My step by step guide to create an elegant Christmas wreath, that you can adapt to fit inside your home, as well as on your front door.
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A beautiful wreath adorning your front door is a pretty popular thing to tick of the wish list during the festive season. However, I believe a wreath can look elegant and quite magical inside your house too, they look beautiful over a mantle or on a focal wall. Go big and fill a large space with a statement wreath, or create a little piece of work to sit amongst your picture wall!
What you need:
* A base
* Floristry wire
* A good pair of garden shears, you can use these to cut your wire too.
* Lots of different types of foliage, such as; eucalyptus, ivy, pine, conifer, spruce (aka Christmas tree) and holly which isn’t too spiky. I have included some dried ingredients into this one as well.
* Ribbon or twine to finish and hang.
Other elements that you may want to include are; pine cones, feathers and dried fruit.

Here’s how:
1. You can buy a grape vine wreath base from places such as hobby craft or possibly your local garden centre. Alternatively you can make your own, you will need to do a bit of foraging for this option, either from yours (or a friends) garden, or your local woodlands. Collect some sticks and long thin twigs that have some flexibility to them, and bend them gently to begin curving into a wreath shape. You will need to wrap wire around parts of it, to keep it together.

2. When you are happy with your base you can start to build on it using the foliage, cutting small pieces and wiring together several small bunches of mixed foliage.


3. These small bunches can then be wired to the wreath base, doing one at a time, laying the next over the previous one.
You can cover the whole wreath with the foliage bundles, or just part of the way around, exposing some of the rustic wreath base.


4. At this point you can wire up individual items, such as pine cones, cinnamon sticks or dried fruit. Then slot them in amongst the foliage, bending the wire around the back and securing.
5. To finish, simply add a ribbon for a splash of colour, or use twine to keep it natural and hang.

A few tips
I like to create asymmetrical designs, keeping the main focal part of the wreath slightly of centre.
Try to avoid symmetry, use odd numbers of items such as the pine cones and dried fruit.
Remember that the more you add, the heavier your wreath will be, so make sure the weight is supported.
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