Good Morning, Friends and welcome to the Blog. August is moving right along and soon we will be in one of my favorite times of year…..Fall. Cooler nights and gorgeous warm days with lots of color and outdoor activities. I’ve been starting to see lots of ideas for Fall decor so thought I would try my hand at a couple of wreaths. These are pretty simple and only take a few items to assemble. Here we go!
This is one of the smaller finished wreaths. I made two smaller ones and one large one to hang on the windows in my Morning Room.
I started with a grapevine wreath (actually did three), some florist’s wire and stem wrap, scissors, ribbon and a couple of picks. I had everything on hand so didn’t have to purchase anything. Most everything was thrifted and just put away in my Fall stash.
I added the largest pick to the wreath, first. I pushed the stem of the cotton boll pick through the grapevine wreath to the back. Then I bent the stem to fit the curve of the wreath and secured it with florist’s wire. When you flip it back over, the stem is now a part of the grapevine wreath and the pick looks like it was meant to be there.
Next I took a large pick with lots of smaller individual orange stems and cut out a small bundle of stems. I wrapped the stems with floral tape. Then I pushed the wrapped stems through the grapevine so the flowers were facing down….. in the opposite direction from the cotton pick. I secured the stems with floral wire. When you flip the wreath to the front you can see that there is an empty space between the picks.
Don’t be afraid to change a pick that you have purchased. You can cut down large picks into multiple smaller picks to make them useful for your project.
I made a traditional bow with three loops on each side and secured it with florist wire. You can use a chenille stem but for a smaller wreath I find the florist’s wire is easier to work with. I fluffed the bow and then wired it in between the two picks. Once everything was positioned, I dove-tailed the ends of the ribbon at a good length, fluffed the bow and I was done.
I made a second wreath with a different but co-ordinating top pick. The wreaths will hang in a window with three sections, two smaller ones on either side and a larger one in the center. The larger wreath for the center is next.
These were super easy and quick to make. Give it a try. Just be sure to leave enough space for your bow between your top and bottom picks. Works like a charm.
Now on to the larger hanging wreath. This wreath has the double bow centered in the bottom of the wreath between two sets of floral picks. Remember the spacing between the two sets of picks? The same technique is used here although the sets of picks are located at the bottom of the larger wreath. Leave enough space between the sets of picks for your bow.
I used the same method and the same tools although I purchased a few more picks from Dollar Tree to fill out the wreath.
The same ribbon used on the smaller wreaths was used for the larger wreath. An additional coordinating ribbon was added. It’s easy to do this by doubling up the ribbon when you form your bow.
You can see how nicely the double bow fills the space between the two groups of picks. Just spend a little bit of time fluffing the bow and weaving in some of the picks around the bow after it is attached to the wreath.
After gathering the picks together and positioning them on the front of the wreath, the stems were pushed through the grapevine to the back of the wreath and secured with wire. Then another strand of wire went around the top of the picks so they would lie flat and follow the contours of the wreath. This is an easy method and doesn’t require a hot glue gun. It also leaves everything intact so you can disassemble the wreath and reuse everything.
When the wreath is hung you can’t see any of the wires securing the picks or the bow.
You can see the three wreaths together as they hang in the Morning Room window. This project was easy and quick and adds some Fall flavor to the room. Give it a try.