Saturday 23 December 2017

Holiday wreaths for dolls


I came across a simple way of making cute 1:6th wreaths a couple of years ago, sent a few to friends, and this time I had the obsessive idea of making a bunch of them to photograph together. Do you want to see how to make them too? I don't start decorating until the 24th, so this is actually me giving you a headstart :D These take very little time, don't worry!

There are many ways to make doll wreaths and trees from pipecleaners. I was inspired from the traditional 4-strand braid we use to make festive bread. It makes a nice full rope.

By Wikipedia user Ludek
I'll show you this technique (and then you can use it to braid bread dough also :))

You will need:
- 4 standard pipecleaners (300*6mm)
- an office clip or something similar
- decorations of your choice
- glue


1. Gather the pipecleaners, it's best when they are not aligned at the same length.


2. Clip the bunch close to one end.


3. Spread the pipecleaners in four directions just to see better what you are doing.


4. Cross the opposite sides over each other, but don't pull tight. It helps to put a finger on the middle and cross the pipecleaners over it.


5. Cross the other pair the same way.


6. Keep doing this until you reach the end. I usually sit on a sofa with the clip between my knees and use both hands to bend the pipecleaners.


See how loosely they are braided?

7. Now remove the clip and fix the ends if you need to.


All these uneven ends will help us achieve a smoother seam when we loop the braid into a wreath.

8. Connect the ends. Twist a pipecleaner from the beginning of the braid with one from the end.


Use your imagination. I usually twist the short ends together and curl the longer ones, then tuck them in where it looks like I could use some volume.


This is the result:


9. Now pull, scrunch, flatten, puff until you're happy with the shape. Only eight minutes have passed since the first photo!


10. Decorate! Glue beads and small items to your heart's content. I've tried a few glues, hot glue won for me because it dries instantly, holds well and doesn't smell.


I gathered some beads, ribbons (out of which I made fork bows), tiny real cones, ball chain and candy canes I'd made out of embroidery yarn soaked in PVA glue.

This is the finished wreath:


Done!
Repeat as many times as needed...


One thing I hate about hot glue is the hot mess it leaves behind!


It takes forever to remove all the strands from the wreaths.


Also some places could use a little glitter to cover glue accidents, but I didn't bother.
Here is my summary of the project:

^^'

And since I mentioned they are a perfect 1:6th size, check out Barbie holding one:


This was all! Hope you liked it! Do you decorate your doll displays for holidays? What do you use?

Happy Holidays and see you next year!

Blackkitty (^^)~

19 comments:

  1. Very pretty wreaths! I don't decorate my displays, but enjoy the many pictures on Flickr and blogs of doll Holiday pictures :-).
    Happy Holidays to you too, and best wishes for the next year! xxx

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    1. Second "pictures" needs to be "displays" of course!

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    2. Thank you! I don't usually have doll dioramas but this year I think all my decorating will happen on doll shelves because my cat completely destroyed my tree last year... and now I have two!

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  2. Wow, these are really gorgeous! I sometimes put out a little tree for my dolls, but I don't usually go beyond that. I really want to try this next year. So adorable!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you! I usually put a tree as well, maybe next year is finally when I'll write the tutorial for it as well. Good luck and Happy Holidays!

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  3. I did not see this post until today (Christmas). But I will definitely bookmark this for future reference! I have dolly Christmas trees in all of the rooms of the house. I think it would be fun to also have a few dolly wreathes around as well. Thank you for sharing! And happy holidays!

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    1. Hi! I love your dolly trees and decorations, always so fancy! Thank you for the kind comment and happy holidays to you as well!

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  4. I'm definitely going to make some of these wreaths! I would have loved to make a Christmas doll display this year, but the necessary creativity eluded me. I am working on a doll roombox with removable walls, which should make dioramas easier in the future.

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    Replies
    1. That sounds like a great plan! My Froggy Stuff recently made a Christmas display out of cheap foam board that looks absolutely amazing.

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  5. These are wonderful...thanks for sharing! I never seem to be able to craft anything Christmasy in the month beforehand, but now I have the whole winter to catch up, lol. Happy New Year!

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    1. Thank you! That happens to me as well... Ironically, I have zero holiday spirit this year and I made these because they are so easy to make and I didn't have anything else for an end of December post.

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  6. Those are just adorable! I love how easy to do they seem and yet the result is so beautiful.. *___* I'm totally putting this in my to-do list for this year, thank you lots for sharing! :D

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  7. They don't seem, they ARE easy! I think you should try :)

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  8. Hi BlackKitty! The Google Help guy is asking for examples of my comments that go to spam. If this does end up going to spam, would you throw it up on your blog for me?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wow, it looks like this has survived. At least for now...

      Delete
    2. The second one ended up in spam, I made a screenshot. Do you need it?

      Delete
  9. AWESOME. Many thanks, these are so, so cute. You've sure got me thinking about next Christmas now!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you! Winter holidays are my favourite.

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  10. Will be making this beautiful wreath & the teddy bears from your other tutorial, you're so talented, thank you! The bread looks amazing! Would you be so kind as to share your recipe? Hope you are well, Thank you!

    ReplyDelete

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