Welcome Autumn!

These are the autumn materials I had on hand. Enough of a variety to create my door hanging! What I didn't have was a base in which to put all these lovely leaves and berries. I was in the mood and didn't want to stop and go to the store...but I had a bright idea that worked out wonderfully. I had a wrapping paper tube! I cut it in half and glued it together leaving the edges staggered at the top and the bottom.

This is a preview of the edges of the tube.  If you can see the bottom of the right side tube, I used the edge of my scissors to poke a hole, I added hot glue to the hole and to the wire at the end of the leaves so it would stay in place. I continued to do this throughout the project, up and down the tubes.

Close up of the method used.

I started at each end first and worked my way toward the middle using just the foliage that I had on hand.

As I reached the middle, I added fullness to the body of the door hanging so the result would be tapered at the top and the bottom, fuller in the middle.

It was evident at this point that I should have wrapped the tubes after they were glued together –before I started adding the leaves and berries-- to camouflage the edge of the tubes. I’m OCD about this, so I couldn't let it go.  Even though I didn’t think of doing this before I started the project, I couldn’t QUIT thinking about it as the project progressed. I used wide orange ribbon and glued it to the sides and back of the wreath. Looks so much better! Would have been much easier to do if I had done this before the leaves, berries and bows were glued on. Instead of wrapping in ribbon, you could also paint the tubes a fall color.

After all the foliage was added, I started adding the berries and made a few bow tips to fill in. It started taking on a life of its own! 

A bit more detail with this close-up.  Finally I added the full bow to the top of the door hanging.  Using the cardboard tubes made it very easy to attach a pipe cleaner for hanging it to the door.

Welcome Autumn! 

Did I mention that this is my first post EVER!? Yikes, I hope I covered all the bases and didn’t leave anything too important out of my instructions. Be easy on me now! Constructive criticism only