Upcycling a Dollar Store Vine into a DIY Fall Wreath

Fall is in the air and there is no better way to usher it in than by placing a DIY fall wreath on our door or wall. Or at least that’s what I was thinking when I made my way down to the local dollar store. I was going to find the perfect fall accessory to make Autumn shine in my home. 

 Today I am back again with my dollar store crafting buddies.  You may remember we did this a while back and I made an easy colorful fence with dollar store flowers. 

​At the end of this project you’ll be able to see what my friends did with their dollar store finds. Make sure to check them out!

DIY Fall Wreath from a Dollar Store Vine

This is what I ended up purchasing at the dollar store. A pathetic green vine!  It really looks like its ready to jump into fall with two feet, doesn’t it?

Oh and at this point I ought to mention that summer was still in full glory at the dollar store!  Did I make a mistake? Should I look at my calendar again?  Is it not September??

​What I used for this project:

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• a plastic vine bought at the dollar store
• DecoArt Americana acrylic paint in red, yellow, black and tan 
• DecoArt Metallic Paint in Bronze
• paint brush
• a piece of cardboard cut into a donut shape
• strips of fabric
• stapler
• ​​ribbons
• burlap ribbon
• dried flowers
• assorted embellishments of your choosing
• mini squash
• toothpicks​​​

​The How-To:

I was not a happy camper at all with all that green and so I took out my DecoArt Americana acrylic paints and had a paint fest with that vine!

Much better don’t you think? Nothing screams fall like red and yellow and when they are mixed together we end up with that gorgeous orange.

Love my DecoArt acrylic paints, they always get me out of jams!  I got so carried away I painted the stems and even the tablecloth … but we won’t talk about that. 

At this point I had a vague idea of adding the vine to another project I’m working on but quickly scrapped the idea because I wanted to go after fall with a vengeance! The other project is a pretty blue, not exactly fall-fabulous.

And so I came up with the idea of a DIY fall wreath. I love how it turned out almost as much as this dollar store fall wreath I made.

I have a super easy way of recycling the same wreath over and over again. I use a piece of cardboard which I have cut into a donut shape.  This is the base for all of my wreaths. ​

The next step is to add some bulk to the foundation. I’ve taken a neutral piece of fabric, cut it into strips and wrapped it around the donut shape. I don’t even try that hard.  I stapled the pieces together and then just stapled the whole thing to the cardboard.  You can be more professional and use glue.

I tried to wrap the vine around the wreath shape but it looked stupid. The leaves were flying around all over the place.  Instead I wrapped some burlap ribbon like you see below.​

 I then tucked the painted vine between the burlap ribbon so it would stay put.

And because those leaves were quite unruly I added a second ribbon, the gold one you see below, to keep the leaves from flying around.

Now I have a little story to tell you.  When I lived in New York, we had taken a trip to a nature preserve on a cloudy fall day.  I still have a vivid memory of walking down a path and a ray of sunshine hitting a few yellow leaves.  They sparked like gold.

That for me is the quintessential fall memory.  Those few rays of sunshine hitting the yellow leaves and making them look like golden nuggets. Now you can see where the gold ribbon comes in.​

Add a few dried flowers like these…. that are so prevalent in the streets right now. I tried to find their names but to no avail.  They are pink or lilac in color when in bloom but as you can see they turn a soft blue when they dry out. And they grow on trees. Anyone have any clue?​

A small chalkboard sign and I am done.​

Oops after I had finished I was still not happy with it.  The leaves looked great but it needed something more. 
​

I had a whole bunch of mini squash from my first ever trip to the dollar store to do the “How to fake a fall vignette” project.  And I figured I would reuse them and add a little something to the wreath. Below is a photo of them from the Halloween wall unit decor. 

​The difference this time is that I painted them. I used bronze, tan and black.​

 To attach them to the wreath I just snapped toothpicks into two pieces.

I stuck the pointy end of the toothpick into the wreath which as we know is made of cardboard. And then pushed the squash which is made of styrofoam into the other end of the toothpick.​

I also stuck in a few random stems. Just to give it a bit of variety.​

And here is my upcycled dollar store DIY fall wreath.​

I was not about to let my town’s dollar store defeat me with all of that summer stuff!

Even my beloved pumpkin man approves.

And if you are wondering if this is the same pumpkin that I had written about last year … 

Why yes!

It is the same pumpkin from last year’s crafts. He has been with us for almost a year and he is still going strong.  But we shouldn’t push our luck.

It is time to retire this little fellow to the pumpkin patch and let his little ones grow. 

What have we learned from this project?

• Stay away from the dollar store?
• Have lots of little bottles of paint on hand?
• Never throw anything out because you never know when you’ll need it?
• Make sure you get the pumpkin man’s seal of approval?

None of that, although it is useful. What we learned is when you go flower picking make sure to find out the name of the flowers you are picking! 

This idea with the cardboard base is cheap and super easy to make. It is also reusable so we can be friendly to our mother earth who seems to be acting up lately in a fierce-some way. Because you know I am all about thrifty and green!​

And with that I have made a beautiful DIY fall wreath for my wall, no thanks to the dollar store. If you like the painted leaf look, check out this pretty metallic fall leaf wreath from Sustain My Craft Habit. 

Hum, hum well I guess I should say thanks to the dollar store since they gave me the basis for this project.  Otherwise we may have ended up with something totally different. 

Additional Dollar Store Fall Craft Ideas

Not it’s time to see what our fellow crafty blogging friedns have come up with for this dollar store craft challenge:
Across the Boulevard
My Husband Has Too Many Hobbies
Purple Hues and Me
Sew Crafty Crochet
Stone Cottage Adventures
The Boondocks Blog
Two Chicks and a Mom

If you like what you see, share it with your friends, or save it on Pinterest.  Above is a Pinterest worthy image!

Fall DIY Ideas to Explore

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This blog is for entertainment purposes only; my DIY tutorials are not professional advice. Read our full disclosure here.​