Lots and Lots of Spoons turned Wreath(s)

Some of you may remember me talking about the Pancake Breakfast/Auction Fundraiser Hubby and I Co-Chair.  This year's theme was "Greek".  You can see us in all of our glory here.

Anyway, the breakfast is held in a school gym.  In planning the table decor, I knew I wanted something that would be big, so it would be noticeable in the gym, yet I didn't want it to obscure anyone's vision.

Here's what I made:

The idea came from "The Nester" over at the blog Nesting Place

You see, every year this fundraiser takes place and every year once the events are over, the theme for the following year is announced.  Last year's theme was Hollywood and when they announced that this year's theme would be Greek, my mind was on full speed.  I had  remembered seeing some cool laurel leaf looking wreaths somewhere, I just had to remember where.

Once I found them again, I filed it into my "auction ideas" folder.

I was absolutely going to make them, but initially I hadn't planned on using them as centerpieces.  I was planning on hanging them on the doors to the entrance.  But as I thought more about it, I decided they would make fabulous centerpieces.  Big, open, perfect for the theme.... just right :)

So I gathered my supplies, lots and lots of plastic spoons, and lots of green spray paint.

First I glued my spoons together.  Each wreath I made took about 50-52 spoons.  My placement of the spoons was based on trial and error.  I didn't want the wreaths to look too "tight" But I didn't want them to be enormous either.  Once I that figured out, I glued and glued and glued some more.

 I used hot glue and basically put a dollop of glue on the lower back part of the "spoon", glued that to the "neck" of the next spoon, then flipped it over and put a dollop of glue where the two spoons met at the bottom/lower middle.  I admit, I used lots of glue, I didn't want these coming apart as they were on the tables.

Once all of my wreaths were assembled (I made 13), I set out to spray paint them green to mimic an actual laurel.   You could leave them white, or paint them whatever color you desire.  I used lots of spray paint, and it took many coats to get each wreath thoroughly covered ~ there are lots of nooks and crannies on these babies!

Next up, creating a stand so they could sit on the tables and not tip over.  Lucky for me, we had just thrown out Sassy's old book shelf that had finally collapsed under the weight of all her precious books (this was a cheapy $20 bookcase that we purchased for her nursery 11 years ago).  Using the shelves and sides of the book case, Hubby cut 13 10x10" squares (round ones would look pretty nice!).  I purchased dowels (however in the picture below we made a "trial" stand and just used a 1x2 we had on hand) which we cut down to 23 3/4" (this will vary depending on the size of your wreath).  He then drilled a screw into the bottom of the base and into the dowel.

I hammered a nail into the top and spray painted the bases gold.

Using ribbon that was donated, I tied the wreaths to the stands using the nail.

Voila ~ an easy wreath and simple wreath stand, perfect for our event.