DIY Thankful Wreath

What better way to give thanks than by displaying what you are thankful for on a thankful wreath. I actually was supposed to finish this post a week ago, I posted a before photo to social media with the plans on following up with a few days.  Hurricane Mathew decided to plow through, we are here in North Carolina. Trees were down everywhere, had some flooding and power outages. At least five of the neighbors in my neighborhood had trees go right through their houses and luckily no one was hurt. It makes me really think about what it truly means to be thankful and really appreciate what I have.

Without power or the internet there is only so much you can do. Sitting powerless by quiet candlelight is a great time to reflect on the important things. Especially when you live in a community that really comes together to help each other out. There are also hidden things you can stumble upon when things are upside down. We had two trees fall in the back of our house, literally brushing the house and missing us.

During the clean-up, we found this.

I file that under…….. can’t make it up. This may turn into some really cool coasters (next project!).

 I had the same old wreath for years, it wasn’t that bad, just ordinary.

 This is my old faux wood wreath that you can find just about anywhere, last year I added a burlap ribbon………..yaaawwwnnnnn.  I wanted something pretty and different this year.

I had a can of spray paint already on hand. I cleaned it off and removed all the old decor. I gathered all the supplies, paint, face mask. gloves and an old box to paint on.

I did two coats with two different paints. Mainly, because It’s hard to tell how gold paint will turn out. I think the combo I used worked out great. The first coat was Rust-Oleum Universal All Surface Spray Paint, Metallic Pure Gold Following the instructions on the paint bottle, I sprayed it on in a well-ventilated area. Spray light coats and let dry, then repeat.

This was a pretty gold, but a little too beige for me. I added another two coats of Tulip ColorShot Instant Fabric Color. Gold Shimmer I know it’s labeled as fabric paint, it was what I had on hand and it worked well. You could use any type of gold spray paint in metallic or shimmer for a nice effect. I tested first on a real stick since this wreath is faux wood.

Once dry I simply added some gold bead decor from a local craft store.

I simply stick a couple of branches on top left and bottom inside for an added touch. I also stuck a little blackbird that hides because he matches the chalk background. The last thing is to get small chalkboard clips. You can easily use clothespins and pain a small circle with chalkboard paint and then glue on. I found some circle ones but you can use anything.

The only thing left was to write what I was thankful for, took a photo then erased so my kids could write what they are thankful for. Before the holidays, I will go back to the store and purchase extra chalkboard clips, I will leave them out with chalk for people to guests to write on. I used a pretty jeweled candle sconce to hold the chalk in the pictures.