A cute lil' project to share!!

Oooh, I have let 2 weeks come & go without posting! Ooops! T o make up for it I am going to post a little tutorial for the pretzel wreath pictured here! I'm not sure if the photos will come out in order or not, but they are clickable & self-expalanatory for the most part.

These are very cute & really pretty easy! Here's what you'll need:

Some wax paper, small pretzels (16 for this size), Elmer's glue, a can of polyutherane(from WalMart-small can lasts a long time!) or shelac (much more expensive) and any embellishments you want like ribbon, buttons, flowers, candies...you name it! E600 glue or a hot glue gun, also.

Now, lay your wax paper down & arrange 8 pretzels salty side down in a circle...with the sides touching each other. Once you have them arranged, you take the Elmer's glue & just run a line of glue where each pretzel is touching. Let dry for a few minutes & then you will start your second layer. This time the pretzel will be facing salty side up----put a little glue on the flat side down around the bottom of the pretzel and place it overlapping the ones below it...see the close-up photos for this. Then just keep doing this until all the pretzels are on. Now, go back & add the glue to the side sams like you did on the first layer. Now allow the wreath to dry for at least 2 hours or more. Next, take a peice of thread & put it through one of the pretzel rings & dip the wreath into you polyutherane. I poured mine into an old tupperware bowl & it worked really well. Make sure it is completely staurated & hang on a rod of some sort to dry. A wooden spoon over a couple of tall cans will do...just make sure you have something underneath for it to drip on. Let dry at least an hour or more, then dip it again. Let it dry again & then you are ready to add your embellishments! If you choose to use jelly beans, candy corn or any other "real" candies to decorate, glue them on before you dip into the polyutherane to seal them, as well. This keeps them bug-proof! You can just feed your ribbon through or just make a bow & attach with glue. For embellishments you will want to use a hot glue gun or E6000 glue. They are stronger for the embellishments. Use your imagination! You can make teacher wreaths, baby wreaths, holiday wreaths & much, much more!

You can also use just 12 pretzels (6 each layer) to make smaller ones for the Christmas tree or even magnets. On the same token you can use more pretzels to make larger wreaths! You decide! I hope you enjoy this craft! Send me photos of your finished product & I'll post it here on my blog! Hope your New Year is off to a good start! More later....