Last Year's Halloween Wreath with little pumpkins |
time for finding supplies to make one yourself. Every time I am at the craft store I marvel at the price they charge for a completed wreath. Wreaths are simple to make and can be made much cheaper. Most wreaths I make top out at no more than $30 for a full, beautiful wreath. I use a grapevine (available any time) or faux pine needle base (available at Christmas). I don't bother with Styrofoam wreath bases because they are more work (you have to pre-poke holes) and they require many more flowers because they have to be completely covered. There is a movement afoot, all over Etsy and Blogville right now that involve wrapping a Styrofoam wreath form with yarn and attaching felt flowers. I've never made one because, well frankly, I can't decide if I like them or not. They seem a little "church bazaar" to me.
If I want to secure the embellishments permanently then I use hot glue. More often than not I don't do anything to secure the embellishments other than weave the stems into the base. This allows me to just pull out the flowers or add a berry spray or completely change the wreath on a whim.
What do you need for a beautiful wreath? A base, some flowers, filler, ribbon if you want a bow, wire cutters, and a hot glue gun and glue sticks if you want to secure it. That's it. Easy right? Ok, so you don't think your are crafty or you don't have a design bone in your body. I still think you can make a pretty wreath if you use my tricks. If all else fails, you can easily copy a design from a magazine, pinterest, or one of the many design blogs. You can even use one of Michael's overpriced wreaths as inspiration.
A Bouquet of flowers and filler |
An Autumn Pick |
A fabulous Christmas pick |
of goodness that make it simple to decorate a wreath- just attach the entire pick on to the wreath as a unit. A basic wreath would need 5-7 picks, but where is the fun in that? It would all be too easy and boring. What I like to do is grab the wire cutters- and I'm telling you the bigger the better- and start tearing the bouquets and picks apart. The problem you will find is that they are often wrapped a bajillion times with florists tape- a waxy, paper tape that becomes a solid mass when layered. Once you get through all that floral tape you often encounter the second problem…thick thick wire (or worse, wireS) in the center. If you are lucky it will be plastic and thin wires but more often than not you have to deal with floral tape and thick wire. So rip, tear, bend back-and -forth, scream, grab the hubby..whatever it takes to get the things separated. I'm talking all-the-way-down-to-the-individual-stems separate. Keep in mind, just because I separate them all the way down to the individual pieces doesn't mean you have to; you could stop whenever you want, keeping little clusters intact.
Armed with your base, flowers, individual filler pieces and glue you are ready to go. I usually start with the big flowers first. It is always best to use an odd number of anything which will keep you from trying to find perfect spacing. Cut the stems short and if you are using hot glue squeeze some on to the tip of the stem or if the flower is big enough you can put glue directly on the back, near the center of the bloom. Be sure to have something underneath to protect your floor or tabletop from dripping hot glue. You wouldn't want to spend hours peeling glue off your Pergo floor would you? After the main blooms are in place, begin to fill in with the filler pieces. There is no secret to how do this; just play around to find a pleasing arrangement. When you are satisfied begin to glue things into place.
The pink and white Christmas wreath was made for my grandmother. I used pink velvet poinsettias, a variety of greenery, acorns and berries, Christmas ornament balls, and ribbon. Notice that I make the poinsettia blooms smaller by cutting off the bottom layer of petals and using the them more like a leaf. I love the retro vibe of this wreath.
The purple and white wreath was made using only Christmas ornament balls; flowers. I just glued a variety of balls, in a small palate of colors, directly to the faux-pine wreath. This type of wreath is very simple to make and if you shop around for good deals, you can make it very inexpensively.
This gorgeous purple wreath is one of my favorites. I posted it when I made it last year, but it is a favorite so here it is again. It didn't photograph well; in real life it is stunning. I used large purple velvet hydrangeas cut into smaller clusters of petals, berry and acorn picks, a variety of faux greens with real pinecones, glittered faux eucalyptus, and more Christmas ornament balls.
The grapevine winter wreath is one of my all time favorites. The variety of textures make such an interesting wreath. I was lucky to stumble on some high-quality faux-pine and pinecone picks at an after holiday clearance. The white gold color with the green and brown is beautiful. Of course it is sparkly- with both white gold glitter and brown glitter on the berries.
This wreath is decorated only on the bottom of the grapevine wreath and is fairly symmetrical from the center of the arrangement. Sometimes I like to put the cluster on the side rathe than the bottom and sometimes I make it more asymmetrical like I did in this spring wreath I made for my neighbor.
Be sure to send me pics of any wreaths you make.
Laters Baby
Now I feel like I have to make some wreaths - at least you've provided good instuctions with your inspirations.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful post - I love all the different photographs you shared - The different items that are available to us etc - I may just need to make my own this holiday season!
ReplyDelete~Kristine
ooh thanks for the tips just might have to try making on now. Keyword "might". Your's are all so beautiful!My fav is the spring wreath at the bottom.
ReplyDelete