Make a Solo Cup Wreath!

I saw this super cute solo cup wreath idea on Pinterest and, since Halloween is fast approaching I found such great deals on all holiday decor at the craft stores on Friday, I decided to try my hand.

There were no directions attached, it was just a picture, so I tried my best and it turned out...... ok. It actually turned out really really good at first.....then I dropped it and it broke and it did not come out as well after its second round of gluing.....

Anyways.... I said I would share the good, the bad, and the ugly and while my Halloween wreath isn't ugly its a little bit wonky, which I'm just going to pretend is part of its charm.

Anyhow..... here is what you'll need:

- Orange and Black colored Solo cups (I learned the hard way DON'T get the ones with the square bottoms, get the ones with the circular round bottoms. I think those will be more flexible and easier to shape)
- Hot glue gun
- LOTS of glue sticks for your glue gun
- Double sided tape (I didn't use a whole lot of this but it was pretty handy)
- Wide Ribbon (optional)
- Decorations to glue to your wreath

Step 1: You're going to have to play around with the cups a little bit because I have a feeling its going to be different with different kinds of cups. Take one of each color cup and arrange them so that it is shorter on one side and longer on the other so that, with enough cups, you'll get a curving shape.

 Step 2: After playing around a bit with how you would like to arrange the cups get your glue gun ready, figure out where the cups are touching and put LOTS of hot glue on there. I would put it on the top where they touch as well as allllll along the bottom, so that it will get a good stick. Remember, these are plastic cups so if you put too much on one area it will melt the cup, the trick is to use thin layers of glue but cover a large area!

Step 3: Keep going. Make sure that as you go you're constantly bending and shaping the cups, stretch them out, because you're going to have to really bend them a lot to get it into a circle. ALSO you should probably note that it makes a LOT of noise! Grizley Adams was trying to watch football in the living room so I eventually moved into the bedroom since it wasn't too messy of a project. (It's laundry day on Saturdays, excuse the mess at the bottom of the bed).

Step 4: Keep gluing and stretching, you'll have to eyeball it when you're getting close. If you think you can close the circle try to shove the front cup into the back. You're really going to have to bend and push, don't be afraid to really stretch them, you're going to have to in order to get the circular shape.

Step 5: This is what I skipped that I really wish I hadn't. After you have the circle together and you're standing back, admiring your handiwork thinking about how awesome you are and how bad your fingertips hurt from burning yourself with hot glue...You might think you're done. You aren't. Go back and put hot glue/double sided tape in all the cracks and crevices where the cups touch. You really want to cement those bad boys together now that you've got your circle shape all finished. I didn't do this the first time and I definitely ended up regretting it.

Step 6: Get whatever decorations you want to put on your wreath together. I found a super cute wooden ghost on sale for $1.00 at Hobby Lobby, so I used that. After I removed the wire (it was supposed to hang on its own) I painted it and let it dry.

Step 7: Glue your decorations to the wreath. Again make sure you really get them on there REALLY well.

This was my beautiful wreath after I finished. All I had left to do was add a ribbon and hang it! (Please note how pretty and circular it is!)

I tied my ribbon and got ready to add it to the top. Then tragedy struck....I dropped it too hard on the table and it flew apart.......because I didn't use enough hot glue. I glued it back together but it WOULD NOT cooperate and go back into it's perfect circle! So I said screw it, added the bow, and hung my wonky wreath on the outside of our house.

I think it's still cute but I can be a perfectionist and looking at it makes my eye twitch a little bit.

So what would I do differently? Use circular rather than square bottomed cups, use a BOATLOAD more glue after I had my wreath shape, and I would also have used bigger ribbon for my bow.

But hey its still cute and it cost me about $5.99 to make total.

Good luck! And if you do make one yourself I would really love to see how it turns out!