Crud I Found in My Craft Room Halloween Wreaths

I just finished my burlap wreaths last month and was excited to decorate them for their first holiday, Halloween!

It was funny because my Halloween wreaths actually sat on my doors for a while with nothing on them while I waited for inspiration to hit. My neighbors probably thought I was nuts!

I had just spent a ton of money on buying a new mattress set, so I needed to decorate my Halloween wreaths without spending a penny. Let the “Crud in my Craft Room Challenge” begin! Luckily I am a chronic craft material and fabric scrap hoarder, so I can almost always dig up something.

First thing I did was cut out some felt bats out of some of my homemade felt scraps. I then fastened them on the wreath with stickpins.

I looked around for some ribbon that would work, but found nothing spooky enough. So I found some scraps of black and white fabric and cut them into strips. First I wrapped it around the wreath, but it didn’t look good. So I made some ruffle fabric flowers. I also used stick pins to put these on so that I can easily take them off when I decorate it for Thanksgiving.

But it still needed something else… So I grabbed some wiffle balls my kids had in their rooms and wrapped them with black yarn and then some black eyelash or fun fur yarn. I think Styrofoam balls would be loads easier, but I didn’t have any on hand. However, if you want to buy some you can get a bag of them for $1 at DollarTree.

For the spider’s legs I used floral wire and then strung it with black Indian beads. To finish off the ends, I used a black perler bead to cover the twisted wire and a small black button for the bottom of the feet.

For the bat I cut the wings out of some felt. I pinched the back closed with a few stitches to get them to stick out and then I sewed them to the body.

Download and use my bat wing pattern (PDF).

For the eyes I just sewed on buttons. I recommend putting the eyes on last so that you can align them with the legs or the wings. It is easier to get the eyes placed exactly where you want them then the legs or wings.

When I was done, I just strung them up with some black string.

I love how something you make can seem to have so much personality. I love looking at the two little guys. I am going to make some to hang in the house because I hardly ever get to see them out on my front door.

And my Halloween wreaths cost nothing to make. It was all just scraps I had in my craft room! I love how limiting your resources forces you to be more creative and you often turn out with something much cuter than if you had an unlimited budget.

Plus if you are having to raid your food budget to support your crafting habit, that is a sure fire way to know you have a serious addiction. And you need help. Seriously. Go get some help.

See who else took up the challenge! >>