7 Photos
Choose greens to add to your base. They can be anything from juniper to magnolia to white pine. SHAYE WEAVER
Attach greens by laying them parallel to the pick and wrapping the wire around them to secure them. Then push the pick into the base of the wreath. SHAYE WEAVER
Prepare with gloves, a pruner and picks, which you can use to secure additions to your wreath. SHAYE WEAVER
Choose a plain balsam wreath from a garden center. SHAYE WEAVER
Highlight! Use pops of colors and textures like holly, apples, pine cones, beads, bows, brightly colored flowers, Russian arborvitae and dried hydrangeas. SHAYE WEAVER
Irene and Florence Rewinski show the before and after. Find the top of your wreath, which depends on how you'd like it to hang, and string a long, sturdy wire around the base and hang it up. SHAYE WEAVER
Highlight! Use pops of colors and textures like holly, apples, pine cones, beads, bows, brightly colored flowers, Russian arborvitae and dried hydrangeas. SHAYE WEAVER
Supplies: A plain wreath made of balsam, which typically makes up the standard Christmas tree, from a garden center or florist; more base greenery, from juniper to magnolia to white pine; highlights like apples, pine cones, beads, holly and flowers; gloves; pruning clippers and picks to secure additions to your wreath.
1. Lay the wreath down, leaving plenty of space around it in which to work.
2. Choose which green plant clippings, or “base material,” you want to put to add to your wreath and clip off what you’d like to use. Plants can be bought at a florist or garden center or harvested from a garden, backyard or forest.
3. Laying the base material parallel to the pick, wrap the pick wire around to secure it. Push the pick into the base of the wreath, going with the direction of the fronds, until the clipping is firmly attached. A glue gun can be used, but there’s something to be said for being able to move pieces around to find the perfect placement.
4. Highlight: Add pops of colors and textures to liven up the wreath. Think holly, apples, pine cones, beads, bows, brightly colored flowers and plants like Russian arborvitae and dried hydrangeas.
5. Find the top of your wreath, which depends on how you’d like it to hang, string a long sturdy wire around the base of the wreath and put it up. Ms. Rewinski recommends using peanut butter to remove sticky sap from your hands.
-BY SHAYE WEAVER with steps provided by Florence Rewinski
Shaye Weaver on Dec 8, 2014