My first attempt at making a Christmas wreath

My first attempt at making a Christmas wreath

Now I am the very first person who will tell you that I’m not crafty, but I do LOVE Christmas and everything associated with it.

Being stuck in our second lockdown, and currently having terrible weather, I decided to attempt a wreath myself. It also helps that I have a rather large and over-zealous holly bush in our front yard.

I purchased the frame from Hobbycraft along with some wire and pins. These were all I needed to get started.

 I did my prep by watching a YouTube clip sent to me by my Mum (thanks Mum) which taught me the basics of wreath making. With all that new knowledge fresh in my mind, I set off into my garden with a pair of scissors and a very glamorous laundry basket.

I tried to find a mixture of foliage with different colours and textures to make a base for my Holly to sit on. To say I was completely winging it was an understatement.

 I started the process by bunching some conifer stems together with wire to layer onto the base. Once I had made several, I just fixed them to the frame by twisting the wire all the way around, making sure the leaves were secure.

I then layered the bunches on top of each other, making sure I had good coverage of the frame. The most important thing to remember is always to make sure you keep the directional flow of whatever you add-in.  We want to keep it a uniformed yet free-flowing circle.

Now, the fun bit.

I would recommend using gloves when working with Holly- as I found out the hard way.

A lot of professionals approach the next step with a solid plan in place, whereas I just started adding the Holly to the wreath until it looked nice and even, then, started adding the other bits of foliage I found.

I would like to be able to tell you all the names of the plants, but I have no idea.

One thing I found useful was to bring my wreath hook inside. This way, I could hang it up and have a much better view to see spots that needed attention.

Unconventionally I decided to add some bamboo to the outer layer of my wreath to give it a more rustic look, and it almost resembles eucalyptus leaves from back home. 

 All-in-all I am pretty happy with the overall result of my wreath. Up close you can see bits of wire and the odd conker nut hot glued to cover a hole, but it looks great up on our door, and it makes my kids happy. What more could I ask for?

I think the best thing about the wreath is, as I’ve used fresh cuttings, bits will start to wither and die after a week or so, so I can strip away the old bits and start the process all over again.

In hindsight, I would have loved to have collected some more nuts and pinecones during the autumn, but I will know better for next year!

Kelly xx