I've been wanting to make my own Christmas wreath for several years now. A friend and I used to get together to make them, but she moved away about eight years ago. This year, I was determined not to buy another Costco wreath! I recruited Ben to help and set up shop in the garage. First, we had to build a wreath form. In the past, I've always borrowed one, but they are easy to make, I had the supplies on hand, and I knew Ben would love hammering in all the nails!
In case you want to make one of your own, here's how:
First, get a square piece of plywood about 22" to 24" square (22" is probably the smallest for an 18" wreath).
Then find the middle of the square and mark it with a pencil. Make yourself a handy "pencil compass" with a 9" piece of string tied to a pencil. Have your helper hold the end of the string on the center of the board and draw an 18" circle.
Third, get about a dozen long, sturdy nails (about 4" long, I used 14), and have your helper hammer them around the perimeter of the circle at even intervals (think a clock).
And voila! You've got your wreath form.
To make a wreath, first you have to collect all the supplies. Fortunately, I am surrounded by cedar and fir trees, and lots of other great, wild-growing, wreath making plants like holly, evergreen huckleberry, salal, and Oregon grape, and I have other evergreens growing in my gardens. Anything with evergreen leaves makes great wreaths, but I like cedar and fir boughs for the base. Try to find long, supple, thinner branches, around the size of your thumb at the cutting point. Anything much bigger is harder to work with. You'll need eight to ten boughs for a nice, full, wreath. Collect lots of "decorations," too. The more variety you can find, the better. I even had some hydrangeas still on my bushes that were perfectly dried, so I snipped them off and added them to my collection. You'll also need some wire to tie everything together. If your boughs are thicker, you'll need thicker wire, but I was able to get away with using thin, green florist wire.
Putting the wreath together: Take a bough and wrap it around on the INSIDE of the nails. The nails are there to hold the wreath's form until you wire it all together. Tuck all the stray branches in so not much is poking out along the outside of the nails. Your second bough should start in a different spot than your first, but wrap in the same direction. All boughs need to wrap in the same direction. Once you've got your boughs wrapped in as full as you'd like, take your wire and secure the boughs together, wrapping the wire under the wreath and tying the wire around all the boughs to keep them together. Do this in about six different spots around the wreath.
Then you get to start decorating! Poke in your various evergreen beauties wherever you'd like around the wreath and wire them in if they feel like they're not going to stay on their own. I used extra wire on my hydrangeas since they're not as sturdy. To make a hanger, find the "top" of your wreath and if there's not already a wrap of wire at that spot, add one, then make a loop of wire (I used four strands of the florist's wire to make sure it was sturdy) and secure it to the wire that's wrapped around the wreath.
Ben starting to decorate with some holly.
Jillian came out and gave us some decorating advice.
The finished product! I was very pleased with how it turned out. I especially love the hydrangeas!
Here it is hanging on my front door. Much prettier than any Costco wreath!
