Here we are on my first craft post and I already lied. This one isn't from Pinterest, it's from my own imagination, although I did find one idea on Pinterest. Before Christmas, I saw a gorgeous white swag with big, colorful ornaments at Hobby Lobby, but it was $140. Even after Christmas, when it was 66% off, it was still more than I wanted to spend. Plus I had a wreath that was ready for a makeover.

So I headed to Michael's and bought what I thought was flocking spray. Except that it was only for windows, not greenery, so back it went. Then I went to Hobby Lobby. They had a similar spray but it said not to coat greenery too heavily (and heavily was what I was aiming for), and that dampness and humidity might make it dissolve. I wanted my wreath to hang outside, and in this area, dampness and humidity are the name of the game--and in the winter the humidity is frozen. I did pick up a red berry branch, three mercury glass and three sparkly shatter-proof ornaments, and some ribbon while they were 50% off. (Note: It wasn't until I went to hang up the finished wreath that I realized that if it fell, I'd have broken glass all over the front walk. DOH! Should have stuck with the shatter-proof.) I kept my receipts but Hobby Lobby receipts are rather vague, so I'm not sure what I spent on the actual supplies. Plus the cost depends on what you like, what you buy, and what you already have on hand.

Moving on. I searched Amazon and the whole internet for a good flocking spray and came up short of my goal, which was the heavy-duty stuff on store-bought flocked trees. So I turned to Pinterest for DIY flocking. I found the Ivory soap version, but it looked a little less like snow and a little more like yogurt. And it involved work. Then I found possibly the easiest, more durable flocking there is, if you don't mind chemicals. (And since this was going outside, durable chemicals were my friend.) It's that lightweight, foamy drywall spackle!  If you pick up the can and it feels empty, you've got the right stuff.

All you do for the snow is put some big gobs of spackle in a dish (I used a cheap plastic one I could throw away, but the spackle is water washable if you rinse while it's still damp) and stir in a couple teaspoons of water. You don't want it to be too runny, or you will get the yogurt look.

Having read the warning label, I wore rubber gloves, dunked them in the spackle slop, and started wiping it on the wreath.

On the one hand, you want it to look like snow actually fell on your wreath. But on the other hand, it was snowing sideways as I worked on my wreath, and I wanted a good coating, so rubbed it all over. It's Chicago-style snow, imbedded everywhere. After letting it dry a bit I added a heavier coat on the surface and tips of the branches.

It's hard to see the subtlety of the delicate artistry in the photos. :-)

Caveat craftor: Spackle splatters.

I was tempted to take the lazy way out and hot glue the ornaments on, but I thought I might want to change them at some point so I decided to wire them to the wreath frame.

They say necessity is the mother of invention, but I say laziness is the mother of invention. As I was cutting the berries off the pick, I realized that the curlicue branches were actually wire, already painted and textured brown. Perfect! I cut those off too, and used them to attach the ornaments to the wreath. The berries I just stuck in here and there. I looped the ribbon around randomly and tucked it into the branches, which are quite sturdy now. And by "sturdy" I mean stiff. If that spackle survives tonight it will survive anything.

I think I need to adjust the ribbon because it's looking a little lopsided, but the decorations are coming down tomorrow and it's currently 17 degrees out there, so I'll just fluff it up next year.

Ta-daaaa!


(Fence board Santa and the teddy bear are holdovers from the 90s when I used to do painted wood projects all the time, for money, so I could stay home with the kids. It's not HGTV-modern, but so what, it's Christmas.)

Pinterest spackle snow rating: 5 stars
Cheap ($4.99 and I only used half the can), easy to use/clean up, and looked pretty much like I wanted it to look. I'd prefer it more gritty, like real snow, but the spackle I bought was a little fancy. I think if I'd used the cheaper stuff and less water, it would have looked better. I will probably add some straight spackle to the branch tips next year when I get this out again.