PRETTY PLASTIC EGG WREATH

I know what you're thinking. Seriously, Cara? Another Easter egg wreath? 

Yes, it's true that it is another egg wreath, but this one is way different cause it uses hot glue. And plastic eggs. And doesn't involve any littles hollering cause they have glue stick on their fingers. This is a grown-ups only wreath, and it's easy and super cute, and even better, suuuuper cheap!

I know it looks like a million bucks, well at least $20, but it wound up costing less than $4. That is not a misprint. Haha.

I got a big bag of eggs for $2 at my favorite store on earth, Target! My best friend, Peanut, and I decided the other day that if we had the money, we would buy our entire lives at Target. Furniture, shower curtains, clothes, strollers, groceries, towels, blenders, EVERYTHING. Whenever I tell Kinley that we are going on an adventure to Target, she starts running around and shrieking, so I think I must've passed down the bargain gene to her. :) (P.S. Don't errands sound so much more fun when you call them adventures?)

Okay, so $2 went towards eggs, and the rest of the stuff--ribbon, hot glue, paper--I already had in my craft heap. I used to have a nice organized craft room, and then it turned into Kinley's room, so all of my craft stuff got thrown in a heap in Dave's Man Room. So, now my craft room is a pile of fun stuff. Someday I'll get it organized again, like when Kinley is a teenager. In the meantime, I just like to think of going in there to get something as hunting for treasure. It keeps the little bit of OCD I have left under control.

I saw an idea for this wreath on Pinterest, but once again my link led to nowhere, so I just made up my own rules.

Here's your materials list:

Plastic eggs (I think mine had 48 small eggs and I only had 2 left for Kinley to play with. If you don't find the bag I used, and end up using bigger eggs, you will just have to experiment.)

An old box or thick cardboard

One piece of 12 x 12 cardstock or scrapbook paper (whatever pattern or color you choose, it's just to cover the ugly cardboard. You can see it a little from different angles.)

Ribbon

Glue stick 

Hot glue gun + hot glue sticks

Easter grass (optional)

First thing's first, plug in your hot glue gun so it can start warming up. There's nothing more annoying than a cold glue gun when you are ready to use it. 

Now, for step one: find something to trace for the outer ring of your wreath. Make sure it's big enough to fill most of your 12 x 12 sheet of paper. I used a mixing bowl.

Now, find something to trace for the inner ring of your wreath. Not too thick, not too skinny, Baby Bear size (you know, just right.) Make sure it's as close to centered as you can get it, otherwise your wreath will end up looking a little wonky.

Next, just cut out your paper ring and trace it onto your box or piece of cardboard.

This is the awful part. Cut out your cardboard circle. Cutting cardboard is the worst. If your scissors get a bit dull, just use them to cut through some aluminum foil. Martha Stewart taught me that sharpening trick on TV when I was little. Good ol' Martha :)

Make sure you line up your two rings as well as you can, since your circles won't be exactly perfect. Now, use your glue stick and coat the cardboard REALLY well, and stick your paper circle on. Make sure it's stuck on tight!

I had to trim a little off where mine didn't match up perfectly...ugh, more cardboard cutting.

Bring on the eggs. I figured out what pattern I wanted before I started. You don't have to do a pattern, it would probably look awesome all random. You could even let your kiddo help with this part by choosing which should come next or, if they are older, making their own pattern.

I wanted to do rainbow order, like this:

Now it's time to stick. I just grabbed two eggs and held them on the wreath to see where exactly my hot glue blobs needed to be, and then stuck them down.

Now, just keep gluing. There's no trick to this. Just line them up however they fit best and try to keep them even so that the tips of the eggs on the inside ring are all hanging off the wreath the same amount, and the outer ring eggs are, too.

I don't really know how to describe what I mean...maybe this picture will help?

Continue gluing until you can't fit anymore. I had a gap at the top of mine, but don't worry, totally fixable.

Now is a good time to pick off some of your hot glue strings. I wish I would've done that at this stage. I waited til the end and they were all tangled and frustrating.

Next step, putting the row of eggs down the center. The original Pinterest picture had all the eggs going in one direction in a straight line, and you could totally do that, but I wanted to make it look a little more fun, so I just arranged them my own way and hot-glued them down.

Okay, so back to the empty space. First, I tucked the piece of ribbon I wanted to use for the hanger in the gap and hot glued the two ends on the back to make a loop. Then, I glued one last egg to fill in the row of eggs in the center.

I added a big ribbon bow, hot glued that to the fill-in egg, and VOILA!

I was going to fill in the wreath with iridescent Easter grass, but I didn't know how I was gonna get it to stick and I already liked how it looked without, so I decided to just leave it plain. 

It looks really cute and happy on our front door. I was so happy to put away the winter wreath, but Dave was even more happy to see that thing head to the basement. Our winter wreath is one of those that looks like frosted branches with little plastic crystal things that fall off everywhere and wind up in your shoes and digging into your bare feet. He hates it. 

Anyway, if you give this project a try, I'd love to see your results. And let me know if you have any questions! I'd love to help :)

Happy Spring!