For me, the best part of the holidays is spending time making special gifts to give to friends and family; ornaments, candles, knit cowls and scarves, and sweet/savory treats. One special gift I created this year was a music box wreath. All you need is a hot-glue gun and a little patience. I used a premade pom pom wreath and a paper church ornament along with little bottle brush trees. The music box was inexpensive and plays Silent Night. I did have to pop it open and tweak it a little to slow down the song, but a quick google search, and I found this how-to video on youtube. Finding a suitable paper house that fits the music box is key, but music is totally optional and there are so many cute house ornaments you could use for this project to make it completely your own. I also think it would be adorable backlit with fairy lights! I’ll link all the materials below with a step-by-step if you’d like to make your own music box wreath.
materials
Paper House Ornament (similar) – I actually bought mine at Target in 2021
3″ Bottlebrush Trees (similar) – I found mine at the Target Dollar Spot
White Chalk Paint (for making snowy trees and painting the bases)
Hot-Glue Gun
Exacto Knife (to separate the paper house ornament from its base, and cut the hole for the music box key to fit through)
creating your wreath
Gather all your materials and plan out your arrangement. If possible hang the wreath and tuck the elements in place into the pom poms. Once you have the arrangement figured out, snap a picture with your phone. This will be helpful when you start to hot-glue the pieces down.
Paint your tiny bottle brush tree bases white and tap paint onto the branches to desired snowiness. You may be able to find trees that are already snowy or glittery and that would save you this step.
While your painted trees are drying, use an exacto knife to carefully separate the house ornament from its base.
Turn your music box key counter-clockwise to remove from the music box and then place the music box inside the paper house. You need to eyeball where the key would go and then cut a small hole. Replace the key thru the hole then hot-glue the house to the lower area of the music box. Please be careful, I burned my finger during this step! Note: The hole for the sound should face down and out of the paper house.
Glue the lower part of the back of the paper house to the base/backing of the wreath. You may need to shift some pom poms a little to get the house in place securely. Be sure it’s secure and not leaning forward, we don’t want it to look like an avalanche is about to occur. Once that is dry you should test your music box, winding it most of the way so it can play the full song.
Your little snowy trees are probably dry by this time so you can glue them in place using the picture you snapped earlier as a guide for positioning.
That’s it! There are so many possibilities with this project and it would make a fantastic one-of-a-kind gift. If you make your own wreath tag @theindoorsyproject on Instagram or DM me, I would love to see what you create.
theindoorsyproject.com 