts.  All the ribbon seen here is by May Arts.

To further decorate the ribbon wreath--I added some handmade embellishments.  I used papers from Authentique's 'Harmony' collection to die cut a couple of flowers with the use of the 'Tattered Florals' die by Tim Holtz. 

The bird was fussy cut from one of the 'Harmony' papers (Spirit). 

All the embellishments had their edges inked with Midnight Chalk Ink by Imagine Crafts in order to make them 'pop' more.

Here's a close up of the wreath. As you can see there were many, many strips of ribbon used.  As a filler I used a couple of strips of tulle from my own stash in orange, yellow & gray.

This ribbon wreath can be a bit time consuming but it's worth the effort.  Also, it's a fairly easy project to make.  Here are some tips on how to make your own ribbon wreath...

The base of the wreath is a craft ring that I found at my local Michaels.  They have these available in 6", 12" & 24 inch sizes.  I chose the middle one at 12" inches.

These craft rings are made from heavy thick chipboard and are excellent for painting, stamping or for embellishing/decorating with a variety of elements like foam, paper, flowers or in my case ribbon!

If you can't get your hands on one of these, you can make your own ring out of regular chipboard.  The ring doesn't have to be a perfect circle since it will be covered up with ribbon & will hide and imperfection.s

The craft ring was primed with white gesso & once dry, I painted it over with black acrylic paint. 

Last step is get yourself a nice big cup of coffee & grab those scraps of ribbon or start cutting up ribbon.  My ribbon strips varied in sizes from 3" to 5" inches in length.  You'll need many strips of ribbon in a variety of colors & textures.  Just mix it all up!

Tie a knot in the center of each ribbon strip & cut the ends in a 'V' shape.  This will help the ribbon from fraying too much.

Finally start gluing away!  I used a hot glue gun at a low setting to adhere each strip to the craft ring.  Still be careful not to burn your fingers.  Apply the hot glue to the knot of each ribbon strip & as you adhere the strips, pinch the ribbon together slightly above the knot & press down a bit.  This will help the ribbon stand up instead of laying flat.  NOTE: When adhering the ribbon to the ring ensure you do this randomly--just place each ribbon strip anywhere you wish & facing in any direction.  This random placement of ribbon is what gives the wreath it's style!

Happy crafting, thanks for stopping by & enjoy the rest of the week!