Carrot Easter Deco Mesh Wreath

For this project, We need:

26 gauge Floral wires – I got mine at Michaels in the dried flower area, but you can see an example here
1 roll of Orange Deco Mesh, 10-12″ in width
1 roll of Evergreen Tulle, 10 – 12″ in width
Pipe cleaners in orange and dark green or black
Small amount of orange grosgrain ribbon (for filling in blank spots)
Coordinating green ribbon
Spray starch, to stiffen the tulle

 

Step 1: Create the frame work. I started off by just creating the outline of a carrot like so, and then quickly realized that there was no way one layer of wire would be strong enough to hold the shape of the wreath. I also had originally planned to use horizontal sections as seen below to attach my deco-mesh, but quickly realized that wasn’t going to work either – there would be too many gaps. So. We moved on to step 2.
 

Step 2:  Reinforce the frame work, by wrapping multiple layers of wire around the original frame. Continue to add the horizontal sections, but create a tighter frame by adding vertical sections as well, creating a grid pattern. As you can see, I also added a handle to act as a hook for hanging, as well as to attached the tulle “leaves” to the top. In hindsight, I would recommend creating a tighter grid – I found that the size of sections still left gaps that were difficult to fill – a tighter grid would mean a tighter packed wreath and less gaps.
 

Although it’s hard to see, given my most awesome photography skills, I also bent the wreath to convex down the center, arching to top of the frame, giving the wreath more of a 3-D effect.

Step 3: Cut your deco-mesh into 12-36″ strips. I give a range, because you really want to work with the natural curls of the deco mesh, as found when you unravel it – it really makes it much easier to work with. To start with,  Cut your orange pipe cleaners in half.

Step 4: To begin, use a 12″ strip to weave in the orange deco-mesh strips starting from the bottom and working up. To do this, fold over the first inch of your strip and attach a piece of pipe cleaner to provide a tidy end to work with.
 

Step 5: Attach the strip to the frame work by weaving the open ends of the pipe cleaner through the bottom section of the frame work, then twist the pipe cleaner tightly to attach on the back side of the frame work. Approximately 6″ from the now attached end of the strip, add an additional pipe cleaner. Attach this pipe cleaner to the frame about 1/2″ from the first attached end, creating a loop.  Arrange the loop, twist the deco-mesh if needed to follow the natural curl, and add a final pipe cleaner to the open end, again, tucking under the end and attaching with a pipe cleaner. Again, attach approximately 1/2″ from the last attached end on the form, creating a loop. Tuck any open ends of deco-mesh strip.

This is what it will look like from the front..
 

And from the back..
 

The key is to really twist your deco-mesh in to the loop and keep your loops tight together and relatively small.

Step 6: Continue to weave deco-mesh strips up the frame, working from side to side in the same manner, starting with a strip of deco-mesh when needed, and looping and tucking as you go, up to, but not including the hanging handle.
 

Step 8: When you have filled in the frame, you will have something that looks like this – hopefully, yours will be a little tighter than mine was originally.. see the gaps? They could largely be eliminated by making sure your grid is tighter to begin with. See the messy counter behind me? Just ignore that.
 

Step 9: If you do have a few gaps, despite a tighter frame work, you can use the orange grosgrain ribbon to fill in and mask it. Simply weave a strip of ribbon, the width of the frame work, in and out on the back side of the frame.
 

Step 10: Attach the carrot “stem” using the tulle. I chose to stiffen the tulle first, as this wreath was going to be displayed outside. The humidity causes the tulle to go limp, especially if you are using a fairly fine mesh tulle, which is what I had on hand. To stiffen the tulle, begin my cutting your lengths of tulle. I used 8 lengths of tulle, approximately 20″ long. I then simply sprayed the lengths with a heavy starch and allowed to dry. If you live in a particularly damp or humid area, you could also used a thin layer of modge podge to stiffen the tulle as well – This is just not what I did.
 

Step 11: When they were dry, I used the dark green pipe cleaners, cut in half, to attach the tulle to the frame. I folded the tulle strip in half and attached the pipe cleaner through the fold. I then attached the end to the frame just under the hanger and fluffed the ends.
 

Step 12: Lastly, I slip-tied a coordinating, decorative, ribbon under the tulle, and added a few corkscrew curled pipe cleaners for a bit of whimsy.
 

Step 13: Hang it. You’re done. When Peter Cottontail comes hopping down the bunny trail, he’ll definitely be making a stop at your house!