Oktoberfest Wreath

The last few weekends at the faire have been great fun!  We’ve had lots of friends and family visit, and even several people who read my blog but who I have never met in person (shout out to Leo)!  And this Sunday we had a customer come back and tell me about her latest hat experience.  She had been wearing one of the velvet muffin caps to the mall (and totally pulling it off I might add) and was complimented not once but TWICE on how nice it looked on her.  How exciting!  She totally made my day for coming back to tell me that.  I think I will start wearing my muffin caps out and about!

Today was my first official day of sabbatical!  This means I caught up a bit on cleaning and made dozens of Swedish meatballs to serve at the Oktoberfest themed board game night we are hosting tomorrow.  In honor of the party I decided to make a wreath to hang on my door with the colors of Bavaria.  I have instructions on how to do that below if you care to make your own.  With the advent of my sabbatical I will have many more exciting posts to add over the coming weeks.  Thank you all for being so patient during this hat extravaganza.

Oktoberfest Wreath

Bavarian Oktoberfest Wreath with Lebkuchenherz

• 2.5″ White Ribbon
• 5/8″ Blue Ribbon (I used turquoise)
• 16″ diameter foam wreath base
• large wooden heart cut out (I obtained this from Michael’s)
• silk pins
• stain in desired color
• acrylic paints in assorted colors

1. Pin the white ribbon to the backside of the wreath using the silk pins, be sure to pin at an angle to the ribbon so that if you were to pull the ribbon towards the inside of the wreath the pin will stay securely in place.
   

   Pin ribbon to form using silk pins

2. Wrap the entire wreath in white ribbon, overlapping at each turn.
3. Pin the blue ribbon to the backside of the wreath and trim excess blue and white ribbon.
   

   Pin start of blue ribbon to form.

4. Wrap the wreath in blue ribbon leaving large gaps between every turn.  I left approximately 2.5″ gaps.
   

   Wrap form with blue ribbon. Make sure corgi approves.

5. Cut a length of blue ribbon and a length of white ribbon and make a bow with the two of them.  Pin to the top of the wreath hiding the pins inside the knot.
   

   Pin bow to form.

6. Stain the wood heart.  I thought this would be cuter than painting it.  You could also paint it.  Wipe stain off and let dry.
   

   Stain wooden heart

   

   Remove excess stain.

7. Paint the heart as you would a lebkuchenherz cookie.  I chose to put in a simple border, some hearts and the phrase “Ein Prosit”.
   

   Paint “cookie” heart

8. Drill holes in the heart just above the phrase.
   

   Drill holes for ribbon

9. Thread ribbon through the holes and hang heart from the wreath just below the ribbon bow.  I chose to use a completely contrasting color here.
   

   Thread ribbon through holes.

   

   Hang heart underneath bow.

10. Add a loop of ribbon to hang the wreath from.
    

    Add loop

11. Hang and enjoy! Prost!