A Valentine Craft

I saw on pinterest last year sometime the idea of using a pool noodle to make a wreath. So I bought one from the dollar tree and it sat in my closet until last week! Finally pulled it out and decided to try it. My first thought was to cover it in yarn for a home-made looking wreath for the front door. So I pulled the noodle into a circle and taped the ends to make a circle. The tutorial I was reading said you could actually cut it in half and make two wreaths for the price of one, so I pulled out the serrated Cutco knife and split it up:

Since my noodle was green I thought maybe giving it a light covering with a solid spray paint color would help the yarn not to have to be so precise in it's coverage. Well, for the first time in my life, spray paint failed me. It would appear that it doesn't adhere well to foam! 

So I scratched the painting idea and decided to try wrapping the yarn. At this point I also decided to do heart shapes instead of round for Valentine's Day, so I shaped the circles into hearts (this took a little eye-ball measuring when I cut the edges at an angle to fit together at the bottom of the heart, but nothing too strenuous).  Once again, I just taped it up into the shape I wanted. 

After spending about 10 minutes wrapping the yarn and only getting about an inch of the wreath covered, I quickly gave up on the yarn idea. Who has the time or patience? This was supposed to be a quick craft and already had taken too much time with all of my failed attempts! In an effort to wrap things up quickly (and literally!) I grabbed some leftover fabric I had and cut 1-1 1/2 inch strips out and wrapped it around the foam heart. Voila! Easy peasy, why didn't I start with this idea? I liked the idea of hanging them a little whopper-jawed (crooked, for you non-southerners), so here's the one in the entry:

And the other on the garage door:

The one inside is my favorite (the heart shape held better on that one, and I like the gray/white fabric much better than the plain white) - I was very pleased with how they turned out! Only a few wrong turns to get me there. :)