Craft day: Making an ornament wreath

Today, I was feeling Christmas-y. I wanted to do something fun that would also be productive. So, thanks to Pinterest, my interest was piqued in the form of an ornament wreath. It looked simple enough, so I set off to the dollar store, as the tutorial assured me I could make this wreath for only $10. 

The tutorial lied. 

After a completely unsuccessful jaunt to the Dollar Tree, I settled for Meijer, as the roads were slick, and I did not want to spend the bulk of the day running around from store to store. Meijer had everything I needed, but I debated how much of everything I would need. Note: You'll need more than you think. 

Supplies, slightly after I started working.

I purchased a 16" wreath form (a smaller one would have sufficed, but they didn't have one on the shelf), two tubes of large ornaments, two boxes of medium ornaments, and a box of small ornaments. I decided on silver, blue, and purple jewel tones, because I wanted to make something that could stay up through the winter and would still look appropriate. 

So, first, I separated the bulbs from their hangers. 

Bulbs!

Hangers, which stayed off the wreath. 

After they were separated, I hot glued a row of of ornaments to the inner ring with the stems up, and then glued a row to the outer ring, also with the stems up, before turning it over and starting to put more ornaments on the front. 

This is where I ran into the next problem. After putting all of the ornaments on the wreath, it looked something like this:

Umm, not exactly the look I was going for.

So, back to Meijer I went to get another round of all of the different sized ornaments. I wanted to go today, though, because I was worried the colors I'd purchased would be out if I waited (and they were on sale!). So, I came home, and continued adding bulbs to the wreath, and when I had finished, I had this! 

Boom! Ornament wreath! 

And, on the front door! 

Overall, I'm REALLY happy with the way it turned out! I think, in hindsight, I would have picked up just one more package of smaller ornaments. And I wouldn't have used the white, sparkly ornaments (I think they look like holes in the picture, but they look really nice on the wreath!). 

My wreath cost closer to $30, but I plan to take good care of it so that I can use it year after year. Happy camper here! Dinner is in the oven, I'm about to get down to some grading, and I did a great new leg workout today for skinny jeans.

Have you ever made a fun Christmas craft and it went differently than you expected? Or just me? :)