Halloween Solo Cup Wreath

The American Flag Wreath made out of paper cups for the Forth of July from my very first post was shared on Pinterest and Facebook frequently as a Solo Cup wreath. So cute! I thought it might be my duty to test the construction and actually make a wreath out of plastic cups for Halloween.

The Solo brand cups were disappointingly not available at my grocery in Halloween colors. However you can find them here in every color including gold! Party City also has plastic cups in every color so I headed there and they just happened to be on a BOGO sale! I used 16 oz plastic cups.

Because this wasn’t a flag and I wasn’t trying to fit in 13 red and white stripes I could experiment with thick stripes (doubling the cups) or thin stripes (alternating single cups):

The double cup thicker stripe looked a little less like an exoskeleton so I went ahead with it. But then, of course, I changed my mind on the colors. On facebook I was reading comments under the flag wreath and a lady said she was going to make it in black and white for Halloween. Hello, why didn’t I think of that! Thank you, ma’am!

Hot glue would melt these cups so I had to use Scotch brand permanent double sided tape at the front and the back of the cups using little notches at the base of the cup for alignment. This made the plastic cup wreath ten times easier than the paper cup because I didn’t have to measure!

For spacing, I figured out the tape needed to alternate being placed at the 4th and 3rd ridge on the cups to complete the circle of the wreath. I also had to fold the tape on itself so it would be puffier and easier to attach.

The tape at the back of the cup has to fold over the bottom to securely attach to the next cup.

Once I had it all together it felt a little shaky so I had to add a dab of hot glue on every cup. And this did in fact melt the cup but I kept it small and unnoticeable.

I love this ribbon I found to hang the wreath. It was in a homecoming ribbon bin outside Michael’s for $1.99. 3 inch by 3 yard from Simplicity labeled as School Spirit, great deal and thick for greater presence. I tried to cut the ribbon at a sharp angle to mimic a Vampire’s fangs or the wings of a spooky bat.

The wreath will break and fall just like my paper cup wreath did a couple times. That’s okay, this is how I discovered the weak links and they just need to be reinforced with a little hot glue.