Opening Day Wreath

"We're all behind our baseball team... Go Get em' Detroit Tigers... Go get em' Tigers!"

I bet the women of 1968 wished they had this baseball wreath to hang up on their door! 

I wish I could say that this idea is all mine but it isn't.  The idea stemmed from a baseball wreath that I saw on this Tutorial :  Baseball Wreath at Oops I craft My Pants  She used kiddie party favor baseballs that were hot glued to a wreath.

Not only was the wreath a phenomenal idea but she made some great "game day ticket" invites and the list of baseball-ness goes on.

 I thought it would be super awesome to have something like it on our door for opening day and well depending how awesome the Tigers do this year maybe the whole darn season!!   Opening Day is a national holiday at our home it is the only day that my husband can manage to get off work early.  ;)  

Keith asked me what I was doing tonight and started to peek into the garage.  I told him that he will either think that what I am doing is totally awesome or completely sacrilegious!  Sacrilegious because I had plans to mix soft and hard balls together and well the part where I drill holes through baseballs that still have some life left.

Supplies:

• For this specific wreath you will need 4 baseballs and 8 softballs.  (baseballs only -14)
• 1/4 inch drill bit that makes holes
• Electric drill
• pliers
• elbow grease
• 2+ feet of heavy gauged wire or a coat hanger
• Ribbon or other decorative items

Project time: (45 minutes)

I picked these beauties up at Play It  Again Sports for $1.50/each.  You can buy a bag of new hardballs (12 for $19) there but I didn't like the logos and I kind of like the old look/feel to this.  Drill a hole in each baseball until 1/4 drill bit comes all the way through.  The leather gets a little stinky just to warn you.  Make sure you remove all lose clothing because you are leaning on the drill and pressing down to get the bit to go all the way through the baseball.  I also placed a small 1x2 under the ball while drilling to protect the work bench area.

Measure your metal wire and or bend your coat hanger into a circle.  If you are using a coat hanger, you will want to make sure the end that is being used to "thread" the baseballs is smooth and you have removed the wrinkled or ridged section of wiring.  The baseballs are pretty stubborn during the initial threading period.

Thread the baseballs on the wire.  You will need a little bit of elbow grease and I found it easier to use pliers to hold the wire once threaded to further pull it through the baseball.   For this wreath, I made a pattern of 1 hardball, 2 softballs, repeat.

 After all of the baseballs are threaded, use the pliers to bend the heavy gauged wire downward to create a P.

Remove any excess wire on the other end and thread  the other end of the wire through and begin bending to form a knot.  You want to make sure that this keeps together tightly because the weight of your newly created wreath will hang from this pressure point.

 Add embellishments, hang on your front door and go cheer on your favorite team!

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