Lazy Gal’s Guide to Christmas Wreath

Although it seems like my posts are all about Christmas decorating this week, we’re still having

Passion for Paint linky party this weekend!

Hope you’ll drop by!

I had plans to decorate the entire house the other day. Big plans.

I managed to get the mantel done before my back said, “Enough!”

This thing is so big, I decided to just put it on the floor to start with. It was either stoop over it or climb up and down the ladder.

I stooped for about 5 minutes.

For those of you who think a Christmas wreath has to be perfectly designed and completely covered with decorations secured tightly with glue, think again.

I did this wreath and garland in less than 30 minutes. And the wreath is 40” wide – a ‘Big-Un’.

I’m assuming you’re already done decorating because me – being the ‘professional’ decorator – is always the last to get my own decorations up.

And these aren’t actually my decorations – they’re Mom’s. Mine are still buried in a storage unit.

But that’s another story.

This is a piece of bronze tulle netting. It’s pretty wide so I can ‘pouf’ it out.

With an artificial wreath, I don’t use wire. I just twist the pine fronds (are they called fronds? needles? twigs?)

I twist the pine thingies to secure the netting. Then pull the netting here and there to pouf it out.

I always get asked, “How much ribbon do you use for . . .” How much for trees, how much for garland, how much for wreaths.

Here’s my answer: As much as I’ve got.

I found these 2 pieces of red ribbon, which would’ve been enough for the wreath. But I had the big ol’ garland underneath it.

Snip, snip! Now I have four. Yes, they’re shorter, but it’s just enough red to pull in some of the other red decorations.

Did I forget to tell you that? The ‘theme’ is red and bronze.

Red for traditional Christmas

Bronze because it blends with Mom’s furnishings – couch, drapes, carpet.

(And because I used bronze for fall and it was already sitting out.)

Tuck the red in on opposite sides.

I know, it looks puny – but it won’t when I’m done.

I had to hang the beast up. Then I added some more bronze ribbon. And 4 red poinsettias. They don’t even match, but in a piece this big, you can’t really tell.

Well, now you can, because I told you. But it’s really not that obvious.

Remember this from Fall? I just took the ribbon from the table and scrunched it into the wreath. Then the leaves & gourds all go into a tote.

Then I started building ‘clusters’ around two of the poinsettias. A few berries, a few glittered feathers – again, from the Fall décor – and we were getting somewhere.

I do clusters rather than an overall coverage of decorations because it gives it a little more visual interest. Plus, it helps the budget.

I don’t do a huge bow because it tends to overwhelm the piece.

The next time you see a wreath with a bow, see if your eye doesn’t go straight to the bow rather than the entire wreath.

And, as if this thing wasn’t big enough already, I added some twigs.

I did this for Mom – just to add some ‘woodsy’ feel to it. Not much, but just a touch.

Now for the major issue . . .

The cord!

No, I don’t have battery-operated lights yet. Yes, I’ve tried solar lights . . . yuck. Although it was a couple years ago.

Maybe they’ve improved.

Let me know if you have some that you like.

Where was I? Oh yeah, the cord.

I grabbed this little gal from the hallway.

Perfect color! (I should know, I did the antiquing over the original silver a few years ago.)

Not too bad for under 30 minutes. For a gal with a bad back.

I’m off to find my ice pack now.