Wednesday, December 27, 2017

Crafty Wednesday {Farmhouse Wreath}

Happy Wednesday Friends!   I know some people have already taken down their Christmas and are trying to purge and declutter for the New Year.  I am not one of those people 😂😂.  We just got home from Arizona and I want to enjoy my Christmas decorations for at least another week before I pack them away for the year.  


For the last Crafty Wednesday of the year I wanted to show you these Farmhouse Wreaths we made for a craft class for Branch and Bloom as part of the Gingerbread Jubilee/Festival of the Trees  celebration in our town.  



My friend Rachael and I own a small craft business called Branch and Bloom and once a month we teach a craft class.  We were so thankful that we were asked to do a craft class as part of the Gingerbread Jubilee this year. 

Here Rachael and I are with our friend V and her finished wreath ❤️



We had 50 people sign up for this class which was so amazing!  I love helping people to make beautiful things for their homes.  It wasn’t all rainbows and sunshine however, it was a TON of work doing the prep work for this class.  Since we had so many people we wanted to make sure we had enough supplies and greens to do this class.  My biggest fear when we do a class (especially one this big!) is that we will run out of supplies. People pay us to come to classes so it’s our job to have everything they need to make a beautiful craft.  

We spent the week before the class gathering our greens.  We were able to get most of the greens from trees in our own yards and we got a ton of greens from Rachael’s mother in law’s property. We did have to buy 40 pounds of boxwood from the florist. Before the class we arranged all of our greens by type on tables in front of our room.



This is what 40lbs of boxwood from the florist looks like



Boxwood is SO beautiful and I love using it in wreaths but has a foul odor so you need to soak it in water and a splash of bleach so it’s less smelly. I had it soaking in our kitchen for a few days before our class. I added the water/splash of bleach after I took this picture 😉



In our craft class we had everything set up ahead of time.  We even cut all the wire to make it easy and quick for people to put together their wreaths.  We also put greens on each of the tables so each person would have their own to work with. 





Today I’m going to show you how to make one wreath.  Gathering the supplies for one wreath will be easy :-) 

For this project you need 
1. Floral wire
2. Wire cutters
3. Garden Clippers
4. Wire wreath form ours were 14 inches 
5. Assorted Greens

Having a good assortment of greens is key when making a wreath.  I like to use at least 4 different greens.  When working with greens you are going to want to use gardening gloves because they are very prickly and can hurt your hands.

Here are the greens we used for our class. 



Gather little bunches of greens and secure with a piece of wire.  Wrap the wire around the greens many times to make sure it’s secure.  I like to put common greens like blue spruce and hemlock in the back and the prettiest ones (white pine and boxwood)  in the front. 



Lay your bundles on your wreath form.  Get them how you like them (this might take a few minutes) and then secure the bundles to the wire wreath form with your wire.




We used floral wire on a spool from Michaels. We had this pre-cut for our class.  We cut our wire into 18 inch pieces.




Here is the wire wreath form we used.  Ours were 14 inches. You can get them bigger or smaller depending on how big you want your wreath to be. 14 inches is a good size for a front door.



Continuing securing the bundles to the wreath with floral wire form until the entire wreath is filled with your small bundles.



That’s it!  You’ve made your completed wreath!



In our class we gave people a spool of wired ribbon and  taught people how to make a bow.  Shoutout to my neighbor T for holding the mic for me while I taught people how to make a bow :-) 



For my own wreath I didn’t add the bow I think simple is better.




Here are some more pictures from our class.  We loved taking pictures of people with their finished wreaths.





I hope this tutorial inspired you to make a beautiful wreath for your home.  If you ever want to take a class at Branch and Bloom check out our Facebook page for upcoming classes.

Happy Wednesday!
Xoxo 


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