Sweater wreath and snowman

When I saw that the Iron Crafters’ Challenge’s secret ingredient was sweaters I thought there was no way I was going to be able to enter that contest. I had no idea how to use a sweater that wouldn’t entail sewing. I saw some wonderful projects out there in my blog following of pillows and others using a sweater and I kindly let all these lovely ladies know about the contest and that they should enter. Then one night when I should have already been asleep an idea came to me, after an idea came to me how to make my mom’s birthday present even better. I was so giddy I laid there quite some time trying to fall asleep. My excitement didn’t make my project so dandy though. I am disappointed in my snowman.
First I found some different shaped balls at Dollar Tree and pulled out a wreath I had gotten at Dollar Tree previously (I can’t find those wreathes now and I need A LOT more of them, 5 Dollar Trees later I have only found 5 more). My plan was to make the smaller balls as snowballs to cover the whole wreath. But it didn’t progress that way. I then found a sweater at Savers.
A nice white, not a shade of white, and I liked the different stitching on the collar. I washed the sweater and let it air dry over night before I started cutting into it. I wasn’t sure how to proceed, so I just started wrapping sweater around the wreath, stapling it to the back as I went. When I was all finished with that I then went over where the two sides came together on the back with hot glue. I then used part of the collar to make a little design part to cover where the ends met.

That was about the time that I decided I wasn’t going to do snowballs but just the snowman. With pieces of sweater and LOTS of hot glue, I covered the 2 silver balls and 1 Styrofoam ball to make the snowman. As I was putting him together, I also used pieces of the sweater to make roses that I glued onto the wreath.

I am actually very pleased with the wreath. I attached a sparkly red ribbon to the top and some tiny pinecones and leaves to the roses. I think it came out very pretty. It can be used as a winter, or just Christmas, wreath. It was once I got the snowman together (as lopsided as a real one) that I realized it wasn’t going to make it on the wreath and I would have to figure something else out for it.

I pulled out a picture frame I had previously purchased for another project and printed out a snowman sign. Attached that to a bigger piece of paper. Painted the black frame copper and then topped that off with Silver Extreme Glitter and glued the snowman to the finished frame.

The snowman’s hat, belt and scarf are made out of pieces from another sweater I forgot to take a picture of before cutting up. The rest is buttons. Maybe some stick arms would top it off better.

Even though I am not so pleased with the snowman, I am still entering this in