^ This is the inspiration that I got from Martha Stewart. She had a really neat idea and I really like that it was matte and subtle.
Last year I found a wreath of branches at Hobby Lobby on sale half price (love a deal) and hot glued rubber snakes all over it and then sprayed it with black multi purpose paint. It looked great and my mom even asked for one when she saw mine. I was so excited.
^ This is how my wreath looked this year. All my snakes fell off! I fell in love with this shape when I saw it because I thought it looked a little creepier and less store bought. The extra twigs that were not trimmed off made it look even better. This looks like a perfect snake den to me, feel free to experiment with different shapes and sizes. You can also make them in different colors or you can add details to the snakes so they stand out more.
^ You can see all the spaces where the paint is missing because the snakes are gone this year. I was pretty disappointed that ALL of the snakes fell off before I even used it one season. This is not from packing or storage, they came off the next day!
^ I pulled all of the extra hot glue off of the wreath, it came off pretty easily. I was just left with a black wreath with some weird spots on it.
This is where you would start if you did not have to do any repairs and had a fresh wreath to work with.
I ordered more rubber snakes from OrientalTrading.com and started to glue them back on to the wreath.
Since hot glue was clearly not working I decided to go with a sure fire adhesive, E6000. I started using this in Art class in high school since it glues almost any surface to any other surface and is strong while it is still easy to work with.
I like to spread the snakes out as I glue so that I get the wreath covered pretty evenly, if you like it more random then do it however looks good to you.
^ Here is a photo of the wreath once all of the snakes were glued on. The bright colors make it easy to see where I placed the snakes and how they are woven together and through the twigs organically.
^ I wanted to show you my spray painting set up also. I usually paint my projects at my parents' house since they have the room and we live in an apartment but I was impatient and had a small area to paint this time. I used a plastic tablecloth folded in half, I taped it to the balcony railing so I would protect that surface and then taped it to the ground so the wind would not move anything.
I sprayed the wreath with satin black paint and covered every inch that I could see. This was a really quick process since the wreath was already mostly black. It takes a little longer when you do it the first time because you really have to spray it from every angle. I did a general coat on the front and then just rotated it around to get all the sides. Once it was dry I sprayed it from the back and inspected it for any hints of color or unpainted twigs. (I actually noticed a spot that I missed after it was hung and took it down to do another quick spray.)
Here is the finished wreath.
And here it is hanging on my door. I really love the way it turned out.
Tell me what you think. Any suggestions for making a different version? Anything I can do to explain the process better? Leave me a comment.
~Liz
very cool
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