How to Make a Winter Wreath That Will Last Until Spring

After you've taken down all of your Christmas decorations, are you sometimes stumped with what to do with your front door? If you don't want to decorate specifically for Valentine's Day, you can make this seasonal wreath that you can keep up from winter through spring!

Winter Wreath Supplies

• Pine wreath form
• Glittered long-needle pine garland
• Lambs Ear, Dusty Miller, or other flocked light green foliage garland 
• Glittered pine cones
• Hot glue gun and glue sticks

Directions

1. Cut apart the garlands into individual picks and organize picks into similar groups, removing distinct pieces from picks, such as pine cones, glittered branches, and berries (these will be added to the wreath separately).
   
   
   
   
   
2. Fluff up your wreath form and reposition any branches.
3. Choose one type of wreath pick and "dry fit" them evenly around the wreath and make sure that you're happy with their placement. For example, I chose to start with the flocked pieces first.
   
   
   
   
   
4. Hot glue those pieces into the wreath.
5. Choose the next type of wreath pick and "dry fit" them evenly around the wreath before hot gluing into place. For example, I moved on to the glittered long pine needle picks next.
   
   
   
   
   
6. Continue dry fitting each type of pick and hot gluing in batches until you've used all of the pick types, making sure that you've evenly distributed each type of pick before hot gluing them.

Notes:

I actually started with a pre-made wreath from Michaels that already had a few unglittered pine cones on it and a few different types of greenery attached to a grapevine base. I had planned to start with a pine wreath form because they give you a little more substance to hot glue your items to.

When I went to purchase my materials for the wreath, the only plain pine wreath forms they had left were either extraordinarily large (about 3 feet across) or super-small (about 6 inches across). This particular wreath was actually a pre-decorated Christmas wreath that was on clearance, and I was happy to use it as a starting point for this project. But I wanted to add a little extra oomph to create an extra voluminous wreath. 

Make sure to shop after-Christmas sales for simple wintery floral picks, wreaths, and garlands. I was able to get all the supplies for this wreath for 70% off because they were technically classified as Christmas items and were on clearance before the store brought in all the Valentine's Day merchandise.

I opted not to use the red berries that were included with the flocked garland on this wreath. But they would also look appropriate on a winter wreath too!

I'm really happy with how the finished product turned out. Here are a few close ups so you can see the details better:

Glittery long pine needles and lambs ear:

Glittery branches:

Pine cone clusters:

And one more look at the finished wreath:

There you go! If you've got about 20 minutes, you can create a whole new seasonal winter wreath for your front door this year!

DIY Wreath Tutorials for Other Seasons and Holidays:

• Valentine's Day/Winter Wreath
• Hot Air Balloon Spring Wreath
• Peeps Easter Wreath
• Halloween Candy Wreath
• Witch's Broom Front Door Hanger
• Christmas Wreath
• Vintage Christmas Wreaths (trio)
• Vintage Shiny Brite Wreath

How to Make a Christmas Wreath with Vintage Christmas Decorations

This set of three vintage-themed Christmas wreaths are a few years in the making, and I'm so excited about how they came out! Of course you can find all sorts of tutorials on how to make vintage ornament wreaths with Shiny Brite ornaments (check out Harris Sister Misty's vintage ornament wreath), but not only are they expensive to make if you have to purchase all of the ornaments, but vintage ornaments are also a little more in demand and if you're lucky enough to find a set in good condition, you might want to actually use them as ornaments. 

But, there are all sorts of vintage materials that you can use to make a Christmas wreath, and the materials were what drove this project for me.

I found the three vintage plastic Christmas cookie plates at a thrift store last year for a whopping 50 cents (for all three). I remember we had trays like these when we were growing up, so I would date these circa the late 1970s. And you can't beat the graphics on them!

I knew immediately that I wanted to make a set of three wreaths with these trays featured prominently in the center, but I also wanted to find vintage plastic holly and poinsettias to go with the 1970s trays.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find the 1970s-era plastic greenery until this September when I scored a plastic holly wreath with poinsettias, a plastic holly candle ring, and a plastic Christmas tree wall hanging. Here they are with their thrift store tags still on them. 

Now, before I get started on the DIY tutorial for these vintage themed Christmas wreaths, I will say that I didn't have the heart to break apart the Christmas tree wall hanging. Both the large wreath and the candle ring were missing pieces (chunks of greenery), so I didn't feel bad about taking those apart. So, if you happen to find broken or incomplete supplies for your wreath, remember that you're just taking them apart anyway, so you might be giving those items a new life!

Vintage Christmas Tray Wreath Supplies

• Pine wreath form
• Vintage plastic greenery (holly, pine, poinsettias, etc.)
• Vintage Christmas tray or cookie plate (plastic or tin)
• Chenille stems or wire
• Hot glue gun and glue

Directions for How to Make a Vintage Cookie Tray Christmas Wreath

1. Fluff up your wreath and reposition any branches. Position a layer of branches toward the center of the wreath to help with holding the plate in position.
   
   
   
   
   
2. Cut apart your vintage plastic greenery. "Dry fit" your greenery pieces around the wreath and make sure that you're happy with their placement.
3. Once you're happy with how everything looks, just hot glue all the greenery in place.
4. Hot glue chenille stems to the back of the plastic vintage plate.
   
5. Position the plastic vintage plate in the middle of the wreath, using the layer of branches you moved toward the center to "hold" the plate in place while you work (moving some in front of the plate and some in back of the plate to "sandwich" the plate in between until secured).
   
   
   
   
   
6. Wrap the chenille stems around the wire frame of the wreath on the back, checking the front of the wreath to ensure the plate is positioned how you want it to be before fastening securely.
7. Fluff up the layer of branches around the front of the plate, ensuring that any cracks around the edges of the plate (which are common in these vintage plastic plates) are covered by the wreath branches or greenery.

Here's a few close up photos to show how these vintage inspired Christmas wreaths turned out:

And as it turns out, the vintage greenery matched the holly on the Santa cookie trays and the poinsettias on the poinsettia tray pretty well!

Notes:

Vintage cookie trays often turn up in thrift stores (which is where I found this set), but if you're looking for a particular pattern, you can hunt them down on sites like eBay and Etsy. The set I used was plastic, but tin cookie trays would also work for this purpose since they're light enough to be suspended in the middle of a wreath form.

Adding extra greenery (of any kind) will add extra volume to a standard wreath base. In this case, I used vintage plastic Christmas greenery to add an extra "kitsch" factor to these wreaths and to match the decade of the plates as best I could. However, you can also use this trick when creating any wreath. I used this same technique on my front door Christmas wreath to create a fuller wreath base.

For these wreaths, I chose to use vintage Christmas trays and vintage plastic greenery, but you could also use many different types of vintage Christmas items to create a wreath. Be on the lookout for vintage Christmas items like: 

• ornaments
• bubble lights
• light covers
• light reflectors
• Christmas corsages
• cupcake toppers or picks
• Christmas costume jewelry (check out Harris Sister Deanna's costume jewelry tree)
• small decorations
• figural stocking hangers
• small toys
• Santa, elf, or deer figures
• holiday salt and pepper shakers that are missing mates
• Christmas cookie cutters

A collection of any of these items would make a show-stopping wreath. And don't forget that you could always choose a tinsel garland wreath base instead of a pine wreath base if that suits your project better!

There you go! If you've got about 30 minutes, you can create a trio of vintage inspired Christmas wreaths!

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How to Update and Repurpose an Old Christmas Wreath

Do you ever go into autopilot with your Christmas decorations and put out the same decorations in the same place year after year? Well, that was the case with my front door wreath.

I had the same Christmas wreath on my front door for years, and while it served a purpose, it was looking more than a little tired, and I was definitely in the mood for a change.

But here's the new and updated wreath this year!

When Ryan and I first got married (WAYYYY back in the 1990s), I decorated in nearly all silver and gold for Christmas, and I kept that look for quite a few years after that. Here's what the wreath originally looked like.

Even IT was sad. Just look at the ornament at the bottom trying to jump ship! (Get me outta here!) Can you even believe it was the same wreath?!?

When we moved into the house we live in now, it came complete with a hunter green front door, so a gold Christmas wreath actually matched pretty well and I kept it (probably longer than I should have).

Well, I could not take the hunter green front door anymore, so I had that painted to purple (which you see here), so last year was the wreath's last hurrah.

Here's the whole Harris Family paying our respects to the wreath last Christmas (2017). Goodbye gold wreath! It's been real!

This year, I was determined to get a new Christmas wreath. I didn't really want to make a new Christmas wreath just because there is so much else to do this time of year. But I also could not find one that I liked that I could just purchase.

So, I decided that I would update my Christmas wreath and give it a whole new look! My gold wreath was getting a makeover!

How to Update and Repurpose an Old Christmas Wreath

Merry Christmas Evergreen Ornament Wreath Supplies

• Hot glue gun and hot glue
• Plastic ornaments in your choice of colors
• Merry Christmas glittered sign
• Holly picks (I used 7)
• Chenille stems or wire
• Wired ribbon to create a bow (if desired - I left a bow off of mine)
• Additional faux greenery, picks, etc. (if desired - see notes below)

Directions

1. Fluff up your wreath and reposition any branches.
2. Next, remove the bow and any other items on your wreath that you do not want to keep. (I removed about half of the gold ornaments.)
3. Hot glue ornaments in a random pattern to the front and sides of the wreath. Make sure to place ornaments of different colors, sizes, and textures next to each other to create interest. I used ornaments with glitter, shiny, and matte finishes in small, medium, and large sizes. And I also included a few ornaments with textured finishes for interest. Continue adding ornaments until you are happy with how your wreath looks.
4. Use the chenille stems to wire the glittered Merry Christmas sign to the front of the wreath.
5. Hot glue holly picks randomly around the wreath. (Note: I made sure that two of the holly picks covered where I wired the sign because my chenille stems were pink.)

Notes:

When I originally made this wreath, I took an artificial wreath base and then hot glued in a variety of plastic greenery to create a heavy and large wreath base. Of course, this gives me added incentive to continue to revamp this Christmas wreath instead of getting a new one.

If you're starting with just a standard artificial pine wreath and you want to add some oomph to the wreath itself, you can take floral picks, parts of another wreath, or even parts of a garland and glue them securely into the wreath. This will add volume to the base to give you a designer look.

The glittered Merry Christmas sign is a heavy tag board covered in glitter. If you want to weatherproof it, you might consider covering it in a protective finish. My wreath is under a covered porch, so it should be safe for just the month of December.

There you go! If you've got about 30 minutes, you can create a whole new look for your Christmas wreath this year! Hope I've given you enough ideas to inspire you to revamp your own front door wreath.

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DIY Halloween Candy Themed Front Door Wreath

My front porch has needed a Halloween makeover for a few years and this is the year! Today I'm going to show you how to make a funny candy themed Halloween wreath for your own front door.

The neighbors have the good candy - isn't it the cutest? I mean, I dont' know about you, but I am guilty of buying Halloween candy WAAAYYYYY too early, eating all of it, and then buying it again (OK, maybe twice). By the time Halloween gets here, our loot may have some Tootsie Rolls and Dum Dums mixed in with the prized candy bars (because honestly, we ate most of those looong before October 31 rolled around . . . . ). We do draw the line at handing out Raisin Creme Pies - we are not monsters. :-)

So, this wreath is just giving all the kiddos a heads up! (And in case anyone's wondering, this will not deter the kids from our house one bit - and it's not meant to! You guys know that we always dress up with our boys for Halloween and walk around the neighborhood with them. Our neighborhood does Halloween BIG! So we always leave out a giant bucket of candy on the front porch with the light on.) This wreath is just all in good fun!

For a few years now, I have had a conservative all white pumpkin wreath on my front door at Halloween. It matched the dapper skeleton and his dog that would take up residence on our front porch every October. Here's a picture of the porch last year with a few other dashing goblins you might recognize.

Is this not a sassy skeleton?

Every October, he's all like, "Hello, neighbors! I bid a Joyous Halloween to you!"

But this year, I wanted something different. And that something caught my eye when I was in our local craft store in early September. (Of course, as soon as I get wind of stores putting out their Halloween decorations, I immediately go to see what they have put out!) So, yes, I have been sitting on this project waiting to post it for a few weeks now. ;-)

Don't worry, our friend Mr. Skeleton and his dog are living it up in our dining room this year, so you might see more from them later this season in our Halloween Home Tour. Stay tuned!

Candy Corn Themed Halloween Wreath Supplies

• 1 black pine wreath form
• 10 3" foam candy corn floral picks
• 8 5" pom-pom floral picks
• Outdoor Mod Podge (optional)
• Deco Art Craft Twinkles, crystal color
• 7 various Halloween themed wire edged ribbons
• Chenille stems or wire
• Candy themed Halloween sign
• Hot glue gun and hot glue
• Scissors
• Paint brush
• 2 Soda can tabs (optional)

Directions

1. Paint both sides of the candy corn picks with 3 coats of Mod Podge, allowing each coat to dry the recommended amount of time between coats. (I did this to help the foam picks hold up a little better on an outside wreath. This step is optional if you're going to use your wreath indoors.)

2. After the final coat is dry, paint one side with Deco Art Craft Twinkles. If you want your candy corn to be really sparkly, you can paint a second coat after the first has dried. Note: I only painted one side of the candy corn because only one side will be showing on the wreath.

3. Then, fluff your wreath before you start decorating it.

4. My sign had a decorative rope stapled to the back for hanging. So, if your sign has anything like that, you'll need to remove it so that you can wire your sign to your wreath. 

Since my sign had no other hangers, I hot glued two soda can tabs on the back of the sign so that I would have something to loop chenille stems through.

Here's the back side of the wreath. As you can see, the soda can tabs won't show, but the are just the right thing to hold the sign to center of the wreath! 

5. Once your sign is attached to the wreath, the next biggest thing on the wreath will be the bow. I followed this YouTube tutorial and made 4 of the bows she shows.

I used about 7 different types of coordinating Halloween wired ribbon. I already had some of these ribbons stashed in my craft closet, and I bought a few of these specifically for this project. You can always make a bow out of just one type of ribbon if you would prefer.

When I was finished with my 4 funky bows from the tutorial, I attached them all together into one large bow before attaching them to the upper left corner of my wreath with a chenille stem.

6. After you've attached the bow, you'll need to "dry fit" your candy corn picks and your pom-pom picks around the wreath and make sure that you're happy with their placement.

7. Once you're happy with how everything looks, just hot glue all the picks in place.

Now you're all set to hang your new candy corn wreath on your front door to greet the ghouls and goblins for Halloween (and send them to your neighbors' house - ha)!

Hope you give this DIY Halloween Candy Wreath a try for yourself.

If you're just itchin' for some more Halloween goodness, and you can't wait for the new stuff that's coming in a week or so, make sure you take a stroll through some of our most popular past Halloween posts.

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DIY Spring Wreath for Your Front Door

I think spring is at least STARTING in most parts of the country now. And it has been a long time coming after this past winter!

Do you want something new to decorate your front door for spring? I recently made this wreath with peonies (a favorite!) for my front door, and I thought I would share how to make a spring wreath like it. 

If spring-like weather hasn't quite hit your area yet, this project might encourage it a little bit (or at least give you something pretty to look at while you wait!).

Spring Peony Wreath

Materials:
1 grapevine wreath (choose whatever size you like - mine is 18" in diameter)

2 faux floral peony bushes (8 peonies total)

2 lamb's ear stems

1 pussy willow stem

1 eucalyptus stem

1 roll 2.5" wired ribbon

chenille stem or wire

1 decorative sign

Tools:

scissors or wire cutters

hot glue gun
hot glue sticks

1. Cut the peonies off their stems and glue them in a random fashion on the left side of the wreath.
2. Cut the lamb's ear and leaves from the peony bushes into smaller groups of 2-3 leaves each.
3. Cut the eucalyptus and pussy willow into separate stems.
4. Glue the longer eucalyptus and pussy willow stems near the ends of the last two peonies so that they begin to circle the wreath toward the right side.
5. Glue the lamb's ear and leaves from the peony bushes around these stems and also in between the peonies.
6. Make a bow from the wire ribbon and attach it to the wreath on the right side.
7. Attach decorative sign beneath the bow.

Notes:

If you're not experienced with making bows, you can use this YouTube Bow Tutorial to help!

If you leave long tails on the wire that you use to secure the bow, you can use that same wire to attach the bow to the wreath.

My hot air balloon wood sign already had a wire attached to it (for hanging). I used that wire to attach the sign to the wreath. If your sign does not have a wire, you can hot glue it to the wreath.

Hope this wreath DIY project is one that you'll try for yourself! Happy spring!

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Winter/ Valentine's Wreath: Decorating your Front Door for the Wintertime Blues

I don't know about you, but for me it always seems like that wintry time between the holidays and springtime is just a little blue- ESPECIALLY after taking down and packing away all the lights, glitz, and glamour that is Christmastime.  And I have personally struggled for years with finding some sort of wreath for our front door that is seasonally appropriate for this wintertime stretch. 

So this was the year I decided to do something about it.  Typically, when decorating a wreath you want to choose floral that is right for the season, but that becomes a bit of a challenge in the winter. Yes, there is evergreen, but to me, that just looks like you forgot to take down your Christmas wreath.  And then there is also boxwood, but you might remember, I just did a boxwood wreath for Christmas this year, and it was definitely time for a change.  So I decided to start with a grapevine wreath instead, and here is my finished product. 

You will notice I also incorporated ivy into my wreath, just stringing it along over my grapevine. And because I wanted it to look Valentine-y without using hearts and roses, I chose deep deep red flowers for the bulk of my floral.  I added a couple of green hydrangea sprigs to break up the red a little and hint at the coming spring, and finished it with my pièce de résistance, a deep red peacock.   She is truly fantastic, and her tail feathers are so long, I couldn't even get it all in this photo.  

This wreath was super simple to make.  All supplies came from the floral section of my local craft store.  I waited until they were running a 60% off floral sale, and then stocked up.  I always arrange everything on my wreath the way I want it before I start gluing any of it down.  And I always leave the stems on my floral pretty long too.  It helps when you are working with grapevine as you can just tuck the stems directly into the wreath for extra security.  Once you have it all where you want it, secure it with hot glue (or crafting wire).  I happened to use hot glue on everything except my lovely love bird. She already had wire on her feet so they were easy to secure.  I just used an extra measure of wire around her neck to help keep her in place so she wouldn't be top heavy.  If I had been thinking more clearly at the time, I would have also added a few pearls around her neck.  She seems like the kind of girl who might like that.  

Note to self: pick up a cheap pack of pearl beads next time I am out and about. 

And voilà!  Just like that, I now have a wreath for my front door that looks wintry without looking like I accidentally left my Christmas wreath up too long, and looks Valentine-y without screaming hearts and roses. Mission accomplished!

DIY: Peeps Easter Wreath

Here's a super simple project for you that's right on time.  That's right- just in time for Easter and just in time to figure out something to do with those Peeps- besides eat them.  

Items you will need: 

Straw wreath (I used a 14 inch one, but you can use any size)

Ribbon (to wrap the wreath and make a hanger)

Peeps (any color)

Clear spray paint

Hot glue gun and glue sticks

Instructions:

1.  Spray Peeps with clear spray paint on both sides and allow to dry.  This part of the project is best completed outside.  This step is optional, but if you plan to keep the wreath for use again next year, you may wish to take a few minutes and complete this step, as it helps to harden and protect those Peeps.

Here's how we did it.  We took the Peeps out of their packages and then lined them up on a cardboard box.  Hubbie sprayed them down good outside and flipped to get the other side once the first side was dry. 

2.  Wrap your wreath with ribbon, and attach with small dots of hot glue, until the entire wreath is covered.  It should look something like this.

3.  Attach your Peeps to the wreath with hot glue, and allow to dry.  To finish, I added a ribbon to hang it with, but I suppose that step may be optional too. 

See, I told you this was one easy project!  And if I can do it, I know you can too.  Enjoy!

DIY: Vintage Ornament Wreath

I've been meaning to put together this Christmas ornament wreath for a while, ever since I plundered Daddy's attic last summer and found a bunch of vintage Shiny Brite ornaments.  I found one how-to that required a foam wreath to start it.

Of course, that's always a project killer of mine - having to actually go out to buy pieces and parts because the nearest craft store is in the next state over! Then just the other day, I found a solution to that little problem, and it just happened to bring my whole project to a grand total of $0!

I found a neat tutorial over at The Penny Parlor. Instead of using a foam wreath, she used a wire clothes hanger. This method also seemed like it would hold up better. I guess I just don't trust my trusty glue gun that much.

Anyhoo, I had a ton of ornaments from Daddy, and extra tinsel garland, so I was all set to start my project. But even if you don't have any of that, her project only set her back 9 bucks!

I slid all my ornaments onto the hanger first and didn't worry with gluing them.

When you pick your wreath up, the ornaments just kind of naturally bunch up. Though, I will warn you I had quite a few jump ship as I was attempting to attach the two ends of the hanger back together, but I only had one break.

After I liked the looks of it, I started gluing! I glued the ornaments to the ring, but also to each other so it was nice and secure. I then glued the beginning piece of tinsel garland down and wrapped it around, keeping the tinsel as close to the ring as I could. I thought that looked better, and glued it here and there.

I have quite a few Christmas wreaths decorating the house this year.  Plus, I think I would need to attach something to hang it with, and I am just too afraid that my heirloom ornaments would break. So, I just added some candles to the inside and made it into a centerpiece. Here's the finished product: