Not for laundry only: Use clothespins to craft an eye-catching memo wreath

This ingenious and low-cost DIY elevates the look of your wall or door instantly. A DIY memo wreath is versatile and makes for fantastic wall art. You can switch out pictures, clippings, reminders, and inspirational quotes as often as you like because the clothespins allow you this flexibility.
In keeping with the versatility theme, washi tape is a wonder tool. It is available in a million colors, patterns, and finishes so you can glam the piece up with glittery tape, keep things subdued with neutral tones and patterns, or go for something utterly whimsical, like a repeating pattern of kittens! However you choose to finish your clothespins, this DIY will bring bold visual interest to your wall. Part utilitarian tool and part dreamy collage, the memo wreath will keep you on top of things that you need to remember and please your eye, every time that you walk by it.
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Materials
- Floral craft wreath ring with five pre-drilled holes
- Pair of thin plastic gloves
- Jar of chalk paint
- Fine art paintbrush
- 10 wooden clothespins
- Roll of washi tape
- Scissors
- Hot glue gun
- Glue sticks
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Instructions
1. Place the wreath ring down on the work surface.
2. Put a plastic glove on the hand you will not be holding the paintbrush with.
3. Gather the chalk paint and paintbrush and coat the exposed side of the ring completely with paint.
4. After step 3 is completed, coat the thin inner and outer edges of the wreath with paint.
5. Allow the paint to dry completely.
6. Flip the ring over and coat the other side of it with paint.
7. Take the plastic glove off and put it aside.
8. Unroll a piece of washi tape that’s about 3½” long, since a standard clothespin is about 3 1/4" long.
9. Unpeel the tape’s backing to expose its adhesive, non-decorative side.
10. Affix the piece of tape to one of the sides of the clothespin.
11. The tape we used was the same width as the clothespin. Alternately, you can cut the washi tape to size if it’s too wide.
12. Cut the tape from the roll and trim any excess tape at the end of the clothespin with the scissors.
13. Apply tape to four more of the clothespins, repeating steps 8-11.
14. You’re going to glue clothespins to the wring, but it’s important to make sure that the paint on the ring is completely dry before going forward with that step.
15. Use the glue gun to apply a thin line of glue to the exposed wooden side of one of the clothespins, at the end where you press the clothespin mechanisms to open and close it.
16. Make sure the line of glue is about the same length as the width of the wreath ring.
17. Place the glued side of the clothespin onto one of the sections of the ring that has a hole in it and cover the hole. The end of the clothespin that will hold the photographs, clippings, or notes will extend outward, beyond the edge of the wreath ring.
18. You will glue a total of 10 clothespins to the ring. Five of them will be decorated with washi tape and the other five will be left plain and unadorned. You could also decorate all of them, or none of them.
19. Take one of the plain clothespins and glue it next to the one with the tape on it.
20. Next, glue another clothespin decorated with tape next to the plain one.
21. Repeat this pattern until you’ve glued all of the clothespins onto the ring.
22. Ultimately there should be five clothespins decorated with tape glued on top of the small holes in the ring, and a plain clothespin should be glued in between those. Try to glue the clothespins on the ring so that they’re evenly spaced.
23. Allow the glue to dry completely.
24. Hang your memo wreath and fill with photos, business cards, reminders, and printed quotes that make you happy!
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