HTTC - Skeleton Wreath

OK I’m in love with Halloween and swore last year that I was going to do the house up big so all the kids in the neighborhood would come trick or treating at my door.  I’ve been doing pretty good, with the final touches going up this weekend, but my door looked pretty bare.  I decided to add a Halloween wreath but one that wouldn’t be too creepy to scare the super little trick or treaters I hope to get more of this year.  Here’s what you’ll need.

Supplies

Felt 

White - 3 sheets 

Purple - 2 sheets

Neon Green - 1 sheet

Dark grey - 1/2 yard (I bought this off the bolt since it needed to be wider than the felt sheets you get from the craft isle.  It was on sale at Joann for 2.75 a yard.)  

Grapevine wreath (any color)

Black spray paint

Black embroidery floss and needle

1 piece of white tissue paper (like for stuffing gift bags)

Glue gun with plenty of glue sticks

Scissors

Pruning snips(optional)


1.  First you’ll need to spray paint your grapevine wreath black.  This takes a couple passes because of all the nooks and crannies.  Do this first so you can go back and add coats or let it dry while assembling the rest of the wreath.

2.  To print out the skeleton template click here and download the file.  Feel free to resize the template if you have a larger or smaller wreath.  This guy fit nicely in my wreath that has a 11.5” opening.

3.  Go ahead and cut out all the individual paper pieces and plug in your glue gun so its ready to go.


4.  Pin each of the skeleton parts to your felt making sure you have enough room to cut out 2 of each skull, jaw, shoulder/collar bone and ribcage and 4 arm bones.  

Trace your templates onto the felt and cut them all out.

5.  Now we are going to hot glue the like pieces together.  So line up one felt ribcage on top of the other, lining up the edges and glue them to each other.  You are basically doubling the thickness of each template piece.  Repeat with all the other pieces but make sure you don’t add glue where your teeth are going to be.  Trust me on this one.  You should end up with two arms and one of everything else.

6.  Watch the video to learn how to sew the teeth gaps onto the skull and jaw bones.

7.  Take your tissue paper and place it under your dry wreath.  Now trace a circle around the inside opening of the wreath.  This will help you line up your skeleton so you know he will fit inside your wreath.

8.  Measure the diameter of your wreath from outside edge to outside edge.  Now cut two squares from your dark grey fabric with all four sides in that length.

9.  Take one of your dark grey felt squares and start laying out your skeleton on it the way you want it to look on the inside of your wreath.  Feel free to cut the neck down as I made it long on purpose for this adjustment step.  Periodically place your tissue paper template on top to make sure he will fit how you want.

10.  When you’re happy with your skeleton layout glue down all the pieces.  Use liberal amounts of glue as it will help stiffen your felt and make it more stable on the inside of your wreath.
Now trim the grey felt around your skeleton leaving a border.  Mine was about 1/2” all the way around.  Don’t forget to leave tabs at the top of his head, ends of arms and bottom of ribcage so we can attach him to the wreath later.  

11.  I wanted an added layer of the grey felt to reinforce and stiffen my skeleton more so glue your skeleton down on top of the other piece of dark grey felt.  Once again be liberal with your glue.  This time I left another border but it was only 1/4”.   You can see all four layers below.

12.  Here’s where we are going to cut out your happy halloween letters.  I just free hand drew the letters but if you’re not comfortable doing that just print out some in block lettering that you like.  I drew mine on a piece of scrap paper and then went over it with a black sharpie.  This is so your letters will show through to the other side of the paper.  (I always like to trace things on the back so if I make a mistake I don’t ruin a whole piece of felt.)  This way all your letters are already backwards and ready to be used as a reference.

13.  Now take your green felt and cut out 14 squares measuring 2” X 1.75”.  I make squares first so I know all my letters will be the same height.  Now draw your backwards letters onto each of the green blocks, making sure the vertical edge is 2” long, and cut them out.

14.  Glue your green letters down onto one of your purple felt sheets, leaving room in between letters, again being liberal with the glue.

15.  Now cut them out, leaving a 1/4” border of purple around the green.  Just like the skeleton I repeated this process with the other piece of purple felt for added rigidity and support, but I didn’t add another border the second time around.  Here’s what you felt letter sandwiches should look like.

16.  Cut out two small circles from scraps of your green felt and glue them down for the skeleton’s pupils.

17.  Next we will glue your letters down to the grapevine wreath.  I always like to start words in the middle so I know they won’t end up lopsided.  That means the 1st P in happy and the O in halloween will line up in the middle of the wreath.  Its also helpful to prop up your wreath so you can see things better.

18.  Last step is to glue your skeleton to the back of your wreath attaching it with glue at the tabs you left on the edges.  Make sure you use lots of glue.  We don’t want your skeleton falling off in a light breeze.

TADA!  Now you have a fun, festive and friendly door decoration to add to your halloween arsenal.  The bright colored felt was a plus too cuz you can read it from farther away.  

Happy Halloween!  

Craft on!

Anita

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