Now that summer is upon us and my landscaping is in full bloom, I thought it was time to swap out my spring wreath for a new summer version.  I didn’t necessarily have to, but I thought the turquoise clashed a bit with the flowers in my bed.

When I wrote the original fullest and fluffiest wreath ever tutorial, I promised that it would be a cinch to change it out for the seasons.  Well, here’s my proof.  I went from the wreath on the left to the wreath on the right in about 15 minutes (including photo taking time).

Easy peasy!

If you’ve already made one of the best wreath’s ever, it’s easy to make it into a new work of art.  You should begin by taking the original off your door and removing all of the colored florals, the center ornament and the ribbon.  Leave all of the greenery and the filler as is.

Next, figure out what you want your center ornament to be.  If you are doing a letter, you can repaint it to have a new look.  I’ve been obsessing over garden gnomes this summer, so I knew I wanted one to use on a wreath.  I found one at Garden Ridge and drilled a hole through both sides of his hat so that I could run a piece of hemp twine in it.  I placed him on my wreath so I could work around him with my florals.

For the record, my 6 year old son has named him Werewolf Catherine.  I have no idea…

Back to the wreath.  I had a piece of moss from a tree that I wanted to add into the wreath, so I went ahead and placed it near the gnome’s feet.  I also tucked in some white filler flowers around the wreath.  As I always do, I cut the pieces off of stems of fake florals from Hobby Lobby and just shove them into the grapevine.  They hold just fine.

I decided to go red, white and yellow for this wreath, so I added back in some of the yellow florals I had taken out of the original wreath.  I added them all the way around.

 

I found some little red flowers in my stash and added them sparingly around.  I didn’t want to go overboard with the bright red since the gnome himself is in muted colors.

To attach Werewolf Catherine the gnome to the wreath, I pushed the twine through the grapevine underneath the hanger ribbon.  I tied it in a few knots and cut off the ends of the twine.

Per usual, once I hung the wreath on the door and stepped back to the street, I realized that there wasn’t enough “stuff” on it.  I added in some more red flowers on branchy things and bunched some yellow stems right at his feet.  I like to concentrate a color on the bottom right of the wreath for some reason.  I guess that’s just where my eye is drawn.

In just a few minutes, my front door got a complete makeover.  Now my little gnome friend is going to protect my front flower beds from weeds.  At least, that’s what I told him to do.  Let’s see if he holds up his end of the bargin.

Have you made an interchangeable wreath yet?  Do you believe me that it really is that easy?

Don’t miss my other related tutorials – How to Create the Fullest, Fluffiest Wreath Ever and How I Hang Wreaths on My Front Door

Joining my friends’ great linky parties :

Early last month, my family and I spent a lazy Sunday afternoon at a festival in a nearby little town. The kids rode ponies, we ate some good food, and we watched the Weiner Dog races. Yes, seriously. Right before we left, an Elvis impersonator took the stage, and we danced and sang along with him in the shade. It was so much fun.

While I was there, I became so inspired by this Elvis. He wasn’t the hunky Jail House Rock Elvis. Instead, he was the fat, sweaty, jumpsuit-wearing Elvis. I wanted him to live somewhere in my house. Yes, seriously.

That next week, Emma and I headed down to our local Habitat for Humanity ReStore to find some reclaimed wood flooring that I could nail together into some sort of canvas. There was no wood flooring (there is usually tons, so someone must have cleaned them out), but I did come across a 6 foot by 3 foot piece of old, blue house siding for $2. Sold!  I’m sure was a sight to see me shove this into my little SUV, but we somehow managed to get it home.  It was twice as long as I needed, but I’m always happy to have the extra length, just in case.

I’m not a huge Elvis Pressley fan, but my parents were born and raised in Memphis.  One of the best memories I have of my grandmother was when she took me to see Graceland one summer.  Elvis now holds a special place in my heart, because his image reminds me of my beloved Gay, who left us about 15 years ago.

I searched online for the best photo of Elvis to use for my project, and I kept coming back to this one taken of him during a concert in Hawaii.  I liked his pose in the photo and I really love the lei.

I am so weird, right?

Anyway, I altered the image a bit in Photoshop and set it to print across multiple pages.  I taped them all together, so my little template looked like this.

I put some carbon paper between my print outs and my old siding, and I started tracing the outline.  I wanted to give the project a real pop art feel, so I thought I would do all of the shading in really geometric sections.

Turns out, that idea was a huge FAIL.  It was scary.  Really, really scary.  There was nothing I could do to salvage it.

I’m glad I had that extra length on my siding!

I cut out Elvis’s silhouette and traced it with chalk onto the other end of the siding.  I had plenty of room, and it immediately looked a lot better.  It wasn’t the original idea I was going for, but this one was going to be fun, too.  I filled in the inside details by hand.  (Looking for a template?  I now have one here!)

Using cheap bottles of craft paint that I already had on hand, I started painting in the details.  Once the paint was dry, I was able to wipe off the chalk with a wet cloth.  I am completely unable to draw faces, so I decided he would be faceless.  We can pretend that it’s some artistic statement, but it’s really just that I’m an untalented artist.

In a last minute decision that screamed over-the-top-but-I’m-going-to-do-it-anyway, I decided to sequin his lei.  I bought two packages of the big pailette sequins from Hobby Lobby and started nailing them onto the lei with small wire nails.

I nailed and nailed and layered and nailed the sequins.  It took me a few days to get it covered, because every time I started working on it, Emma would yell, “No more bang, Mama!”  Eventually I got them all put on.  The result is quite shimmery, and I love it so.

 

Tom cut the “fail” portion off of the siding and together we “distressed” the cut edge with a hammer, a crowbar and dirt.  We screwed the artwork directly into the studs behind our drywall.  For under $10, I have a new giant piece of custom artwork.

Elvis now lives on the wall under my drum light and next to my crazy bathroom.  He’s right at home here, don’t you think?

Eventually, this builder’s beige blech blah wall will become a vibrant color.  The wall is not on my “rooms to do” list of 2012, so Elvis will have to give it some character until I can get to it.  I think I might want to put something to serve as a console table underneath him, but I’m not quite sure.  I need to live with him for a while before I make that decision.

Have you ever been inspired by something as crazy as jumpsuit Elvis?  Did you see that inspiration through?