How to Make a Festive Wreath

Nothing says Holiday Season like a festive wreath, and nothing gets praise and admiration like a wreath you’ve made yourself. Here are five wreath craft tutorials that you can do yourself cheaply and easily.

Make a festive wreath with real holly

Source

This might look like a painful craft, but it’s really rather easy. Simply gather all your materials: a grapevine wreath, some leafy branches (laurel works well), some holly, a bit of twine and a pair of scissors and some pruners.

Gather a bit of laurel and some holly into a little bunch, and stuff it into the wreath base. Use the twine to secure it. Don’t cut the twine yet. Continue to work around the wreath, securing the bunches into place as you wind the twine around the wreath base.

When you come to the last bunch, make sure the bottom of the bunch is covered, and work to blend the leaves all in together. Essentially, all the bunches should be pointing in the same direction, but you don’t want people to be able to tell where you started. Once that all starts to look nice, wrap the twine around the last bunch, and tie it a couple of times to really keep it in place. Use the pruners to snip off any unruly branches, and work the leaves around so it all looks nice and even.

Make a festive wreath out of scraps of paper

Source

This no-sew wreath is so simple, you can even let your kids help! You can make it with an old wire hanger (use pliers to work it into a circular shape), or you can get a wire wreath base from a craft store. Both will look great.

So along with your wire base, you’ll need 1/2 or 1 yard of fabric and scissors. You may also want to add a bow, so get a large ribbon that contrasts nicely if you do. Cut the fabric into strips that are about 1 inch wide and 8 to 10 inches long. Don’t worry about cutting the fabric perfectly; this is definitely a shabby chic project, and the ragged edges will give it texture.

Tie the strips to the wreath, pushing them as close together as possible as you go. You want to squeeze in as many strips as physics will allow, basically. Then, either tie a bow onto the wreath with the contrasting ribbon, or just go ahead and tie a strip to the back to hang it up and be done with it.

Make a festive wreath with buttons

Source

There are many wreaths you can make with buttons. In some, you simply string flat buttons onto a wire base so you only see the sides of the buttons, but in this project, you’ll glue buttons onto a frame so they point out and you can see all the patterns and textures in your button selection.

Get a frame – you can use a wooden one, or you can even make one out of a strong cardboard, if your buttons are pretty light. You’ll also need some strong glue. Then get all the loose buttons you can. You can choose buttons of a certain colour, or ones that contrast nicely. Either way, this is one of those projects that, the more buttons you use and the wider range of textures and sizes, the better it looks. Before you start, you might want to paint the base a colour that blends in with your colour scheme. That way, if a bit peeks through, no one will notice.

Start gluing buttons to the frame. It looks best when the buttons overlap, so feel free to get them very close to each other. Save the tiny buttons for any gaps you find. You may also end up having to glue some buttons to other buttons to get all the gaps filled in. Once all the gaps are covered, let it dry, and then hang it up.

Make a festive wreath with baubles

Source

This is another project that looks impressive, even though you’re pretty much only gluing things to a frame. You’ll need a sturdy frame, some strong glue, baubles of various sizes and colours and a ribbon or paint in a matching colour.

Paint the base, or cover it in the ribbon, taking care to cover the whole base. Secure the ribbon with some glue. Then start gluing, using the largest baubles first. This looks best if the tops point towards the base, so try to make position the baubles so their tops can be hidden easily. Also make sure you scatter the colours around evenly, so it doesn’t look like you accidentally places clumps of colour in the wreath.

Once all the large ones are down, fill in the gaps with smaller baubles. Use the very smallest to fill in remaining gaps, always working to hide the tops of the baubles. You may have to glue some baubles to others, but that should be fine. Once all the gaps are filled, leave the wreath to dry. Then put it out so everyone can enjoy your handiwork.

Make a festive wreath out of yarn and felt

Source

This project takes patience, but it’s no harder than any of the others here. Still, the handmade yet sleek look will appeal to many a modern guy and gal.

You need a foam wreath that is circular rather than flat. It should look a bit like a pool noodle that has been made into a wreath. You’ll need a large skein of yarn, a matching paint that can be used on foam, scissors and glue. If you want to attach felt flowers, you can either buy some or learn how to make them here.

Paint the wreath so that it matches or almost matches the yarn. This will ensure the wreath looks great, even if your wrapping isn’t perfect. Then wrap the yarn all the way around the wreath. There are two ways to do this. You can wrap the yarn as tightly as possible, trying to avoid any gaps as you go along. Alternatively, you could wrap the yarn in layers. Start by spreading a patch of glue on the back of the wreath, then wrap really tightly for about an inch or so. Then wrap around the wreath leaving even spaces. When you reach your starting point, continue wrapping, slowing filling in the gaps and building up a little layer of yarn until all the gaps are filled. The first way is faster and the second way is more fool proof, so the choice is yours.

However you start, you can finish the same way. Glue the yarn to the back of the wreath every so often, and when you’ve come to the end, trim the yarn, tie the end to a bit in the back and glue the knot to really make it secure. Then glue on the felt flowers. Most crafters opt to put the flowers either at the bottom centre or the bottom right of the wreath, but that is all personal preference. Let everything dry, and then hang up your wreath.

 

With that, you have five ways to make a festive wreath. All you have to do now is pick one and get started.