Knotty and Nice

Dress your door with a winter wreath made from Christmas balls all wrapped up cozy and warm.

Materials:
Wreath shown has approx. 45 wrapped balls.

• a variety of sizes of plastic Christmas balls
• small silver balls (filler, not wrapped with rope)
• glue gun 2047-152
• hardware cloth 5258-927 (back of wreath)
• 1/4" plywood (back of wreath)
• construction adhesive 2030-536
• fine wire or pipe cleaners
• floral moss

Ropes:

Home has a wide variety of natural ropes. Select the ones that suit your style.

• 1/4" sisal twisted 5460-538
• sisal twine 5462-554
• jute 5462-153
• heavy jute 5462-180
• cotton awning 1/8" 5461-000
• cotton awning 7/64" 5461-001
• cotton twine 5464-133
• silver ball chain

Here's How

Wrap the plastic balls in a variety of natural ropes. I used two methods:

1. Circular Wrap : Start at the base of the stem (where you hang the ball) and wrap the rope in a circular pattern, holding in place with hot glue.
2. Circular Wrap with Random Overlay : Cover the ball as above, then wrap the rope all over the ball until it resembles a ball of wool. Hot glue during the process so it does not unravel.

Wreath base or form

• Cut two layers of hardware cloth approx. 20" in diameter. Cut an inner circle approx. 10-12".
• Hold the two pieces together with fine wire or pipe cleaners.
• Wire the balls on the wreath in a pleasing pattern. As the wreath fills in, start to hot glue the balls in place.
• Before finishing the wreath, cut the plywood to fit the back of the wreath and glue in place with construction adhesive. Let set.
• Finish the wreath by hot gluing smaller silver balls in the gaps. Tuck tiny amounts of floral moss to fill any remaining voids.
• Place a wire on the back to hang wreath on the door.

Bev's Tips

I like the texture of the silver ball chain; however, it costs much more than rope so use as accents.
When hot gluing, keep a glass of cold water handy. If any hot glue gets on your fingers, just dip in water for instant relief !