Valentine's Day Wreath

From September through the first of January, my house is full of festive holiday decorations.  From pumpkins to scarecrows, turkeys to Christmas trees, twinkle lights to cheerful wrapping paper, my house looks great.  Come January 2, my house is naked.  With the chill of winter, I so want my home to have that cozy feel from the past few months but it just isn't there.  This year I decided to do a little Valentine's decorating, starting with this wreath.  I'll give you a little tutorial, but know that I'm no authority on crafting.  This is one of those wreaths where you tie pieces of fabric around a foam circle.  Here goes:

You'll need one of these styrofoam circles from the craft store.  They even have heart-shaped ones if you're feeling really festive.  I had 2 kinds of fabric so it would have some detail, but the lighter paisley one frayed too much.  I just had to stick with the red polka-dotted one.

You'll need to lay a foundation to prevent peeks of the ugly green foam from showing through your fabric pieces.  I used some scrap ribbon and also pieces of the fabric I was using to do this.  I secured it with my glue gun.

I decided to make each piece about 1 inch wide and 12 inches long.  Do you see my makeshift cutting board?  I don't have one of those self-healing mats [read: YET] so I decided to make one from a cake board.  It was a dumb idea.  I ended up just cutting on the table and it was fine.  I'm just trying to save you from the same mistake.

Once you have your fabric strips cut [I used way more than this], you're ready to begin!

Here's a closeup of the side.  I added pieces of ribbon to break up the monotony of the fabric.

I think it would look better if the fabric was colored on both sides.  Oh well; if at first you don't succeed, tie, tie again!  Ok, that was corny.

I hot glued a piece of strong ribbon to the back and made a loop to hang it with.  It looks great on our bedroom door!  I hope this inspires you to give your house a little winter pick-me-up.