After we help folks buy or build their home, we love to drive by during the holiday season and see the pretty wreaths on their front doors. Have you ever wanted to make your own holiday wreath?
To get easy, step-by-step directions, we spoke with Beth Warren, a Mid-Maine-based residential garden-maintenance professional and wreath-making expert. Here’s what Beth shared with us:
Step #1 . . . Start with Your Wreath “Ingredients”
To create your own wreath, you’ll first need a wreath base, which you can get at your local crafts store. Start with a 12-inch base, because once you actually make your wreath it will be larger than that.
You’ll also need pruners or clippers … florist wire on a paddle (spool) … and the actual small evergreen materials you’ll be adding. Your evergreen materials can be gathered from fir, pine, spruce, arborvitae, or even dogwood trees or shrubs. As you gather, cut the small evergreen branches into 12-to-14-inch-long boughs or “bouquets.” (You’ll be cutting them shorter later.)
Step #2 . . . Add Your Evergreen “Bouquets” to Your Base
Once you have all your materials, place them in neatly organized piles. For example, place all your pine together, all your dogwood together, etc.
Now, take your wire and secure an initial, starting-point “wrap” of wire on your wreath base.
Next, take your evergreen “bouquets” and clip each so they are about 6 inches long. Place your first bouquet on your wreath base, in a slightly “northwest” direction (like toward 10 o’clock on a clock face), then take your wire and wrap it 2 or 3 times around the bouquet end, to secure it to the base.
Repeat this step, moving around the wreath base, alternating the evergreen bouquets from pointing northwest (like toward 10 on a clock face) to pointing northeast (like toward 2 on a clock face).
With each small evergreen bouquet you add, be sure to cover the ends of the previous bunch, so those ends (and the wire) are not visible. Continue this process all the way around your wreath base.
Step # 3 . . . Make it Your Own!
You now have all your evergreen bouquets added around the entire circumference of your wreath base. Now it’s time to REALLY get creative and make it your own! Wire on a brightly colored bow … or pine cones … or small birch branches . . . or tiny bird figurines … or Christmas bells … or what-have-you! It’s totally up to you! As Beth Warren says, “There’s no right or wrong way to decorate your wreath. Simply personalize it to your own taste. If YOU like it, then it’s great!”
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