HOW TO: MAKING A PAPER STRAW WREATH

For the amount of time I've been leading up to this post, you would think I would be sharing a DIY on how to make a miniature walking & talking paper straw unicorn!  Alas, I'm not.  It's just a wreath made out of paper straws.  A super cute wreath made out of straws, but just a wreath. 

 In fact, I think it took me longer to write the three posts associated with this wreath project than it took me to make the actual wreath.  So, with that said I'll amend the projects name to now be:

I chose orange and white straws because I thought it was the perfect late summer color to welcome my guests.  That and I've been on a orange kick lately that I just can't shake!
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I began by laying out my uncut straws spaced out about 2 inches around the wreath form.  { Lesson learned: If I was to do this again, I would likely choose a wooden form instead of the Styrofoam simply because it isn't as thick. }  After I was happy with the positioning, the hot glue gun got to work.
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After I was done with the first round, I placed a second round of uncut straws centered in between the first round.
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I noticed that some spots looked to have a little more space than others so I filled those in as necessarily.  Easy as 1, 2, 3!

I then took the remaining straws and cut them in half.  I separated out about 1/3 of the cut straws and cut those in half again (so they were now 1/4 of the original size.

{ Lesson learned: While I ended up using the straws cut down to 1/4 their size, next time I'd hold off on cutting them until I was done with the half size ones.)

Starting with the 1/2 size straws, I repeated the original steps until the wreath form underneath was only showing through a tiny bit.

Then I went to town with the 1/4 cut straws and laid those on top of the full length and 1/2 length ones.  This creates depth and really fills out the wreath.  

That's it.  All in less than 1 hour of work.  If you make your own - I'd love to hear about it!  Happy Crafting!