Hey there!  Welcome to Decorate and More with Tip! Here on my blog I share how you can decorate your home on a budget.  I share budget friendly decorations by creating it from scratch, revamping, re-purposing or giving it a makeover with easy tutorials.  I hope I inspire you to create something beautiful for your home. 🙂

Today I am hosting a high end knock-off challenge.  I gathered a great group of bloggers to share what we can do when we want to have an expensive home decor piece but won’t spend the money to bring it home.  I can’t wait to see what my friends have to share today. 🙂  I have their link below at the bottom of my page.  I will go with you as soon as I share what I created.

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The item I would love to have in our home would be a Kotinos Wreath on a stand.  The reason why I don’t have the piece is because of the price!! OUCH!  The one I have been drooling over you can find at The Cross Decor & Designs.  The wreath cost $325.00.  Seriously, it’s beautiful there’s no doubt about that….but would or could you pay the price for it and sleep at night?  Take a look at it.

I have a plan for this wreath in my craft room. The symbol of the Kotinos Wreath is victory. After getting my craft room completed it will be a victory for me. ha!  Since I wouldn’t dare pay that much for the piece I will make it.  I would be happy with a knock off just as well.  So here is how I am going to make my Kotinos wreath.

First thing I need to do is take a closer look at their wreath.

• size is 14″ x 9.5″
• something sturdy for the leaves
• something strong to hold up for the base and stem of the wreath
• something for olives
• something for the stand base

I think I have all what I need.  I can’t wait to show you my tutorial on how I made this piece with a Dollar Tree item and some scrap pieces I had sitting around our home.  Let’s get started!

Making the Leaves and Olives

Finding something sturdy for the leaves was tricky.  I wanted something that will keep it’s shape and to hold up.  I don’t have anything I can cut metal so that’s out.  I saw someone use a Dollar Tree foil baking sheets in one of their crafts which gave me an idea on what I can use for the leaves.  I can cut the leaves out with scissors.  The baking sheets comes in a set of two for $1.  I used half of one sheet for my DIY Dollar Tree Wash board so I only have 1 1/2 sheets left.  That should be enough.

Here is what I did:

I took my rolling pin out and flatten both sheets.  I didn’t want to smooth them just flatten.

I took a petal of Lamb’s ear and traced 50 petal patterns onto the sheets.

I cut all the leaves out.

Making them look like metal leaves I took one leaf and folded it lengthwise in half.  Flatten the leaf with my fingers and then unfolded it.  Did this with all my leaves.

Looks pretty good, right?  Next, I took them outside and spray painted them with Rust-Oleum Metallic Gold.

Painted the front and back, let dry before working with them.

On to the Olives.  I am using some of my wooden bead picks.  Taking the smallest of the beads and painting them navy.  I am not too sure what color the olives are on the Kotinos wreath, I am painting mine with midnight blue.

 

Making the Wreath Base

Here is another part I had to rack my brain with.  The obvious thing to use for the wreath part was one of the Dollar Tree’s mini wreath forms.  I cut the outer ring off the form and used for the wreath.  I sniped it to create an opening.  I bent the ends outward about 2 inches.

I cris cross the two wreath pieces, I used  22 gauge floral wire to hold the two ends together.

Making the Stem to Hold the Wreath

I was going to use a very thin dowel rod but that wouldn’t hide the wire.  I looked in my craft drawer for a piece of radio antenna I saw when organizing my craft supplies.  I know I have just about everything you can imagine.  Seriously!  I cut it to 9 inches by cutting it with a hacksaw.  Worked perfectly.  I made a notch at the top and trimmed it to the depth so the floral wire knot would slip right into.

I placed some E6000 into the notch and slipped the wreath into the notch.  I bent down the top of the antenna to form a closure.  Genius…. 🙂

Making the Base for the Wreath Stand

This was the easiest part to find.  I used a piece of scrap wood and cut it 4″ x 3″.  Found the center and drilled a hole a little smaller than the antenna.  Fits snug.  I am going to paint the wreath stand and base first before putting it all together.

Creating My Kotinos Wreath

Now that I have everything made and painted it’s the fun part!!  Creating my wreath!

Adding the leaves to the wreath was pretty tricky.  I didn’t want to use wire or tape to hold the leaves on.  So I thought I would wrap the end of the leaves around the wire of the wreath.  Here is how I added them.

1. curled the ends of the leaves up to form a pocket
2. Added E6000 and hot glue to the pocket
3. Attached it to the wreath and wrapping the foil around the wreath

Starting at the top of my wreath working down one side and then starting on top of the other side.

On some of the leaves I attached two together by a staple.  I placed the two leaves on top of each other and then stapled lengthwise in the center of the bottom of the stem and did the same as the single leaf.

I gave the whole thing one more coat of gold spray paint.  On the inspirational wreath it has a little metal ring on top of the base.  I looked through all my stash and found a large nut that will allow the antenna to fit into nicely.  I placed the nut onto the stand, applied E6000 inside the drilled hole.  I placed the stem into the drilled hole and glued the nut to the base.

 

I added the 4 faux olives to the wreath.

So let’s break it down.  I purchased a package of foil baking sheets for a $1.00, I had the piece of wood, piece of radio antenna, gold spray paint, hot glue, E6000 and the bolt.  Pretty good.  The inspirational piece is $325.00.  I can handle mine not being an authentic piece.

Let’s look at the two of them next to each other.  Mine is fuller than the one from The Cross Décor & Designs.  I love how mine looks and the best part the cost.

This is a piece I will love styling in our home.

I hope my tutorial gives you inspiration to tackle a décor piece that isn’t budget friendly and create a knock-off piece for your home.

If you do….. 

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Let’s see what my friends have going on.  Click on the photo to go over to their knock-off piece.