Christmas Clearance for the the DIY Addict!

Who can say "no" to an After Christmas Sale?  Certainly not me!  As I was perusing the Christmas Clearance at Walmart, I came across these in all different color combinations:

They had had them in a black-white-silver combination that I figured, "Hey, I'll try something with them.  And if it doesn't work, I'm only out $7.50!"  They are the plastic kind, so I wasn't worried about them breaking.

You've seen those wreaths made out of Christmas balls, right?  I know those of you on Pinterest have!  They were all the craze a couple weeks ago.  You know, like this:

Pretty in Pink from the blog In His Grip

Multi-Colored from Eddie Ross

The basic idea behind them is that you take a wire hanger, bend it into a circle, and string the balls onto it.  Simple enough, right???  So I thought I'd try my hand at it.

So right now you're probably thinking, "I thought this was a wedding blog, not a home decor one."  Well, you're right.  a wreath just wouldn't fit with our wedding.  But I thought if you could bend the hanger into a circle, maybe I could bend it into a B and use it as wedding decor!  So, I went and got 3 wire hangers (from Jason's closet... I just have color-coded plastic hangers).  I started trying to bend them into a B-shape.  Bending them was pretty easy... but attaching them to each other wasn't.  There was a lot of excess wire that kinda stuck out.  And cutting a steel hanger is near impossible.

Plan B: I had some left over wire from my first attempt at making the name hanger.  It's green, but I figured it would be covered up.  So the first step was to make the B out of wire:

I used a twistie-tie to hold it together for now.  I started stringing the balls on and quickly learned I had made a mistake.  All of the online tutorials for the wreaths had said to hot glue the tops onto the balls.  I figured since mine were plastic, I could skip that step.  WRONG!  They kept popping off like crazy.  I'd be lying if I said I kept my cool, but a few lot of choice words may have come out of my mouth.

So, I decided to take a much needed break, then gule the tops on.  I just put a little glue around the top of the ball, then stuck the cap back on:

It really didn't take that long... but it was frustrating to have to start over again!

Well, I started stringing them on again.  I tried to do it randomly at first, but it didn't look very good.  It was all un-even and drove me crazy, so I decided to go with the pattern:

I got the idea from the package, actually.

Well, I got the straight part of the B about three quarters of the way done with one package of balls, so I went back to the store for another 2 packages.  $24 isn't bad... right?  Well, that only got me most of the way around the bottom B curve, so I went back for another package.  I could've made it work, but I would've had to change the size of the B to make it all fit.  That seemed like a project for the next day.

Jason had been making all of the Walmart trips with me, and was getting a little frustrated at this point.  What had started out as  $8 project was now $30.  I decided that I didn't want to make the B smaller, and that I needed another package of balls.  I might have brought them inside while Jason just happened to be taking Oss-Man on a walk.  :o)  (Side Note: He noticed them a couple minutes after returning.  Don't worry, he's not mad!)

The hardest part was working around the curves and the connection points.  The sets I bought also came with some small silver and black balls that worked great to fill some of the spots.  It was a lot of trial-and-error to find out how they all fit together best.  I ended up just wrapping the wire around itself and cutting off the extra.

Here's the finished product:

 And so you can see how big it is:

Don't judge... yes, we STILL have our tree up!

I still need to figure out a way to make it sturdier.  I used a lighter wire so I could actually cut it.  Unfortunately, that means it's not as strong to stand up on it's own.  I'm thinking I might hot glue the balls together.

A couple of hints for anyone wanting to try this on their own:

• Twistie-ties are your best friend.  I started with the straight part of the B and the balls kept sliding down onto the curve.  Once I put a twistie on, it held them so I could just focus on stringing the new ones on!
• Just hot glue the tops on from the beginning and save yourself the stress.
• Trial and error works best to see what kind of pattern/arrangement you want.

Don't know where it will go yet.  My original thought was on the door to the reception (people will walk by it on the way to the ceremony site.  Then maybe move it inside later?  Do you have any ideas???