How to make a stunning natural festive door decoration
Choose a bright dry day to gather your foliage. Ivy stems are plentiful and make ideal bases, but any flexible branches will do. To gather long strips of ivy, snip it at the base of a tree and then ease its tendrils off the bark with your fingers. Be sure to gather some greenery to decorate your wreath examples such as holly (but be aware that the berries are poisonous to dogs), eucalyptus, fir, spruce and skimmia. I usually supplement my finds with mistletoe and thistles bought from the florists.
Bend the ivy branches into a circle wrapping the end around itself and hold it in place with a zip tie. Wind another two or three lengths around this until you have a robust base.
Trim the greenery to a hand’s length which will give you a decent amount of stem to bind onto the base. Create a spray of two or three stems and strip all the leaves, leaving just the raw stems from halfway down ready to be bound on.
To start attaching the foliage, wind the floristry wire three times around the 9 o’clock point of your base and secure well with a tug.
Then take your spray and angle the top point towards the 1 o’clock point. This will mean your spray will be pointing inwards and the eye will be drawn around your wreath. If they point outwards your wreath will end up looking like it has wings.
Create the next spray, strip it down to the stems as before and position on top of the spray you have just bound on, this time position it pointing outwards. The foliage of this spray should always hide the binding wire of your previous spray and should usually cover the bottom third.
Continue alternating the foliage and the direction they are pointing (inwards and outwards) until you reach the 6 o’clock point.
Start the process as before but this time start at the 3 o’clock, ending up once again at the 6 o’clock point. Take an arm’s length of ribbon and make a bow, then thread an arm’s length of floristry wire halfway through the knot so you use the ends to fix it at the 6 o’clock and hide the wire.
Check for any stray stems to trim and that the wreath looks balanced. Cover any bald spots with some extra foliage and stubby sticks. Fix the wreath to your front door with wreath hanger which hangs over the top of your door. And for a final flourish you could add some battery powered fairy lights.
READ MORE: What are the best Christmas wreaths and garlands to buy?
The process is the same to make a swag which can hang over a fireplace or a doorframe to great effect. Use a piece of wood, rope or branches which are the same length and shape as your desired piece. Using the same process as for the wreath, create the sprays starting at each end until they meet in the middle. Hide the point where the wired ends meet with a large festive bow in the centre.
To make complementary large sprigs to decorate doors and walls, create a spray of foliage, secure well with floristry wire, cover the wire with wrapped ribbon and finish with a bow. Small sprigs can be used as place settings for your festive table.
* Dee shares a new crafting idea every month in Lancashire Life. To make sure you don’t miss an issue, and receive a £10 John Lewis e-gift card, go to greatbritishlife.co.uk/subscribe/lancashire.
