No Cost Wreath

I wanted a fall wreath since fall began but did not want to spend any money for it. I know that wreaths can be rather inexpensive but since I quit my job, we been trying to operate on a smart spending budget therefore I wasn't going to buy one. What I like about the situation is that It makes me think out of the box. I kept telling myself that if I can just create the frame of the wreath I could use some of my other fall decor to fill it out. The problem was that I could not figure out how to make the frame. That is until the other day. While in the kitchen washing the few dishes that the dishwasher slacked on I was looking out the window at the few leaves that had blown into our yard. I also took notice of the two small trees that Chris had moved from our front yard to the corner of our backyard when we moved in.

I thought to myself, I could use natural leaves for my wreath, but I still could not figure out the frame until I remembered something. I asked my family to start saving empty tissue and paper towel rolls for me for a project I wanted to try.

I wondered if I could use those very same empty rolls for a new project, a wreath project. So I began to tinker around with it. I took out a few empty rolls and I put them together fitting one into another. When I saw that it was working I hot glued them to make sure they stuck.

Now that I had this funny looking octagonal cardboard shape with paper towel pieces still attached to it, I decided to paint it so it would at least match the leaves if seen. We were fortunate to have already owned some copper-ish metallic spray paint by Rustoleum that we used for frames in our wedding.

Later Chris offered to help me go outback to our little tree and around the neighborhood and start collecting leaves.

I'm sure we looked a little weird lol. It's one thing to be working on a school project with a child, it's another when you're collecting leaves for a wreath obsessed wanna be crafter. The painted wreath frame turned out great!

 The next day I prepared the leaves by drying them out using an iron and wax paper:

Then laid them out to cool a bit:

Next I hot glued each leaf to the frame one at a time and ended up with this!

Then...I ran out of hot glue sticks and since craft glue wouldn't work I couldn't finish adding the leaves to fill it out. So, until I go out and get some glue gun refills, this will have to do :-)

I think it's lovely!

Tatum

Linking to Craft-o-maniac ,  Motivate me Monday at Keeping It Simple, Trash to Treasure Tuesdays!