Halfway done now, which means 12 days to Christmas! Start singing!

Years ago, I found in my possession some 12″ plastic icicles with loops on one end. By “some” I mean around 400 of them. I have used a few for my own holiday decorations, but there was no way I was going to use all of them easily. I also had a foam wreath form and I decided to use this and the icicles to make a wreath.

Materials:

• Icicles (mine are plastic, wood dowels would work as well)
• Foam circle
• Silver spray paint
• Green paint and brush
• Tacky Glue
• Hobby lichen in various shades of green
• Mod Podge Acrylic Spray
• 12″ piece of heavy wire (about 15 gauge)

First, I pressed the plastic icicles into the outside of wreath form, removed them, dabbed tacky  glue into the hole, and pressed the icicle back into the hole. I did this all around the wreath form alternating so that one was close to the front edge of the wreath and the next was close to the backside edge of the wreath. After this, I left the wreath for a couple of days to make sure the glue was dried really well.

Then, I covered my outdoor, cheapy, plastic patio table with wax paper and laid out my wreath in preparation for painting. I sprayed the icicles with the silver spray paint. I did a very light coat as I wanted the bubbles in the plastic to show through. I also just wanted to hint at the silver color. Once it was dry, I flipped the wreath over and sprayed the other side.

You should also add the hook for the wreath here. I did mine later and it was much more complicated to add. It would have been so much easier to do it before I started adding the lichen. I bent the heavy gauge wire into a hook and wrapped it around the wreath form with a hook at the top to hang it.

Fortunately, we have had some beautiful weather here and spraying outside has been very easy and enjoyable. I did not have to do this in the garage.

Next, I started squeezing on tacky glue and then adding the lichen to the foam wreath form, mixing the colors and styles of lichen that I had. This took several days as I took my time, and again, made sure that the glue had plenty of time to dry. I would gently shake the wreath occasionally to dislodge any loose pieces and add glue and more lichen where needed.

Once the glue had dried, I carried my wreath back out to my wax covered table and sprayed Mod Podge Acrylic Spray. This gave a nice top coat and helps to hold the lichen in place.

Then, I hung it (I knew it was big, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that it fit on my door, I will be hanging it from my loft later) and took some final photos.

I am still trying to use materials I have in my house and spend as little money as possible on this advent event. The lichen we had was from about 10 years ago when my husband and I made some set pieces for our role playing gaming. We hadn’t used it in years, so I finished it off with this project. Plus, it suits us, our hobby of role playing games and artistic talent all in one wreath! I like it!

Happy Crafting!

Kristin