DIY Christmas Wreath

By B.Nova - Tuesday, December 17, 2013

I love Christmas time, especially the decorations. Each year I like to alter or remix items that I have to give them new life. This year I really wanted a wreath on my bedroom door to add to my festive mood. There are so many choices as to how to go about making a wreath. There is a consideration for size, color, and the most important making a real pine wreath vs. using/creating an artificial wreath.

I decided to make an artificial wreath from an already made wreath that had been used last year. I took out all of the items, leaving it bare, so I could start from scratch. Most of my materials I ended up using were also artificial or plastic. If you go this route, it will last much longer than a wreath made from pine - you'd essentially have to create one every year using a frame unless you had a way to preserve it.

Here is what I used for my custom wreath. The cool thing is I had everything on hand. The flowers I used I'd been wanting a way to keep them by using them in a craft project, but nothing worked out, until now. Get creative with your wreath and play with how you want it to look. Mine took about 20 minutes total because I opted for the easy route of using a glue gun.

Here we go!

So I gathered my materials trying to figure out the best way to go about this. I ended up not using the floral tape, ribbon or wire, but I will say when dealing with artificial flowers and such wire cutters are necessary because the stems will need to be cut and adjusted to fit into the wreath.

Before I began, I plugged in my glue gun and let it get nice and hot - about 5 to 8 minutes. Please be careful! It gets really hot and melted hot on your hands can hurt.

Using my wire cutters I cut all the stems from the flowers. There is usually an indentation on the flowers that will allow you to cut it easier. Trying to cut the stem without it is not recommended if it's really thick because it will most likely not be a successful situation - I speak from personal experience. Some of the flowers, like the glitter ones, I didn't have to cut and was able to stick them into the wreath with the wire part hidden under the green parts. I also did this for the glitter peacock feathers.

The pine of the wreath also contains wire making it easier to manipulate it and it can hide any wire or stems that can possibly be seen.

I arranged the flowers how I wanted them and got to work with the glue gun putting and ample amount of glue on and around the bottom of the stems. You have to work quickly with hot glue because it cools fast once it has left the actual gun.

After about 10 minutes of going around the wreath I ended up with this beauty...

I'm so happy with how it turned out and the overall cost was so much cheaper than buying one already made. If you are looking for another way to add a personal touch to the holiday season, there is nothing like creating decorations yourself!