Decorating a wreath part 2: The decorating

After yesterday's post I hope you all know how to make a bow. It takes a bit of practice but once you've tried it a few times you'll get it!

Today I have a few different wreaths to share with you. They range from rustic to a bit more flashy. I buy a plain live wreath from the store to decorate but you could do the same with an artificial one.

For years I've gone with natural looking wreaths made with decorations found outside. The materials are easy to gather from your yard or on a nature walk. Try collecting twigs, winter berries, pine cones, different kinds of evergreen branches and cuttings from holly-type bushes in your yard. It's an easy fun way to make a special wreath using very little money. This year I wanted something a little different and I found a bunch of items on sale in the craft store.

Before you start, gather some tools and prepare a work space. You'll need wire cutters, a hot glue gun and about three mini hot glue sticks (per wreath). I like to hang my wreath up to work on it. It turns out better if you're looking at the wreath the way it will hang. I usually hang the wreath on a nail and work outside (that way I don't worry about the needles going everywhere). If it's too cold, windy or snowing I hang the wreath on a nail inside and put paper down to catch the needles.

I always loosely plan out the design I start gluing the decorations on. Just stick a few things in the wreath and play around until you find something you like.

The first look I have for you is really simple and rustic. I found picks with leaves, fruit, berries and pine cones. I used both single picks and bunches of two picks together spacing them evenly around the wreath.

To secure them in place you put a dribble of glue on the end of the pick and stick it into the pine branches.

Then I added the bow by wrapping the wire around the wreath and securing it in the back. This took about 6 or 7 picks in all and just a few minutes. I used a few different fruits, pomegranates, apples and pears. All in a deep burgundy, red and orange-brown pallet. By varying the amount of picks I bunched together it looks a bit more natural but still has a rhythm to the design.

The next look is asymmetrical. I must admit I usually don't go for this look. Something in my personality wants a wreath to be balanced but I wanted to show you some different options. This time since the design was based on everything spraying out of the bow I started by placing the bow on the wreath then added the decorations.

I made bunches in my hands to figure out which elements I wanted together.

Once I had a good idea I added the largest ornaments first. I not only glued the ends of the wire picks but also the back of the balls so the heavy ornaments stayed in place. Then filled it in with smaller berries and beads in two colors.

The last look- which is my favorite- has a lot of things going on. I started by attaching the bow to the top of the wreath. Using a box of mini ball ornaments I wired and glued some bunches of two and three together.

I placed those around the wreath then cut up some sprigs of white beads into smaller pieces and added them too.

Then I glued some single red ornaments around the wreath to fill in the space; and tucked some decorations around the bow. I felt the wreath needed some earthy elements to ground all the those flashy shiny element so I gathered some twigs from the back yard and grabbed a bag of mini pine cones I had stashed away. I stuck the small twigs around the wreath pretty evenly adding glued to the bottoms to keep them in place.

The larger of the pine cones felt right when they were placed near the bunches of ornaments.

The tiny cones looked good around the edges. I glued them onto the branches in a way that felt as thought they were growing naturally on the pine.

So there you have it- a few easy ways to decorate a wreath for the holidays!