Party Down with a Seasonal Cocktail Parasol Wreath

I’m always looking for seasonal wreaths to hang on the front of the manse, but they are always so pricey. The other day I found a really cute one for summer on the boards. The photo on Pinterest looks like this:

 

The instructions were very simple. The original blogger used a twig wreath as the base, but when I went to Michael’s to buy mine, the floor of the aisle was littered with bits of twig that had come undone, and that made me a little bit wary. I wanted something sturdy that wouldn’t leave a lot of debris on the front door step, so I chose a simple foam one.

Next was the challenge of finding reasonably priced cocktail parasols. I swear that if I am looking for something, there is no doubt of a shortage in the area. I went to Target, Five Below, The Christmas Tree Shops and two party stores, but there was nary a paper umbrella to be had. Everyone in town must be doing the limbo this week.

Finally I found some on Amazon.com, and a gross of parasols cost $6.25. That was much better than the price I found at the grocery store the following week, where a dozen parasols in a box were going for for $4.99.

So then the project was ready to go.

It took some maneuvering to arrange the parasols just right. I would imagine that a twig wreath would have been more handy for this part, since having to re-stick the parasols in styrofoam left scars. The original blogger also used different sized parasols, but I didn’t have that option. I broke off the stems at varying lengths to give the wreath some dimension. The parasols are very delicate, so it’s not a bad idea to start with more than you need. The original blogger said she used about 24 parasols for her wreath. I started with a 14″ diameter and used around 40 parasols to make mine.

Once all the parasols had been arranged, I used a piece of yarn to make a hanger.

And then it was ready to be hung on the front door. In all, the project cost about $10. Fun!