The Wreath

The idea for the wreath came during my Floral Design class at Brigham Young University. The professor showed us how to make a floral crown and I figured I could transition the techniques to an evergreen wreath for Christmas! I told my boyfriend at the time about it and we added it to our "to-do list" for fun date activities. It's been so long, that he is now my husband and we finally did this for the second Christmas that we've been married. Finally, two days after thanksgiving 2015, we started this "date activity" we'd both been wanting to do together and got to cross if off that list!

(It looked better in person, I promise!)

First things first, Materials:

wire Wreath form ($3)

floral tape/floral wire

door hanger

string

hand pruners

two grocery sacks full of foraged greenery, 

         including a few pine cones

Foraging

The most time consuming part of the foraging was walking from tree to tree in the area until I found a leaf texture that wouldn't be too sharp for my fingers during assembly. I like rocky mountain juniper leaves the most (for their larger berries compared to other juniper species), but for varied texture I put in some oriental arborvitae leaves. Use what you can find and hope that you can scrounge up something softer than most pine trees.

(Jon, the Husband, taking his turn at attaching)

Attaching

On the wreath, I attached the branches with floral tape, floral wire will be the method would try next season when I do this all over again (The tape was far too obvious from the back side of the wreath).

Once I had a fluffy and dense wreath of the greenery, I added in a few cones here and there, with the floral wire. I wrapped the wire between the scales and inserted it in like a hair pin and twisted the wire tight on the back side of the wreath. This also helped some of the heavier and longer leaves from falling off or twisting in the wrong direction.

Displaying

At this point I wrapped a string around the top of the circle and hung it on an over-the-door hanger and put it out for display on my back door.

The best part was bringing the scent of pine trees into our home as we created the wreath, and the burst of scent as I walked in the house every day.

I thoroughly enjoyed this and will be hopefully be doing it for many Christmases to come. It truly was a great activity to do as a couple. I hope you take the opportunity to make this wreath, or at least add it to your "To-do list"