Today only: September 9th, 2009
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Making a Christmas Wreath is not only fun – but you really can get creative with them and make them extremely unique.
Here are instructions for making a traditional holly wreath.
With these instructions, you will be able to get the basic idea of how wreaths are actually made, and you can then decide what to do to make your own holly wreath special – or go with an entirely different kind of wreath.
Materials Needed:
• A 20 inch wreath – This can be a plain foam wreath, a wreath that already has the evergreens on it, or a twine wreath. For a traditional holly wreath, the ones with the evergreens already attached are ideal.
• 1.5 yards of ribbon – this can be plain red, plain green, or a red and black or red and green plaid. The ribbon should about 2.5 inches wide, and can be silk or felt. It’s your wreath!
• Pine cones – you will need about ten. Try to find ones that are well shaped and unbroken.
• Pomegranates – six dried pomegranates will do. Don’t get fresh ones!
Or substitute other dried or good-looking plastic fruits.
• Additional Foliage – you need more evergreens (to make the wreath seem fuller) berry sprays and berry clusters.
• Construction Materials – scissors, hot glue gun, glue sticks, wire (if there is no hanger on the back of the wreath), sewing needle, thread (same color as ribbon).
If the wreath has no hanger, you will need to construct one with the wire. This should be done first. Make sure that it is secure, and that it can bear the weight of the wreath.
Fluff the existing evergreens and add more. The wreath should have a full
appearance. You will most likely need to straighten a few branches here and there – but don’t make it too ‘perfect.’ It should have a ‘natural’ appearance to it.
Let’s make and attach the bow. Cut a piece of ribbon about thirty inches long. Cut another piece of ribbon about four inches long. In the center of the long piece of ribbon, you want to form two loops that will make the bow.
The small piece of ribbon is used to secure the bow, in the middle of the loops. Note that the bow is ‘formed’ not ‘tied.’ There are no knots to tie. Secure the small piece of ribbon around the bow, in the back, with the thread. Each end of the bow will be about nine inches long.
You can place the bow wherever you choose to. It could go in the middle of the top, the bottom, or off to one side. The ends should be woven through the foliage on the wreath – or it can hang loose.
It is a good idea to paint the ends of the ribbon with clear fingernail polish to keep them from fraying over time. The bow can be attached to the wreath with glue or with wire. Just make sure that it is secure.
Once you’ve placed the bow on the wreath, you can glue two of the pomegranates in the center of the bow. The remaining four pomegranates should be glued to the wreath equal distances apart, in groups of two.
Next, glue the pinecones to the wreath. These can be spaced evenly apart sporadically, or in groups of pinecones. Do what looks good to you. Again, it is your wreath.
The berry clusters and sprays should also be glued to the front of the wreath. Glue some additional foliage over the top of the bow with a berry cluster for added affect. Remember that there is not specific way that any of this must be done. It is your choice.
It is a good idea to lay the pieces of the wreath on it before gluing anything down. This will allow you to see how the finished product will look before committing to anything. Try different arrangements of the material to see what looks best to you.
Once you’ve constructed the wreath, set it someplace where the glue has time to harden fully. Once this is done, pick the wreath up and gently shake it to make sure that everything is secured well.
Most wreaths hang on the door, and doors areconstantly opened and closed – and even slammed. You want to make sure that your wreath isn’t falling to pieces each time the door opens and closes.
In many cases, you may be able to use wire or a needle and thread to make items on the wreath more secure. Heavier items won’t be very secure with glue in most cases.
Remember that holly wreaths don’t have to be ‘busy’ to be beautiful. A few simple additions to the foliage is all that it takes.
The bow is typically the object that draws the eye, so make sure that the bow is really well done.
Now that you know how wreaths are made – and how easy it is – you may decide that you don’t want a holly wreath at all. You may opt for a themed wreath, a twined wreath, or a truly unique wreath that stands out. The possibilities are endless!
Learn about Making More Christmas Crafts
Scott Wells writes for Make Christmas Crafts: http://MakeChristmasCrafts.com where you can learn to make Christmas crafts for entertainment, decoration and gifts.
Dave: you really helped to save my life in a very major way. i have no idea what i would do without you. there is no information like yours to be had anywhere. you are – a genius of a young man.
i bet your teeth are superb.
my teeth are very good – but no one ever instructed me in any way on gum care.
when i fell into depression – i let the flossing go by the wayside. this has had bad consequences on my lower teeth.
nontheless they are getting better with some of your tricks. i just tried the Listerine cut way down. i cannot wait to try the Hydro Floss.
the scope of your knowledge is so impressive. i can’t thank you enough.
My very best,
-name withheld
Thank you very much. It is notes like this one that help me to keep going!
David Snape
Author: What You Should Know about Gum Disease
Flaming is the name given to abusive attacks by email. I’ve been working on the Internet for several years now and it is very, very seldom that I run into this kind of situation. Less than 24 hours ago, I was flamed.
This flaming gave me pause for consideration. In fact, it ruined most of my night yesterday as I thought about it. Even when I wasn’t thinking about it, the feeling was there. It just feels awful to be attacked in such a manner. Being attacked in any manner doesn’t feel good and this was no exception.
My spirtual beliefs tell me that when someone does something bad to you they must either pay you back in some way or you are paying them back. This could be for something done in this lifetime or, as in the case of someone you never meant and don’t know, it could be payback from a previous life.
I understand that not everyone shares my belief in past lives and reincarnation but that is another story. I don’t want to digress. There is still gold here for those who don’t agree with my beliefs. Besides, my beliefs do not require anyone else to believe as I do.
In this case, I had written a very innocent email to a group of people about a particular item used for ‘natural healing’. I explained what I thought and why I thought it and even where my information came from. I even admitted that there was no scientific proof, just years of observation to back up my opinion.
Next thing I know someone is attacking me. This person took what I said out-of-context, blew it out of proportion and was defending a position that I didn’t have any issues with. But he had issues with what I said and by the end of the email he attacked my work – which is basically a personal attack.
Keep in mind this was work that he had never read and knew not what it contained, but he felt that he should attack it anyway. Basically, I was shocked.
I responded to his email and explained that he hadn’t read what I had written and that I didn’t appreciate being attacked by him. But, I wondered, what is the point?
This person obviously isn’t coming from a place of calm or reason. He attacked me for something I didn’t say and I mean really attacked me. He dug into me as if we had some kind of personal problem with each other.
I’ve been wondering: what was the correct way to handle this? As I see it, there are really two problems. One is my own reaction. The second is what is the correct response?
On the first point, let me clarify, I did not respond in kind to this person. I did not attack him in return. But what concerns me most is my own feelings. Why did I feel so upset? I know that when you put yourself out in public, you can expect to be attacked once in a while.
I pride myself on staying calm in difficult situations. However, as I am only human, I do slip. Yet, I want to overcome these shortcomings and this is one more test for me in that journey. I still have much work to do on myself – that much is clear.
I really have nothing to defend and I don’t have a real investment in fighting to prove some point of view that means nothing to anyone when you come right down to it. Yet, even though I didn’t flame back, the emotion was there.
Let me illustrate this problem with another example. Some people advocate non-violent communication. They have correctly deduced that if you work on removing violence from your communication, it is harder for violence to manifest physically – not impossible, just more difficult. I admire these folks for their hard work to make themselves better.
For me, I strive to go one step further. Violence, in my opinion, starts a step or two deeper than communication. It starts with that feeling in the heart. It is a feeling of injustice, a feeling of anger, a feeling of indignation. Even worse, it could be the feeling of hate.
The human heart then is the problem. That is where I strive to change myself. And it is much harder than you might imagine.
Therefore, perhaps how I responded was not the problem, it is how I wanted to respond that IS the problem. I honestly wanted to punch this guys lights out. I confess that is a violent thought. And I am saddened that I still have this type of reaction after years of trying to cleanse my heart of such things. Worse, I thought that he was a total moron, an idiot who is completely irrational and even ‘stupid’.
These are all bad things in my opinion. I should not have felt this way, but I did. I should not have had such thoughts, but I did. That makes me sad. The good news is that I didn’t flame this person back. There is a time in my life when I would have. I’m glad that time is in the past.
Unfortunately, the feeling was there. My wish is that I could have immediately felt total compassion for this person, even though he had ‘wronged’ me. My wish is that I could have responded from a place that was completely unconcerned for my personal reputation or need to defend my thoughts or position.
I look forward to further character development. I hope I get there quickly. This is also the answer to the second question: How should I have responded? The simple answer is, my response will always be the right one if I come from a heart of kindness, tolerance and compassion.
Sadly, such a state of mind is a long distance away for most of us here on planet Earth. Never-the-less, I have to get there. It is the only place of being that makes sense.
Copyright 2008 David Snape ATP
Dave encourages those of a spiritual mind to read Zhuan . Falun Dave is the author of: What You Should Know about Gum Disease. You can reach David at http://tobeinformed.com You may reprint this article on your website or blog, provided that you keep this author resource box with the article and that all hyperlinks are kept ‘active’.
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