Spooky Owl Wreath

This is the final Halloween craft I have planned for this year. The finished product is nothing like I envisioned when I started out. I think this may be even better.

I'd intended to make a wreath base from tree branches in our back yard. Lo and behold, my husband Dale has been johnny-on-the-spot and cleaned them all up as he prepped the yard for winter! So I moved to Plan B, which was finding a grapevine wreath in my stash. This was originally from Dollar Tree. The first thing I did was spray paint it black on both front and back, with two coats of paint.

The four fronds I used (also from Dollar Tree) are covered in glitter -- with a lot of fallout. So I took them outside and sprayed them with hairspray to contain some of the mess. It did a fairly good job, but there was still plenty of glitter to sweep up on the floor and table in my Studio by the end of the day. (It's worth it!)

Once all the components were dry, I began the decorating. I started by making a hanging loop on the back of the wreath from a black chenille stem (pipe cleaner). These were in my stash, left over from the Skeleton Wreath I made earlier.

It took three attempts to attach the fronds to the wreath form in a way that looked pleasing. I ended up cutting the frond "branches" apart, bending them into a slight arch, placing them on the wreath, and attaching them with chenille stems.

All the attempts at placing the fronds made some of the black paint scrape off the wreath. I used a black Sharpie to color in the most egregious spots.

When I hung it on the wall, I liked it, but it looked like it needed something else. I didn't want to add ribbon, because I wanted it to look more spooky than pretty -- even though it's covered in glitter. While I worked today, I was listening to the Audible book A History of Magic. I'd just finished listening to a chapter on Magical Creatures. Owls! I could add an owl!

I Googled images of owl silhouettes and found several good candidates. I settled on this one. I resized the image to approximately 6 inches tall. I printed it. Then pinned it to craft felt and cut it out using small, sharp embroidery scissors to get into the nooks, crannies, feathers, and talons.

Then I took another piece of chenille stem and whip stitched it to the back of the felt owl to give it a little stability and keep it upright. I tucked the owl into the fronds, which are holding him in place.

I put this wreath in our front entryway, flanked by a couple skeletons.

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To recreate this wreath if you have no supplies, it would cost approximately:
$ 1.00  grapevine wreath
$ 4.00  glitter fronds
$ 6.00  spray paint
$ 1.00  hair spray
$ 1.00  chenille stems
$ 1.00  black craft felt
$14.00 TOTAL

Since I had most of the supplies in my stash, it cost me $4.00 for the glitter fronds.