These wreaths are ridiculously expensive at the craft stores and florists. In this tutorial, I will show you how to make a great Halloween wreath AND save yourself some money!

Step 1: Materials

You will need the following items:
16" Straw Wreath
1 Roll Black Deco Mesh 21" X 10 yds
Various Decorations to attach
Scissors
Glue Gun & Glue Sticks
Bar Pins
Floral Pins
Wire Cutters
Wired Ribbon

Step 2: Wrapping the Wreath

To make sure that your wreath looks nice even from the back, you will need to first wrap it with coordinating deco mesh. When you buy your straw wreath, it will be wrapped in plastic. Leave this plastic on!!! Trust me....if you don't, you will have little pieces of straw everywhere. To save money, I cut about a 30" piece of deco mesh off the roll I'm going to use. I then cut it in half lengthwise. Attach one corner of the mesh to the wreath using a floral pin. Wrap the mesh diagonally around the wreath making sure to keep it tight against the straw. If necessary, use additional floral pins as you go. When you finish using the first piece of mesh, attach the second piece and continue until the entire wreath is covered; secure with floral pin.

Step 3: Making the Wreath

Gather one end of the mesh in your hand; attach it to the top of the wreath with a floral pin. Attaching it to the top rather than the front of the wreath will allow you to make your wreath look larger. Once attached, grab the mesh about 12" from where you attached it. Gather it together and secure it to the wreath with a floral pin about 6" from your beginning. Continue to do this until you get all the way around the wreath once. Make sure you fluff the deco mesh out as you go. For your second row, make sure you make your loops and attach them middle ways of each of the loops on your first row. Continue to do this row after row until you are satisfied with the fullness of your wreath.

Step 4: Decorating the Wreath

Once your wreath is completed, you can decorate it! Bar Pins are great; you can hot glue them to the back of your decorations and use them to attach (and move and reattach, and move and reattach, move, reattach, well....you get the picture!) these decorations to your wreath. The floral wire can be cut with the wire cutters and used to attach bigger items such as the big center piece I used. Simply cut the floral wire, attach it to your object, run the ends of it through your deco mesh and twist it to secure it. Make sure to cut off any excess.

Step 5: Making the Bow

By far, the hardest part of making wreaths for me was learning to make those stupid bows! Those big, beautiful, magnificent, STUPID bows!!! The one day it finally clicked and I could make bows and they were no longer stupid. First of all, use a good, sturdy WIRED ribbon. Pull a length off the roll of ribbon that is as long as you want your tails to be. Remember to make it a little longer if you're planning to curl it like this one. Once you've pulled off the length you want, twist the ribbon once and pinch it. Make one small loop, pinch the end and twist it again, this will be the center of your bow. Take the ribbon that is still attached to the roll and make one loop with it, pinch it and twist it once. You twist the ribbon after each loop so the the top side of the ribbon (the decorative side) is always facing up. You pinch them all together in the middle so that you can tie it all up later. After you pinch and twist the first loop, make another loop on the other side, pinch and twist it. Continue doing this until you have as many loops as you want, I usually have 6 total, 3 on each side. When you've finished all of your loops, leave an equal amount of ribbon on the last end as you did in the beginning-this will be your other tail. Cut a piece of floral wire about 12" long and run this through the center of your bow. Twist it very tightly at the back of the bow to secure all of your loops. Pull both tails around to the front and fluff out your loops. Once your hand that has been holding all that ribbon quits cramping, give yourself a big pat on the back! Quick note: even if you think your bow isn't looking all that pretty, keep going and see it through. It often ends up looking quite nice when all is said and done.

Step 6: Hanging the Wreath

When you're through decorating your wreath, grab one of your floral pins. Looking at the back of your wreath, locate the top center of it and push the floral pin in about halfway. Hot glue around it to secure it in place. This can then be used to hang your wreath on a 3M hook, wreath hangar, thumb tack etc.