Tutorial Tuesday #15 - Plate Wreath
01/11/2020
Well hello, it's certainly been awhile, but it's a new year with new resolutions so let's see how I do with this blogging thing. I'm so glad you're here.
Back in December I posted a photo on my Instagram feed (@suzanne_zingg) of a little plate wreath that I had made using some of my precious Goodwill finds. I was surprised at all the questions I got on how I did it and was shocked that so many of you were interested in making them. Originally I attached the plates with Velcro Command Strips directly to a foam wreath but then started to worry that if you used my method and your strips didn't hold...😱 I just couldn't stand the thought of being responsible for broken plates so it was back to the drawing board for round two. Today I'm posting a safer way to make a portable plate wreath.
This is a great project for displaying random mismatched small plates, butter pats and shallow bowls without damaging them. You can hang these on doors, cabinets, walls or on bookcases - anywhere that doesn't get a lot of movement. (I wouldn't hang them on a high traffic front door or a cabinet door that gets lots of use). You'll notice that I've avoided glue so as not to damage my precious plates.
You will need:
â—¾ an assortment of coordinating small plates. The wreath can get heavy so you will want to keep the plates small. I used mostly salad and bread and butter plates from 5" to 7" then added tiny butter pats to fill in and add interest.
â—¾ 1 - 14" foam wreath (Extruded or Styrofoam - both work well) Note: this is the size I used. Similar sizes should be fine but try to find a wire and foam wreath close in size.
â—¾ 1 - 14" wire wreath (Hobby Lobby or Dollar Tree)
â—¾ small wire plate holders
â—¾ Small Velcro Command Strips for attaching butter pats and tiny cups without damaging them
â—¾ 30 gauge wire and wire cutters
â—¾ Coordinating decorative wired ribbon - About 4 yards if you are making a bow, 1 yard if only using to hang.
â—¾ Sheet moss
â—¾ Floral Pins
â—¾ Faux or real greenery
â—¾ Optional tiny silver spoons, sugar tongs etc (see red and blue wreath) Glue Dots (found in scrapbook aisle) for attaching spoons and tongs
Construction:
1. Cover foam wreath with sheet moss using the floral pins to secure. You can hot glue the moss in place but be careful as it is easy to burn yourself when working with moss. Concentrate on covering just the outside and inside edges of the ring, the back and top will not show once completed and hung.
2. Attach faux or fresh greenery to outside of the moss covered wreath using floral pins or by sticking the stem into the foam. On the pink wreath I cut two old faux floral wreaths so I could lay them around the foam circle. You can also use picks, garland or whatever greenery you like. The greenery on the red and blue one was fresh.
Lay moss covered wreath aside.
3. Arrange plates on the wire wreath to get a feel for placement and number needed.
4. Attach wire plate hanger to each plate and or bowl. Attach a 30" piece of floral wire, to the wire plate hanger as shown below and then wire the plate to the wire wreath.
5. Working one at a time from the back side of the plate (upside down) continue adding plates to the wire wreath (see photo below). Notice I used a long (30") piece of wire to attach each plate. You will use these long wire ends to attach the plate wreath to the foam wreath later so leave the long wire ends attached. When arranging your plates you will want to overlap them slightly. Consider patterns and colors in your arrangement.
6. Once all the large plates are in place wire the plate wreath on top of the moss covered foam wreath using the long wire ends, twisting to secure. Trim access wire once secured.
7. Turn wreath over and fluff greenery, adding more where need.
8. Wrap ribbon around both wreaths for hanger and glue or tie a knot to secure two cut ends together.
9. Make and attach optional bow.
10. To attach the butter pats I used four layers of Velcro Command Strips (see below). The backs of the pats are not flat so I needed to build up the strips so the pats could sit flat on the plates. Position the butter pats between bigger plates. I like to cover up the wire holders whenever I can so I often place a butter pat over the top of the hook of the wire hangers. The tiny tea cup was also attached with Velcro.
11. I hot glued a birds nest to the spring wreath.
12. The silver sugar tongs, tea spoons and fork were attached with glue dots.
That's pretty much it. I hope you found this tutorial helpful but please DM me on Instagram if you have questions. If you make a wreath and post it to IG please tag me, I'd love to see it!
I love you all and thank you for your love and interest of my little plate wreath.
Encourage one another,