By Gabby
Today I'm trading my pistol for a glue gun and getting into the holiday spirit, while showing off some gun girl style. You may not know this, but one of my other favorite hobbies is crafting. I will spell out directions to the wreath I created, but just remember that there is absolutely no wrong way to do it. crafty gun girl tip: Never use a hot glue gun on live rounds [tweet this]
Starting with a foam form, I loosely wrap a length of burlap ribbon, leaving tails at the beginning and end (the top), so that the wreath will appear to hang from these.
Having collected many rifle casings from my range visits I decided this was the perfect opportunity to use them. I take a length of 18 gauge floral wire and twist one end to create a place for the glue to cling. I create “picks” like those that can be found in the floral section of the craft store. I’ve never seen a store that sells picks like these, but I wish they did. Because of this, I had to make them myself.
I wanted the casings to fall randomly around the wreath, but I’ve found that the look of randomness is harder to achieve than it appears. I also want to make sure the casings are evenly spread out, for looks and for weight. So I first divide the “picks” into one of four quadrants and then move around the wreath sticking one or two at a time.
I really like the look of organized chaos when it comes to this project, so I am going to have all the foliage and casings come off the circle in a tangential spiral. I next lay out the foliage I will layer under the ribbon. I glue each piece of greenery to the form, lifting the wreath often to make sure I am getting a full look that is also even.
I tie a bow with the tails of ribbon, adding a secondary ribbon of another color for more depth. A wire in the back will be what actually carries the weight of the wreath so I hide the loop behind the ribbon and tie it together with a small hidden piece of wire. Once this is done I can really hang this thing up and take a look at what I’ve got. Unfortunately this is when I decide that my wreath doesn’t look nearly full enough. So I flip the whole thing over and begin gluing greenery and wired ribbon to the back of the form, following the same lines I created in the front. I also scrunch some ribbon in the center of the form and feel grateful that I’m using wired ribbon which will hold whatever shape I want.
Still feeling like my wreath was looking a little empty, I add gold tipped mini pinecones between the rifle casings. These pinecones already had a little wire wrapped around them to turn them into floral picks, but I added the gold edges. Videos showing the whole process can be found here.
- High heat glue gun will give you longer work time and is especially helpful for working with metal
- Wash hands after playing with spent casings
- Never use hot glue gun on live rounds
No comments:
Post a Comment