$10 DIY Fall Wreath

School started today for Matthew and I's Alma-Mater (GO PANTHERS!) and as school starts I always get into the fall mood.  The start of school means football games, cooler weather and the smell of some great tailgating food!  Although this week doesn't feel like the start of fall (90+ all week...ew!)  I made this fall wreath before our weekends started getting busy with football games.  

This wreath cost me a total of $8 and I will get a good 3 months use out of it!




I took a piece of quarter inch plywood we had left over from an older project and used this as my frame.  This was the perfect weight for a sturdy wreath.  You can also use foam core board but after purchasing some that was too short in width I decided I liked the plywood over the foam core board.  It will be easier to store and doesn't shed all that little white stuff! 

I cut the plywood 20 inches wide by 20 inches long and made the outer edges 4 inches thick.  I landed on 4 inches after laying out the leaves I had purchased.  If you buy leaves that are smaller I would recommend making your thickness smaller as well.  

If you don't like the square wreath you can always buy a 20 inch circle one that is already cut out and ready to go! 

It's on days like this I am grateful for my husbands wood working skills! :)  

The only cost I had in this wreath was the $8  I spent on the leaves...Which I purchased at Dollar Tree!  They were $1 a piece for 10 leaves of each color.  I purchased 2 packages of each color because I wanted my wreath to be full.  You could get away with purchasing less, I just wanted to have enough options rather than run back to the store for more! 

I took the leaves and cut most of the stem off.  I had first tried using the stem but found it got in the way and looked a bit out of place.  I still wanted the feel of a stem on the bottom so I left about a quarter of an inch on all of them.  

The reason why I chose these leaves over other ones I found at Hobby Lobby or Michael's was because they were made from Crepe Paper.  Which meant they were easy to manipulate into looking more real.  I just took the leaf, crunched it up in my handle and gave it a wrinkled look. 

Don't worry if the paper rips when you are crunching them up.  It gives it a more real look!  

Once I crunched all the leaves up I started hot gluing.  I started on the bottom right corner and worked my way around the wreath.  There is no reason for where the leaves went, I just placed them where I thought they looked best. 

After you've finished just look all around to make sure you don't have any obvious holes or bare spaces.  If you do, just hot glue more leaves in!

 I also printed a little "FALL" sign out of tan construction paper I had laying around and attached it with some twine.  I thought it brought a little bit of fun into the middle of the wreath without it being too much. 

You can make this wreath as expensive or cheap as you'd like and also make it your own.  If you don't like the "FALL" sign you can hang a small plastic pumpkin from the middle, your monogram, or just leave it plain.  This wreath took me 1 hour to make and is so simple even a new DIYer can handle it.  

HAPPY FALL and GO PANTHERS!