Tutorial: Peep Wreath

1 inch thick foam insulation.  It's really inexpensive.  I found it at Lowe's for a few bucks per sheet, which is I think 4 X 8 feet.  I didn't have any kind of a pattern so I just used a pencil and drew right on the foam.  I started with the outside shape and you can tell it's not very even.  After I took the picture I did cut down the left side a little more so it was more even.  While it's really easy to cut with any box cutter, the blades get dull pretty fast so it's good to have more than one blade handy.  Since you'll be covering the whole thing, it does NOT have to be perfect!

I covered this in strips of pink felt - about $.25 at Hobby Lobby.  I think I used 4 sheets between both wreaths.

I thought about using different glues or pins or whatever (you can see my jewelry -super-glue on the table) but in the end decided to use hot glue because it was much easier and faster.  I just had to do all the gluing after my kids were in bed so they wouldn't be tempted to grab for the very hot little pink gun that looks like a toy.  You can see that some of the strips didn't cover the back completely.  You can't tell from the front!

Start by separating your Peeps.  This makes it much easier when you're ready to glue.   I just put a nice little circle on the back - sometimes a bigger circle - depending on how much of the Peep I wanted secured.  Generally just a little bit of glue was plenty.

  Start gluing on your Peeps.  I tried keeping it random, just doing a few of each color at first and then filling in once all the colors were there.

Keep adding Peeps till it looks full.  Wrapping the foam will ensure that you don't see any blue through the gaps, and I like the look of the pink felt as a background.  Any color would do, and the blue of the foam would match the Peeps too.

The final product.  I should have added the yarn to hang it first, but I just wove it through the peeps till it was against the foam and it worked fine.  I thought it looked bare still anyway.

The bow definitely helps.  I just tied a bow and  tried to make it wavy.  Put a dot of hot glue in the center of the bow so it won't fall off.

I thought it was finished, but it still looked lopsided to me.  I added a few more Peeps on the right side and crinkled the ribbon of the bow and I feel satisfied with the final product.  What do you think?

Left-over Peeps.  I bought 8 packages of 10 and still had a bunch left.  Not enough for another full wreath, sadly.

The center piece of foam that I cut out and the left-over felt.

Next to the scissors so you can see the size.  I just hot glued the felt onto the form after I evened out the shape.

Add your Peeps.  Without a center hole it's just an egg shape.

Add a ribbon to hang (just hot glue it to the back) and a ribbon bow and you've got a second Peep decoration.