The practice of making one is quite simple. The hard part (if you're doing this on your own) is gathering the greens and having a space large enough to spread the greens out and get everything messy. We've always done it in my aunt and uncle's garage, and while it's cold, it works great. As for the greens, everyone cuts and brings some to share. The key is to have a wide variety -- spruce, white pine, boxwood, holly, cedar, etc. If you don't have greens on your own property, don't hesitate to ask your neighbors or strangers. You're not cutting very much, so hopefully they won't mind a trim.
What you will need:
- A wire wreath frame. You can buy these at any craft store in the floral department. They come in all different sizes.
- Green floral wire on a spool
- A cutter/trimmer. A scissors can work, but a cutter is best.
- Ribbon, Christmas balls, pinecones, etc. to decorate. You can tailor this to your decorating tastes. We've also used spray paint in the past for things like pinecones which is fun.
- Something to hang your wreath on. I have an over the door hook which is great, but as you'll see below, I hung mine differently this year and had to find a different solution.
- Greens.
Tools of the trade:
Green floral wire Wire frame Pile of greens
Start by flipping your frame over so the raised side is up. Wrap a good length of floral wire around a point in the frame. This will be where you will start.
Trim a small handful of different greens so you have a manageable bunch.
Lay the bunch of greens on the frame and wrap the floral wire around the bottom of the bunch several times until it is secure. You will continue to make bunches like this, laying them on the frame in an alternating pattern. One on the inside, one on the outside, sometimes one in the center, continuing to wrap the floral wire around each bunch. It's important to make sure all your bunches are going the same direction. I usually work counter-clockwise, but either way is fine as long as you point the greens in the same direction. It takes some time to get used to making bunches using different greens, so take your time and keep looking at it to make sure it looks even and one part is not fatter than another part.
Your wreath will start to come together, looking something like this. Keep going! It gets a little tedious in the middle, but the end result is worth it. When you meet where you started, fill in the last hole and then wrap the floral wire like normal. Give yourself some extra and wrap it around the frame like you did when you started to secure the wreath. Clip the wire off the spool.
One of my finished wreaths.
Two more. I made three of this size (12 inch frame), one 16 inch frame and one 8 inch boxwood wreath. It was a busy morning!
My lovely mother working on her two huge wreaths.
Liam's boxwood wreath in yellow and gray for his room. He did not help in the slightest; my aunt made this for him.
I didn't do any decorating of my wreaths until I got home and found some ribbon I liked. I usually decorate in gold and red for Christmas, so that is the ribbon I went with too. Like I said above, you can decorate them any way you choose.
This is my tiny boxwood hanging on my Brad Smith mirror. (Excuse the poor photo and the light switch!) I simply looped the ribbon through it and pushed a push pin through the ribbon into the wall behind the mirror. The best part about boxwood is that it lasts forever. I could keep this wreath up for six months if I wanted. I may do that, with a different ribbon of course.
The other three wreaths went outside on my windows. I watched too many YouTube videos on how to make the bows, but I'm pleased with how they turned out. They are hung by suction cup hooks directly on the window. I gave the fifth wreath to my pastor's wife for her front door.
There you go! I hope this might inspire you to take on a project like this, or if not this, another simpler project. We made darling burlap wreaths at our mom's group last week that were super simple so I know those kind of wreaths are out there!
3 comments:
If they're alive, do they sing Christmas carols to you when you get home? I haven't heard ours singing, so maybe they're dead ;). Should have been more careful when you made them I guess. Poor wreaths.
awesome! thanks for sharing! turns out i do have a couple unruly boxwood bushes on the side of the house . . . I'm so observant . . . might be fun to have some wreaths up into the new year!
Good job Kate! Now all you need to do is make it a u-tube video! And to think that before mom died, she would spend the afternoon making pie crusts for everyone on craft day - where did that tradition go? :)
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