We LOVE pom poms in our house. Correction, 3 out 4 of us do; I am pretty sure my husband cringes when he comes home and sees them scattered throughout the house. We play with them in all sorts of ways: drop them through paper towel tubes, put them in “egg carton trains”, play the “pick up game” of throwing them in the air and then collecting them. We just discovered the fun of throwing them on top of our sheet fort and watching them roll down. The joy that comes on my toddlers face when she gets to squeeze a bunch of them in her hands is priceless. So, when I came across this pom pom wreath idea in the latest Sunset magazine, I decided to turn it into a craft activity with my 3 year old.
I chose to do a couple of smaller wreaths, one for each kiddo. I also decided to come up with a way to incorporate their initial. I headed to Michaels and found 8″ straw wreaths which I thought would work well. I wrapped each wreath very tightly in green ribbon I had on hand at home. I used a hot glue gun to secure each end and also used some glue here and there while I was wrapping them.
I chose to decorate wooden letters, also from Michaels, with glitter. I set my son Alex up at the table with some Elmer’s and had him paint the glue on to the letters. I let him help me dump the glitter on. At that point he became more interested in the glue and glitter combination he could create on his hands so I whisked the letters away and finished them in the kitchen. I wound up using a small brush and painting the glue into all the nooks and crannies and let one side dry, then flipped and completed the other side.
We then moved on to gluing the pom poms onto the wreath. I wanted him to be able to do this, so I again let him go to town with Elmer’s on the wreath and place the pom poms on. He was adamant that his should have all the small pom poms and his sister Molly’s would have all the big ones. This was not exactly what I had in mind, but I took a deep breath and let him make the choice :o)
So this is where things took a turn and I quickly had to put the camera down and change course. Elmer’s glue does not work at all for this. I knew this would likely be the case and had planned to go back and reinforce them with the hot glue. However, when they all started falling off before drying Alex got frustrated. So I plugged in the hot glue gun and we devised a plan where I would squeeze the glue on and he would then quickly place the pom pom on it. This was a great act of teamwork that we kept going until his was about half done and he informed me he was tired. So while he plopped on the couch I kept going and got the 2 wreaths done.
Later that evening I had my husband Jake drill a small hole in the top of each letter. I then used thin floral wire which I strung through the hole and attached the letter around the top of the wreath. I didn’t want to do this before attaching the pom poms because I thought it would get in the way. It was not a problem at all to bury the wire in amongst the pom poms. A quick note here, I knew I wanted to hang them with a length of the same ribbon I had used on the wreath itself. Since the “A” had the single point at the top I had to feed the wire through the ribbon first on both the front and back of the wreath and then tighten the wire around the wreath. This way the “A” would remain centered on the ribbon. Molly’s was not an issue because the “M” had 2 points at the top that I had secured with wire separately. I was just able to feed the ribbon in between them.
I chose to hot glue the ribbon together to make one continuous loop instead of tying a bow. Voila! Completed wreaths!
I decided to hang them on their bedroom doors, so I bought white metal wreath hangers on Amazon and they are now in place!
There are all sorts of ways you could adapt this idea for your kids, using their favorite things: legos, puzzle pieces, marbles, beads, even little plastic animals. It already has me thinking about next year :o)
I hope this inspires you to create your own pom pom wreath! Enjoy & have fun!
Happy Holidays!
:o)
Adrienne
Photo Credits: All images by Adrienne Schell
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