Adam Nguyen's Blog: Kate makes three “spooktacular” Halloween wreaths

We all know just how Kitschmas Krafty Krazy Pam gets around the holidays — especially when it comes to ornament wreaths. I made a three Christmas wreaths that first year, but to be honest, I just don’t get as Kitschmas Krazy as Pam does, so making three Christmas ornament wreaths was enough for me. But fast forward a few years — to when I saw reader Erika’s Halloween ornament wreath — made using our tutorial — and I got bit by the Kreepy Krafty ~~spider~~ bug — big time. The results: three spooktacular Halloween ornament wreaths that were so much fun to make!

After zipping around town to pick up all the necessities…:

Wreath form, black and orange ornaments, plastic gourds, glitter balls, glitter spiders, skeleton hands, crow and floral items from Michaels
Zombie figurine, zombie arm, rubber bat from Menards
Plastic spiders, striped pumpkins and mini gourds from Target
Garland and plastic skulls from Walmart
Black and orange garland from Party City

… I got home and immediately heated up my Surebonder high heat glue gun (affiliate link).

Looking at my stash of goodies, it seemed like I had enough to make three different wreaths. I decided to give each one a theme to ensure that I came out in the end with three distinctly different Halloween wreaths.

Halloween ornament wreath #1 — Thriller

For the first wreath, I used black and orange evenly, along with a few pops of greenish yellow and white to add some pizzazz. To get myself in the right state of mind, I fired up my CD player and put Michael Jackson’s Thriller on repeat. Thus the zombie/raising from the dead theme of this first wreath. Tee hee hee.

I yanked the string out of the rubber bat and replaced it with the same picture hanger wire that I used to make the wreath hanger, so that the bat could hang from the wreath form and “fly around” freely in the middle without going too far. The zombie hand is actually on wheels! It was a “pull back racer toy” that I nabbed at Menards for 49 cents!

Wreath #2 — Nevermore

I wanted my second wreath to be predominately black with strong pops or white and some blood reddish orange to dial up the creepy factor. When I first bought the crow, I thought it might be too big for the 12″ wreath form, but to my surprise, I managed to arrange it so that it feels like just the right size. The bird’s feet are straddling the wreath form. Had I tried to put this bird on the top of the wreath, I think it would have felt too large and top heavy — but at the bottom, it works wonderfully!

I made sure to use a lot of skulls and skeleton hands, and spiders to make this wreath super creepy. I think it worked!

Wreath #3 — The ghost of Jack-O-Lantern

By the time I got to the third wreath, I had lots of orange ornaments left to work with, and since orange is my #1 favorite happy color, I knew I had to make one wreath that was predominately orange. Because I’m such an orange nut, pumpkins have always been my favorite symbol of fall and Halloween, so I filled this final wreath with loads of them. Bright orange, orange-and-black striped, and a few black-and-white elements thrown in there for good measure. I wanted this particular wreath to feel like you were walking through a spider infested creepy pumpkin patch — with glitter! — and I think the end result is perfect.

I’m not sure which of the three wreaths is my favorite — but I love that they all have a distinct theme and color story. Currently, I’m contemplating using my leftovers from these wreaths to make a Thanksgiving themed wreath — mostly orange of course — I think I’m hooked!