Corn Leaf Wreath

$10 - $15 (based on 2016 prices)

Makes one wreath

The fake corn stalks yielded more leaves than I was anticipating, so I decided to use the excess in additional props. The first one was a decorative wreath. I had never created a wreath before and, given the farm theme for 2016’s haunt, I thought the concept would work well. To prevent it from standing out too much, I incorporated a few elements which appeared on other props for that year, particularly the cockroaches.

• One twelve-inch willow wreath
• Thirty fake corn leaves (learn how to make them here)
• Three 1.75 oz. bundles of tan raffia
• One bag of plastic cockroaches (roughly two dozen bugs per bag)
• One disheveled crow (learn how to make it here)

1. Wrap the leaves around the wreath and hot glue them into place. For visual interest, I chose to spiral the leaves outward; however, you could attached them vertically. You may want to play with the leaves’ pattern before gluing them down.

2. Clean up the back of the wreath by trimming the leaves and gluing them down. For the time-pressed haunter, you could skip this step (when the wreath is hung on a door or wall, no one will see its backside). I elected to perform this process because my perfectionist tendencies prevented me from leaving the back a mess.

3. Adhere raffia to the back of the wreath. I found that laying a heavy layer of glue down and pressing the raffia on top of it works well. Once the first layer has dried, you could apply additional layers to give the allotment more girth.

4. If you want the wreath to look clean and inviting, stop once the raffia has dried. You could attach dried corn cobs or sunflowers to give the prop a friendlier appearance.

5. Since I wanted something more unsettling, I glued cockroaches onto the leaves. Try not to over think your application (a random pattern produces the best results). NOTE: The particular cockroaches I used were made with a slick plastic which did not adhere with hot glue. As a result, I used superglue gel to affix them to the prop.

6. Attach a disheveled crow to the inner base of the wreath. Try to use one with wire clamps on its feet (this will give the bird added support if you plan to display the prop outdoors).

7. Since I used a metal hanger, I decided not to create a hanging loop on the back of the wreath. You, of course, are free to fashion one if you choose not to use a hanger.