Come on, baby, let the good times roll

I made a Mardi Gras wreath!  Mom has had one for many years in honor of her Louisiana heritage and I've always loved it.  I wanted one of my own once I had my own apartment, but I've never pulled the trigger on one because I never liked what I'd find, or if I did, the options were either too expensive or Mardi Gras fell too close to Valentine's Day (because of course I have something for the door for V-Day, too) to warrant the purchase.  But not this year!  After I saw the wreath that my friend Julie made (check out her blog and her sweet kiddos here), I knew this needed to become the year I finally made a wreath of my own. 

Here's what I started out with:

That would be an 18" wreath form, a 12' Mardi Gras garland (I actually ended up using 2 of these), 3 strands of beads, and a mask (although there was a second one that isn't pictured in this shot).  Everything but the wreath form is from Party City; the form is from Michael's.

So I started by wrapping the garland around the wreath form.  I used a stapler to connect the ends to form, which worked great and was way easier than using a glue gun.  Plus, I'll be honest and say I have no idea if I still have my glue gun, and even if I do, I don't know if I have any glue sticks.  So the stapler was my lazy but easy way to go.

This is the wreath fully wrapped:

Kind of reminds me of a short version of the hoops we had in drill team for 2 of our field routines, but with shorter ribbon.  Because that's always a good sign.  But in this case, it actually works, so let's proceed.

Up next: affixing the masks and beads.  Both of these came with elastic, so I just untied one end of the elastic on each of them and then tied them to the wreath.  Then I strung the beads across the wreath.

Then it was time to hang it.  I don't favor wreath hangers- I don't like the metal showing on the front door.  I think it generally takes away from whatever you're hanging on it.  I prefer to loop fishing line through my wreaths and hang them on a nail via the fishing line.  Invisible, easy, and adjustable to fit the appropriate height of the door, instead of being locked into whatever height your hanger stops at.  Here's the final product:

So there you have it!  And all for less than $20.  Laissez les bons temps rouler!