By popular demand....

Many have asked how to make the wreath, so here are my secrets to making a fresh, inexpensive wreath. I'll provide pictures once I get home.

Disclaimer: Your fingertips will get black because of the sap, so if you don't want that, try using latex gloves. I didn't mind it too much because I wasn't headed anywhere, and my hands just smelt so good!

Step 1: Go to walmart in the " fake flower" section and buy a grapevine wreath. I couldn't find the grapvine wreaths in the Christmas section. This is the biggest secret to making the fresh wreath, because it's the grapevine wreath that gives you your perfect, round shape. The wreaths cost around $2.50 or $2.99....pretty good for something you can reuse every year.

Step 2: Wal-mart: Skip on over to the material section and look in their "scraps" section, which is reduced. You won't need even a yard of material, so the scrap section is perfect for what you need. Just look for anything that looks Christmas-y. I found a green and bright red plaid material that was .44. I also found some shimery gold material and some maroon material. It was perfect.

Step 3: Wal-mart: While you're at Wal-mart, be sure you pick up a wreath hanger. They are hidden in Wal-mart too. They are $1.99 or something like that. Pretty inexpensive for something you will reuse. They are in the wedding/scrap book/craft section, believe it or not. I didn't see any in the Christmas section. I've seen them in black or gold. I used gold because of my gold pieces of material and my bow.

Step 4: Do you have wire ribbon? At Michaels, I found a huge spool of 100 feet of wide, wire ribbon on sale for $3.99. Do you know how many ribbons you can make with that?!? You can get it at Wal-mart too. Just be sure that it's wire and wide. You will also need wire clippers and a spool of wire. These items will last year after year.

Step 5: Go to Lowes or Home Depot and ask where their free tree limbs are. There should be a box out front with "free" on it(at Lowes). If you ask them, they will bag up in a net the limbs that you want. The Lowes worker told me to take both HUGE boxes and of course, I didn't need them, but he did offer to bag up what I did want, using the same plastic net they put on your trees when you buy them. The fun part is that it's free!!!

Step 6: Once you're home, get out all of your needed materials(see list below) and find an open space in a garage or outside. You don't want to get sap on your carpet or rugs :

• fabric



• fabric scissors



• hand-held twig cutter



• limbs



• grapevine wreaths
  

**For those of you that have handy-dandy husbands, go ahead and thank them for buying all of their tools, because one of them will come very useful in making this wreath. You will need some hand-held twig cutters. I will ask Hugh what they are called when I get home. It snaps those limbs off so easily. I started off twisting them, and that works, but not for the bigger limbs and it was taking too long to twist. You will cut off as many limbs as you think you'll need to get you started. You will love cutting the limbs, because it smells sooo good!!

Step 7: Start stuffing the twigs into the grapevine wreath to the point where you can't see the wreath underneath. You will find that the grapevine wreath is great for stuffing things into it, because the grapevines are flexible and can move a lot. Stuff in one direction, meaning you want all of the limbs pointing in one direction all the way around the wreath, so you'll be turning your wreath one direction the whole time, after you've stuffed a particular section. No hot-glue gun needed. :) It's okay if you have crazy twigs spraying in all directions...you'll shape it up when you're done.

Step 8: Lay aside your wreath after stuffing it. Take out your fabric and your fabric scissors. Cut your fabric into 1" strips(wide) and about 4" long(I'm guessing). Not too long because you want the ties to be perky...no drooping allowed. (ha!) You will feel like you can't tie them easily but it's the perfect length. My strips were too long at first and it didn't look as good. So, I started to trim them up a bit. You can use one color, two colors dispersed separately all over the wreath or tie them together. I liked the look of tying two colors together in one knot. But then again, I liked the diversity of having two colors separately dispersed all over the wreath. As Bobby Brown would say, "It's [your] perogative." :)

Step 9: Making the ribbon....I'll get my thoughts together and will post a separate one on how to make the big bows (with pictures for those visual learners). For now, just get your materials.

Step 10: Attach your ribbon to your wreath using the wire with which you made the bow.

Step 11: Shape up all of the straying twigs. You want some random twigs, but the bigger ones you want to clip off.

Ta-dah!!! Using your wreath hanger, if you're hanging it on a door somewhere, hang your beautiful, fresh wreath up for all to see!!!

Please let me know if I wasn't clear on any of the steps. Enjoy!! Coming soon: Ribbon making post!!!