The Raven Wreath

The                            Once upon a midnight dreary, while I wondered weak

                                          and weary,

                             Over many a quaint and curious craft of forgotten

       Lore…

While I prodded, quickly wrapping, suddenly there came

         a tapping,

As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my craft room door.

       In stepped in the idea of the Rave Wreath of the saintly days of yore.

Quoth the Raven Wreath, “Nevermore.”

 

This year for Halloween I decided to make the theme of my living room Edgar Allen Poe’s infamous poem The Raven.  I have always loved this dark ominous poem and with all the great little crows and ravens you can pick up at any craft store, made this theme is ideal.

Even better all the supplies needed, can be purchased at your local dollar tree, so it’s fairly inexpensive while providing a striking decoration that is reminiscent of Victorian gothic and Hitchcock’s The Birds (would work well for Bird’s theme too).

 

Supplies:

Grapvine wreath (any size, but keep in mind bigger, means more birds)

Plastic shopping bags

Creepy cloth

Craft or floral wire

Birds, birds, birds

 

The wreath shown here is relatively small compared to most wreaths, I made it to be hung inside a mirrors’ frame, so it didn’t need to be huge, but could easily be adapted to a larger wreath.

 

 

Start with your wreath base.

 

Save your shopping bags from the dollar store, or dig some out of the recycling bin and use them to puff up your base a bit before applying your creepy cloth.  Just wrap around and secure by tying the handles together.  Pull and puff to fluff it up.

 

 

Time for creepy cloth!  I love, love, love creepy cloth!  Whatever you use it for it adds an instant sense of the macabre; because it’s so cheap and effective I use it everywhere for Halloween.  If it’s your first time using it, you can fall in love with it by letting it wrap, drape and dangle and revel in its eeriness.  Just play with it till you achieve the look you want.  I like to pull strands of it to dangle to add to that old, decayed look.  Once finished, secure by taking your wire and weave and wrap it to loosely to secure the cloth.

 

 

For the finishing touch…The Raven.  I used fourteen, dollar tree has about three different poses, I used a mixture of these, with the majority with the spread wings for the effect that the birds could fly off at any moment. 

 

Play with the arrangement before wiring the feet to the wreath.  I placed one at the top to give it the effect that he is looking right at you, kind of unnerving isn’t it?

Pull a few strands of creepy cloth and hang it up for a sinister decoration.

 

 

Heres how it turned out.  I replaced my pictures with images of ravens and a picture of Mr. Poe here and there, add some ravens under glass domes, and a few quotes of The Raven on some chalk board signs and you have a simple but spooky themed room for your Halloween decorations.

 

I’ll have more pictures of the rest of the living room and the house when I have it in full Halloween mode, closer to October… I promised my husband that I wouldn’t decorate the house this early, not until mid-September at least. J