Tennis Racket Wreath
I like to change my front door wreath with the seasons and crafted a tennis racket wreath to hang on my front door for summer.
Our front door now screams, “It’s Summer!” with this bright addition.
Do you want to know how I made this? Keep reading!
How to Make a Dahlia Tennis Racket Wreath
Supplies
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Old Tennis Racket
Spray Paint in desired color
Scrap Piece of Cardboard
Felt in desired Colors – Amounts needed listed below
Scissors – This brand is my favorite for sewing and for cutting fabric.
Glue Gun and Glue Sticks
Steps to Make a Tennis Racket Dahlia
Spray Paint the Racket
I started by spray painting the racket brown. This poor Babolat looks to be perfectly fine but it has a small crack in the frame making it unusable.
Cut the Cardboard
Trace around the racket head on a piece of cardboard, cut it out, and glue it to the racket strings with E6000 glue.
Cut the Felt
While the cardboard dried, make the petals. I chose three colors of felt and cut them into 2 x 6”, 2 x 4”, and 2 x 2” pieces.
Cut the pieces three layers at a time. For the petals I didn’t use a pattern, I simply cut them with my scissors into a leaf shape.
I used another Babolat racket as a guide to figure out how many pieces of felt I’d need. I ended up making two layers of 2 x 6” yellow, one layer of 2 x 6” orange, two layers of 2 x 4” orange, and then enough 2 x 2” petals made of white to fill the middle. I ended up using 7 sheets of yellow, 6 1/2 sheets of orange, and 4 sheets of white. At $.29 a sheet, this ended up being a very inexpensive project.
Glue Petals to Racket
I prepared all of the petals before I glued them to the racket by putting a dab of hot glue (I use cool melt) near the bottom of each petal and pinching to make the glue stick. To speed up the process, I stuck each petal under a book until it dried. This step went quickly as the drying time was less than a minute.
Once the petals were ready, I glued them to the racket in layers, overlapping the petals slightly.
Keep gluing until the racket head is full of petals.
Spray Petals with Fabric Stiffener
It is hot and humid here in Virginia and I feared that the felt may droop. To try to prevent this, I sprayed the finished “Dahlia” with fabric stiffener to give each petal a bit of support.
Hang the Tennis Racket Dahlia
After the glue dried, the Tennis Racket Dahlia was ready to hang on my door.
I’m pleased as punch with this project!
Genius! So cheerful and welcoming.
Love that this combines your love of tennis! Thank you again for letting me know about my “no reply” blogger settings. I checked and they are set correctly, so I deleted and reset them. Not sure what is going on. Could you try responding this to comment when you have time? Thank you!
Tennis racket! Genius!
Too much fun!! Love those gorgeous summery colors. What a pretty project, Paula. 🙂
CUTE!!!! What a creative idea!!
Very pretty!
That is so stinkin’ cute! I love how it turned out! It’s so bright and colorful that it just screams summer. Thanks for the tip about the stiffner. I should’ve used it for my fabric flowers on my burlap wreath. They totally wilted!
That is just darling Paula, I bet the neighbors are trying to figure out how you did that.
How cute thanks for sharing..Pat h
This is such a creative idea. It looks great on your door!
Paula, this is darling, and especially appropriate for you and your husband! What a bright, cheerful way for a couple of tennis players to welcome people to their home. 🙂
I love this! and how you can see your front door from the sidewalk, it really does scream summer – dahlia’s are such magnificent flowers.
Oh my gosh – this is too cute! I have two rackets in the basement…
Dropping by from Met Monday.
Allison
Atticmag
So cute! I love it. I may have to use this idea, so awesome!
Cute and creative idea, love it! i made a pillow very similar to your racket. you can see it here, if you like. http://bet1975.blogspot.com/2011/06/petal-flower-pillow.html
I love the colors, it looks awesome on your door! Nice job. 🙂
How cute is this!!!!! Love it.
Why I haven’t thought of that? So creative! 🙂
What an adorable wreath ~ I love it!
Have a Happy Labor Day!
What sizes are the petals? Do you have a template for them. Really love this! Thank you.