From something that was brought out at Christmas time to an all year round decoration, wreaths are taking over our doors and living rooms.
Here at YTC, we love wreaths. Wreaths date back to Ancient Greece, but their use and purpose differs from the way we use them now. They were awarded to warriors and worn by great emperors to symbolise honor, now we use them to decorate our houses for different seasons, occasions, and celebrations.
Here at HQ we have created some amazing examples of the different ways you can decorate a wreath and we have included handy links so you will be able to purchase the bits you need to make them yourself!
Butterfly Vine Wreath
This is a stunning, simple wreath and is so easy to make! All you need is a Circular vine twig wreath, butterfly stickers and a twig from your leisurely weekend walks.
- Attach twig to the wreath. I did this by using some floristry wire.
- Once the twig is attached and in place, I arranged the butterfly stickers onto the wreath and made sure they were in the position I wanted them in and then glued them down. I used a hot glue gun to do this. It made them very secure and you could then bend the wings so it looks like the butterflies are moving. You can use craft glue if you do not have access to a glue gun.
There you have it! So simple and easy to make yet it looks incredible. If you aren’t keen on butterflies, you could use flowers or pompoms.
Star Macrame wreath
This wreath can be used as decoration in a child’s bedroom or living area. With the lights been incorporated onto it, it makes a fantastic feature. All you need is a star wreath, some fairy lights, some macrame or dishcloth wool and decorations.
- Wind the lights onto the star shape. This can be a bit tricky but the effect once it is finished is amazing. The lights I used were long enough to leave some dangling down to make the star look more like it was shooting in the sky, but you can just wrap them down the wire shape.
- Tie the wool around the bottom of the star. I used dishcloth wool on this wreath, but we have some macrame wool that will work too. I cut some strands into 55cm strips (they can be any measurement you want), doubled them over, made a loop at the top and pulled the ends through to make it tight. I repeated this until the bottom of the star was filled. If you aren’t leaving some light dangling down, you could do some macrame knots on the bottom, this would look effective too.
- I then finished the wreath off with some foam flowers in a couple of the corners. This tied everything together and made it feminine as it was to be used in my daughter’s bedroom.
Instead of flowers, you could make some rockets or stars out of felting wool or make a big feature by making planets out of felt squares.
Pompom wreath
This is another simple, yet delightful wreath. All you need is a polystyrene half ring, different colour wool and pompom makers.
- Start by using the pompom makers to make lots of different coloured pompoms and an assortment of sizes. If you have never used the pompom makers before, they come with 4 different sizes and full step-by-step instructions on the back of the packaging.
- Once you have a good selection of colours and sizes, you can start attaching them to the polystyrene ring. Start by placing your biggest size of pompom, spacing them out and then fill the gaps with the smaller sizes. This will give a good variety of colour and you won’t be able to see the ring. I used a hot glue gun to attach the pompoms onto the ring, just to make sure they are nice and secure.
That’s it! Its so simple and easy to make. The good thing about this style of wreath like this is you can change it easily to fit your crafty needs. You don’t need to have it multi coloured, you can pick the colours of wool to match your room decoration or theme (orange and black for Halloween, green and red for Christmas, colours of the rainbow etc), you can use the same size pompoms, you can make some tassels to add underneath.
White Ring
This one is more wall art than a wreath to go on your door, but I think it fits in. This is probably the most versatile idea we have and again, it’s incredibly simple to make. all you need is a white wire ring, some jute string and some decorations.
- Wrap the jute around the ring, starting in the middle. To help keep it in place, I used some double-sided tape. Keep wrapping until you have got your desired width. I tried to keep it quite neat and only wrapped around the middle once, so it wasn’t too thick.
- Once you have got the width you want, cut the jute and tie it to another piece of jute to keep it all in one place. Another way I used to keep it in place was to wrap around each corner, so the string didn’t move. This then created a piece of jute to go vertically down the back of the ring and I used this to tie the end bit onto.
- Now that your jute string is in place, you can do the the fun bit of decorating! I have used artificial flower heads, which I have attached to a piece of twig to make them look more realistic.
Once you have the base, you can decorate it however you would like. You could use letter tiles to add a message or someone’s name, you could use mini pegs to peg up notices or pictures, you could also weave string lights through the jute.
Crafting is subject to personal preference, which makes the possibilities endless. That is the beauty of it. If you like some of the ideas you have seen here, you can use parts of them to make something unique to you or the person you are making them for. You get a great sense of pride when you complete something you have made and a feeling of joy when you see your creation on your door or wall.
