A Spring Wreath for Mother's Day or Easter

So  I thought I'd show you all how I made this simple Spring wreath - it might look complicated - but it's really easy once you know how! :-)
First of all - get hold of some sort of wreath - I bought this one for £6 at the local florists, but you could bend an old wire coat hanger, or use anything suitable that you can get hold of. It could be heart shaped like mine, or round - doesn't matter.

Next you're going to need about 1 metre of giant yellow pompom trim

and some other different ribbons and trimmings. Let me emphasize that you can use ANYTHING you have laying around! But... I used a metre each of: giant pink ric rac, yellow and orange flower jacquard ribbon, mint green mini pompom trim, pink & red vintage polka dot ribbon...

and a metre each of the lime and baby blue gathered elastic frilly trim above, (which I ADORE! :-) and some of our new super gorgeous braid trimming in lilac and orange too. 

I also added in some of the new Sajou Rochefort craft thread in yellow and black too. (LOVE this stuff!)

First things first...

start by wrapping the giant yellow pompom trim around the wreath base. If necessary - secure with some thread.

Next start adding some of the ribbons. I won't go into too much detail - you can be random! (But the frilly elasticated stuff looks good wrapped around and around as above - like a ra-ra skirt!!

Keep adding and wrapping ribbon here and there until the wreath starts to get quite covered up. Each time you add a piece, secure at the back with a knot.

I added in some hand spun wool yarns too, wrapping them round and round the wreath. If you don't have any, you could just use tightly wound wool tops. Or any yarn would do, - something like Noro, or a variegated yarn would work well here!

Now your wreath should really be starting to take shape - with most of the wreath covered. Add a few ribbon bows too.

And lastly make some little felt flowers to adorn the wreath. These can easily be made from ready made felt, or handmade felt if you know how!(See my book : Felting Fabulous Flowers)

    

Make a few simple spring-like daisies, by cutting a circle from some felt, cutting 8 evenly spaced slits around it with some small sharp scissors, and 'rounding' each off into a petal. Add flower centres using a felting needle and some yellow wooltops, or use some small buttons. Attach using our great glue called Gem-Tac - or a needle and thread.

If you're feeling adventurous, why not add a felt rose to your wreath too? You can make a Gilliangladrag Felt Rose Corsage Kit, or the process is outlined in my book if you want to use your own colours.

Finally,  add a suitable hanger and you're done! I even added a turquoise glitter ribbon bow on the hanging rope too. xxxx

Happy Mothers Day and Happy Easter, and most importantly (as it's my favourite time of year) Happy Spring! :-)

I have officially just invented the most fluffy furry WOOLTOP Pompom EVER!

 

Stop what you are doing everyone! I have a very important announcement to make!
Today I figured out that if you use carded Wooltops to make a pompom, it's extremely fast, extremely soft and furry and extremely amazing! Read on to find out how...

 

Start with just ONE tiny metre of merino wooltops (usually used for felting or spinning.) And a pompom maker! That's all! ANY wool tops will do - but here I used our house blend "Phantasmagorical" (£4.80 for 100g will make about 4 pompoms!) 
Remember - You can get 15% off spends of £20+ till midnight on Tuesday 2nd December with code : FLUFFY15

Split the merino wooltop length in half lengthways and wrap half around the left side of the pompom maker and half around the right side, tucking in the ends. It's so fluffy and bulky - that's all you'll need :-)

Secure the pompom maker and then start to snip! All the way around. As you do - the pompom will magically come to life!

Next, secure the new furry wooltop pompom with some strong string and tie it REALLY REALLY tightly. I used our candy twist twine here:

Carefully release your new fabulous pompom...

It's the furriest, quickest, most fabulous pompom ever! Ever so soft and really LUSH!

The last thing to do is give it a trim (my favourite bit) - and then it's ready to hang! Imagine a Christmas tree full of these :-)

(Or adorn your favourite hat! Here I used our Red Merino with Pink Tussah Silk Blend)The possibilities are endless...

 

Let's all get wooltop pompom making immediately! :-))))))

Remember - You can get 15% off spends of £20+ till midnight on Tuesday 2nd December with code : FLUFFY15

*Valid on new orders only and only at time of ordering xxx 

Free Pompom Christmas Wreath Tutorial for FLUFFY Friday!

Hello all! Let me show you how to make this really simple hanging Christmas Wreath for black FLUFFY Friday! It's brimming over with pompoms and general woolly goodness and is really simple to make :-)

First you're going to need a circular wreath of some sort. I nipped down to the florists and bought this one for £3 (approx 30cm in diameter) - but you could improvise and even make one out of wire if need be...or recycle an old one?

Next, you can really speed things up by using a couple of metres of our giant pompom trimming here (£3.50 a metre).  Each pompom measures a whopping 4cm! I used a metre of red giant pompom trim and a metre of cerise giant pompom trim and then wound them around the wreath, securing and tying them in place with some yarn here and there.

Then you're going to have some fun making some pompoms! You can use any method you like - but it's super duper easy with our pompom maker set (4 sizes for £6.50) here and our new heart shaped pompom maker too!

You can use any yarn in any colour - I used a mixture of reds and pinks. A good yarn to use is something like our Stylecraft Special DK yarn - which is cheap and cheerful at £1.95!

  

You'll probably need to make between 10-12 different sized pompoms in different colours and shades if you can. But anything goes!

Pompom making is simple with these fabulous contraptions! They are so clever and make it really easy!

Tie or thread each pompom into place on the wreath, - using matching yarn or string.

Next I added a handmade felt rose - you can make one too from our "Plum Pudding Rose Corsage" kit - or you can just cut out your own felt flowers from some of our ready made felt perhaps instead?

 

I also cut some simple holly leaves from green felt I'd made  - again you could use the ready made felt. Sew the rose and leaves around the wreath to hold in place.

Make sure everything is tied together securely by adding yarn around the wreath here and there. I also added a few felt balls too, to fill in the gaps. I sewed them around the wreath to keep them in place. (Some of the felt balls were needle felted too! I know I know... :-)

You can make your own felt balls REALLY EASILY from wool tops (like our Christmas Cracker wooltops inspiration pack) or you can buy the ready made ones instead!

If you fancy needle felting onto the felt balls, you can do that with our needle felting kit too!

And then you're done! Just add another loop of yarn or matching pompom trim at the top to hang, and admire your work :-)

Easy Peasy! x Happy Christmas Pompom Wreath making everyone! x