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Hello, lovely people! I hope you’re all having a fantastic time preparing your home for the Christmas season. Over the past few weeks I’ve been making a whole bunch of DIY Christmas decorations. A few days ago, as part of this DIY Christmas decor spree, I tried my hand at making a giant, fresh Christmas wreath.
And oh my gosh, guys.
Making your own Christmas wreath is awesome. Not only is the creative process a bunch of fun, but DIY-ing your wreath is also practical because:
- It saves you a decent amount of money. Store-bought wreaths are expensive. This goes doubly or triply so for nice store-bought wreaths. In contrast, because this wreath uses foraged greenery, it’s super cheap to make. More money in wallet = more Christmas chocolate.
- If you make your own wreath, you have complete control over how it looks. You don’t need to settle for store-bought wreaths that are just “close enough”.
- Once you’re done, you kinda feel like you’re some sort of homemaking goddess. Like full-on “I could totally have my own line of bakeware”.
Because I had such a lovely time making my DIY Christmas wreath, I thought I’d share the process here. I hope that it inspires you to make something beautiful for your home this holiday season.
So let’s get started!
How to make your own DIY oversize Christmas wreath
To make your wreath, you will need:
- An oversize wreath form. I used a piece of an old garden ornament (click to see a picture) that I found on the side of the road a few months back. If you’re a normal person who doesn’t steal junk from the side of the road, you could make an oversize wreath form from a hula hoop. Or, if you want to save yourself the effort, you could look into buying a large wreath form.
- Foraged greenery and pinecones. I’m not a botanist so I unfortunately can’t tell you the exact species of trees I used, but I’ve included a picture of the different types of branches in step 2. The key when choosing your greenery is really just to pick three or four types of leaves, preferably of different shapes and shades of green. This keeps your wreath ~interesting~.
- Paddle wire
- Scissors.
- A hot glue gun
- Beads in a neutral colour. I used some plain wooden beads I had leftover from my DIY Christmas garland project, but if you need to buy some beads, pony beads are a nice cheap option.
Step 1: Prepare your pinecones
To begin, you’ll want to spend a few minutes preparing your pinecones so they can be easily attached to your DIY Christmas wreath. This involves attaching a small bead to the base of each pinecone. This bead gives you something to thread your paddle wire through when it comes time to attach your pinecones to your wreath.
Using a hot glue gun, glue a single bead to the bottom of each of your pinecones. Don’t worry if it looks a bit messy, but do make sure that the bead’s hole isn’t facing down or clogged with glue.
Allow the glue to dry while you work on step 2.
Step 2: Organise your greenery
Okay, okay, I know. You signed up for a DIY Christmas decor project, not organising. But hear me out.
If you organise your greenery before you start adding it to your wreath, you save heaps of time because:
-
- You don’t need to constantly search for the exact right branch.
- You don’t need to stop to trim large/weirdly shaped branches.
- You know before you begin if you’ve gathered enough greenery, potentially saving you the hassle of having to stop work to go find more branches.
To begin, set aside a few of your larger branches. Do not cut these branches, as they’ll be used in all their massive glory in step 4.
Remove any ugly, brown, or half eaten leaves from your remaining branches. Trim your branches so they’re roughly the same size (they don’t need to be exact) and remove excess leaves at the base of the branch. You should end up with branches that look like this:
Then, organise your branches into bunches of roughly equal size. Try to have a mix of different branches in each bunch. This will keep your DIY Christmas wreath balanced.
Step 3: Attach your greenery to your DIY Christmas wreath
Finally, right?
Use your paddle wire to tie a knot around your wreath frame. Don’t cut the wire. Grab a bunch of your branches, rest them on top of the wreath frame, and loop the wire around the stems and the frame several times. Pull tightly on the wire to ensure the branch bunch is firmly secured.
Then, lay another bunch of greenery over the top of your first so that it covers anywhere from 1/2 to 3/4 of the first bunch, depending on the fullness you desire. Loop the paddle wire around the stems of the second bunch to attach them to the wreath frame.
Continue until you have covered one half of the wreath. Once you’ve finished, switch to the other side of the wreath and repeat the process. Here’s a little diagram to show you what I mean. Excuse my lacklustre drawing skills and terrible handwriting. No matter how hard I try, my handwriting always looks like it’s been run over by a truck.
Once you have done this, you’ll have something that looks like this.
Step 4: Add more volume using extra leaves
Remember those big branches we set aside in step 2? This is where we’re going to use them.
Using your paddle wire, tie some of the larger branches to your wreath. The aim here is just to give the wreath a little more body. Where you put them is entirely up to you. Here’s a little diagram to show you where I tied mine. Feel free to experiment with placement – you know what you like best!
Step 5: Add your pinecones
The final step is to attach the pinecones you prepared in step 1.
Snip a piece of paddle wire approximately 20cm long. Thread the paddle wire through the bead you glued to the pinecone. Tie a few knots, then twist the wire a few times.
Then, use the little wire ‘tail’ to tie your pinecones to your wreath frame. Add as many or as few pinecones as you like. As with the greenery, go with your gut – distribute the pinecones in whatever way looks best to you!
The finished Christmas wreath
Once your pinecones are attached, your DIY Christmas wreath is finished! Here are a few pictures of my wreath hanging on my living room wall:
I really love the assortment of textures the different leaves bring to the wreath.
I’m still trying to figure out if I want to add some copper lights to my wreath. On one hand, pretty lights! On the other hand, potential fire. The fact that I don’t take “potential fire” as a reason not to do something tells you pretty much everything you need to know about me.Are you making any Christmas decorations these holidays? I’d love to hear about what you’re making in the comments below.
Warm wishes to you and your family. Have a beautiful day xoxo!
Not ready to make your wreath just yet? Save me for later!
I like your hula hoop idea. How can I hide the ugly color of the hula hoop?
Hi Carla. You can really use anything you want. I’ve seen people use burlap applied to the hula hoop with a hot glue gun. I’ve also seen some beautiful wreath frames covered with ribbon from the craft store. Good luck!