July 4 Budget Pool Noodle Wreath

I am so excited that the 4th of July is just days away!  It is by far my favorite holiday (yes, even more than Christmas!), I am thinking all things red, white and blue!  Fireworks and BBQ food take up a large portion of my holiday budget, but I still want to festively decorate for Independence Day.  I am one to always have something on my front door and this year I decided a wreath was needed.  Check out this fun, budget friendly, wreath I made for the 4th:

 

Would you guess a pool noodle is at the center of this wreath?  Click below for a full tutorial!

There are great foam wreaths that you can buy, and had I planned ahead, I would have probably gone that route… but I don’t always plan that far in advance!  Instead I grabbed the nearest pool noodle and some duct tape and got to work crafting a budget friendly wreath.

 

Any color pool noodle will work because you’ll be completely covering it.  I started off with this lovely purple noodle left over from last years clearance sales!  Cut the end off your noodle with a serrated knife.  Go for about a 120 degree angle (give or take!).  Cut one end off and then use your end scrap as a guide to cut the opposite end of the noodle in a mirror image of your first cut.  Line up your cut ends and then tape your noodle up with duct tape.  This can be easier said than done without a second pair of hands, enlist help if you can!  Make sure to tape it well, you don’t want your wreath bursting open due to lack of tape (I’ve seen it happen and it’s not pretty!).

Next I grabbed 2 red, 2 white and 2 blue bandanas.  Bandanas are great to work with- they come in so many different colors and patterns and always say “Americana” to me!

 

The bananas I used  had a boarder around the edge which I didn’t want on my wreath.  Simply take a sharp pair of sewing scissors and cut a notch at the edge of your border.  Next grab the piece and rip the fabric.  Fabric is fun that way, ripping it should rip straight down the boarder getting you a nice straight line without measuring.  Trim all the boarders off the bandana until you’re left with a square with just the printed portion.  Next cut notches every 2 inches along one end of your bandana.  I was able to get 9 strips per bandana.

Next I started to tie my bandana strips around my noodle, but it was not covering the purple pool noodle.  I was going for red, white and blue… not red, white, blue and spots of purple!  Cue trouble shooting!  I decided that I needed to wrap my noodle in ribbon.  I had some cheap inexpensive ribbon in my stash in coordinating colors and got to work wrapping my wreath with the ribbon.

 

Using a hot glue gun, I glued down sections of ribbon.  First I did the blue, then did chunks of red and white.  You’re not looking for perfection, just looking to cover the noodle!  Careful, the hot glue WILL melt the pool noodle!  Overlap your ribbon pieces until you get something that looks like the last photo above.

Now you can start tying on the bandana strips.  I used 2-3 strips of bandana per red and white section.  I had leftovers so I went back and filled in the sections that looked like they needed a little more coverage.

 

You could see the ribbon though the bandanas but since the ribbon underneath was a coordinating color, you couldn’t even tell!  (Begone purple noodle!)

To hang the wreath, I wiggled my wreath hanger loop through one of the strips of bandana.  This wreath isn’t perfect, but came together pretty quickly and I like the fun, shabby chic, look of it.  Of course I also love that I now have something festive to hang on my door for the 4th!

What are you crafting for this 4th of July??