Crush On Colour: Colour Me Autumn

I am SO excited to share today's project with you! It's been coming together bit-by-bit for the last two weeks - it was an idea, then it was in the works, then it got taken apart entirely and I started over... and finally, we are here! The wreath is done and the tutorial is ready for you! I even made a pinnable image for you - clearly, I was feeling ambitious. :)

This wreath all began when I won a package of Color Me Autumn DSP at a Stampin' Up event. I love the colours in this paper, but I rarely use DSP and knew I'd barely put a dent in it before the season was over, so I wanted to turn the whole package into something fabulous. A wreath was the perfect idea - beautiful colours for autumn/Thanksgiving, and it can stay in my home for years to come.

Your supply list is as follows:
-One package of Stampin' Up DSP of your choice. I used Color Me Autumn from the Holiday Catalog 2014. I needed 12 sheets.
-Bone Folder.
-Extruded wreath form. Mine was around 10-12 inches (but I didn't measure it first! Bad blogger!)
-Hot glue gun.
-Glue sticks for your glue gun. SO MANY. Like, all of the glue sticks. Just buy out the store and if there's any left, you can return them later. (In all seriousness, I used about 25-30 glue sticks.)
-Stapler.
-Cardstock, ribbon, scissors, etc. for embellishments.

I'm going to teach you how to make the wreath - it's super easy, I promise. The embellishments can be added or not, and changed as you see fit.

Step 1. Cut that DSP! Cut each piece into 1" strips, then cut each strip into 4" sections. Each piece of DSP will give you 36 strips that each measure 1x4". Cut all 12 sheets, giving you 432 strips of paper.

Step 2. Using your bone folder, curl each strip of paper slightly.

TIP! Your paper is double-sided. Make sure you separate the strips into even piles of each print of paper, so both sides are used evenly. When curling, make sure you curl "right side up" for both sets of prints.

Step 3. Using your stapler, staple each strip into a loop, as shown below.

Step 4. Repeat. Only 431 more to go! Phew, wasn't that fun??

Step 5. Using your hot glue gun, adhere the first loop to the wreath form. Glue the flat (stapled) part of the loop to the wreath form, leaving the loopy part unattached. The loops should face sideways. In other words - if you're holding the form upright, the staple should run vertically. See picture below.

Step 6. Repeat (again, only 431 more to go!) Work in rows, creating a circle of paper loops around the wreath form. On your next row, stagger the pieces (like bricks), overlapping and covering the gaps. Your spacing won't be perfect (or at least mine wasn't!) so I highly recommend starting at the front of your wreath so at least the important part looks good.

Step 7. Keep at it! When you get to the end, your space will be tight - I recommend enlisting a buddy to hold down the starting loops so you can tuck in the last ones and fill the gap.

That's it! You're done! If you want to, you can embellish as desired - I used Mossy Meadow, Crushed Curry, Cajun Craze and Blackberry Bliss cardstock to make flowers, then swirled some Burlap Ribbon in. Everything was attached with hot glue (much to the chagrin of my poor fingertips! I really shouldn't be left unsupervised with hot tools...)

Happy crafting!