How to Make Asymmetrical Holiday Wreaths

How to Make Asymmetrical Holiday Wreaths

This weekend that just past, I put together a little holiday wreath workshop, along with Malorie from Petal + Fold, to get into the Christmas spirit before December 25th comes crashing in. This month is flying by!

I’ll be sharing all of the workshop photos soon, but today I wanted to share how you can DIY your own wreath at home, in case you’re looking to dress up your fireplace, entryway, etc this year.

And since we’re using fresh flowers, I have a must-have material for keeping fresh flowers alive longer for your wreaths too, and you’ve probably never even heard of it before. Click through for the tutorial.

All of our wreaths had fresh flowers and greenery from Flower Muse (they sell fresh flowers and greens straight from flower farms around the world… I use ’em all the time for events and DIY projects) and Malorie (who is incredibly talented with flowers) showed everyone how to make the wreaths themselves.

I made the small little guys, but more on that later. AND the wreath with lots of pepperberries was actually a student wreath – shout out to Ashley for killing it on her wreath design.

So, now that you know who made what, here’s what you’ll need to make your own holiday wreaths at home…

Materials

Instructions

1. Start with greenery. In the example wreaths, there was a variety of greenery used…variegated pittosporum, olive branch, and green bush ivy in the small geometric wreaths // olive branch, pepperberry, and silver dollar eucalyptus in the larger wreaths.

2. Build up the greenery, starting in the outermost edges that you want to cover and working your way in, adding branches all in the same direction. Use 3 inch long pieces of floral wire to secure each branch or stem, by wrapping it around the stem and hoop several times. With each branch or stem you add, cover up the wire from the one before it.

3. Then, when you’ve reached the middle, start fresh on the other side, again at the outermost edge you want to cover and repeat step 2 with that side.

4. Once you’ve added all of the greenery you’d like, it’s time for flowers. For the small wreaths, white anemones, white ranunculus, and cream garden roses – patience were used. For the large wreaths, dusty pink garden roses – romantic antike and red ranunculus were used.

For larger blooms with hearty stems, like garden roses, start by trimming off the stem completely and then sticking a corsage stem in through the bottom, as shown in the photo, after you’ve dipped the tip in water for 10 seconds.

For hollow stems, like ranunculus and anemones, you can wither give the corsage stems a whirl OR insert floral wire through the stem (first cut the stem down to just a few inches), then twist around the hoop to secure.

5. Wrap the wire end of the corsage stem around the hoop and attached branches.

6. Continue step 4 and 5 until you’ve reached the desired look. And it’s ready to hang, over a nail on the wall, your front door, etc.

When the flowers eventually wilt (usually within 2-5 days), you can switch them out for new ones or leave your wreath as just greenery for the rest of the season.

Are you making any wreaths for the holidays this year? Any fresh flowers in the mix?

Original article and pictures take www.papernstitchblog.com site