I tried making a Christmas wreath with materials from the 100-yen shop!

Ever since Halloween ended, I've started seeing Christmas wreaths on people's front doors.
I thought they were cute, but when I looked for them at lofts or flower shops, I was surprised by the prices, like, 'What?! 2,500 yen?!'
When I searched online, I found out that it seemed possible to make one with materials from a 100-yen shop, so despite being clumsy, I decided to give it a try!

Here are the materials I gathered*

The wreath base was from Daiso, and this was the only thing that wasn't 100 yen, but 200 yen.
The selection varies by store, so I visited two Daiso locations.
Seria had a variety of cute pinecones.
Also... this little guy that I bought after falling in love at first sight ↓

A reindeer fabric ornament.
So cute!
I bought it thinking I wanted to hang it up somewhere separately from the wreath!

Now, let's get started.
I searched for '100-yen shop Christmas wreath' on YouTube and used the videos that came up as a reference.
However, I don't own a 'glue gun' (hot bond), which is often used for this kind of work, and I didn't want to go through the trouble of buying one... so I bought a super-versatile glue at a craft store.

They sold various types of glue, like wood glue and super-fast drying glue, but since many of the materials I was using were 'polyethylene,' I chose one that could bond that.

As for the procedure, I attached the larger materials (like pinecones) first, and then cut the greenery (this time, something like a vine called green vine, and some hiba arborvitae) into small pieces and attached them.

The process of attaching the greenery was quite tedious, and I felt like, 'How long do I have to keep doing this?' ^^;
I think professional florists fill it in with greenery without any gaps to make a fluffy wreath, but it was quite difficult to put glue on the tiny leaves and insert them into the narrow spaces.
I think it's important to know when to give up and say, 'That's probably enough.'

On the first day of work, I ran out of glue, so I stopped there for the time being.
I managed to get this far in one day.

For the snow-covered pinecone circle, I initially intended to take the pinecones apart and use them one by one.
However, because they were glued together quite sturdily, and I thought it might have an impact if I decorated the wreath with them in the ring shape as they were, I attached them just like that.

And the second day.
I bought more of the same glue.
While battling between the feeling of wanting to add more of the leftover materials and the feeling of 'that's probably enough now,' I filled in the gaps as much as possible.

In the middle of that, I thought it might work, so I tried incorporating the reindeer ornament into the wreath.
Since I didn't feel secure with just the glue, I sewed it on with thread... but I couldn't tie a knot at the end...! So I threaded the end of the thread through a wire and fixed it to the wreath with the wire.
Anyway, it turned into a craft of faking it as I went along.

Now for the finished product

Ta-da!!
Didn't it turn out super cute? > <
Self-praise.

It was difficult, but I'm glad I added the reindeer.
It's a nice accent and gives it some originality.
Also, this is something I tried because I thought it looked stylish ↓

I glued gold ball ornaments onto red pinecones.
These are easy to stick on and simple to do.

Even a clumsy person like me was able to finish it in two days.
It was fun, and it's cute!
Even though it's from the 100-yen shop, the materials I bought cost 1,400 yen, and I used up two whole bottles of glue at 682 yen each, so it ended up costing over 2,700 yen total, haha.
The glue was so expensive!
Did I use too much?

But I'm satisfied because I ended up with a one-of-a-kind wreath that makes me feel warm and fuzzy just looking at it.

Christmas, a time that makes you excited even if you don't have any plans.

I'll leave you with two tanka poems that will make that feeling even more festive.