Festive Holiday Wreaths - On a Budget!

Festive Holiday Wreaths - on a budget!

It's easy to create beautiful holiday wreaths for a fraction of the cost of upscale, more expensive, pre-made wreaths.  This project is also being shared today on When Creativity Knocks in my Cindi's Simple Solutions article. 

Materials: 

• Artificial evergreen wreath - this one was $9.97 at the local big box store
• Real branches and leaves from evergreen shrubs - harvested on the roadside and in our yard! (look for things like juniper, magnolia leaves, etc. - if it’s still green this time of year, chances are it will work fine for your wreath!) 
• Artificial berries - from the local dollar store 
• Red wired ribbon - from the local dollar store 
• Florist’s wire  
• Branch clippers, wire cutters 

Instructions:

This first wreath was inspired by a wreath seen in an upscale sales catalog which was priced at about $80! 

Arrange branches on wreath to “fluff”. 

Cut pieces of assorted greens about 6” long.  

Clip artificial berry stems to about 6”.  

Arrange leaves, greens, and berries into clusters and wire together with florist’s wire.  

Tuck clusters amongst the greens on the wreath, wire to the wire frame.  

Tie bow, wire to frame at base of wreath. 

I think this finished wreath is beautiful - it has a natural feel and looks very much like the original wreath that inspired it - but the total cost for my wreath was about $12. 

This second version was even less expensive, yet looks a lot like the expensive pre-made wreaths you can find at the arts and crafts chain stores.   This one started with a $3.97 pre-made wreath from the local big box store.   The recipient was looking for something with a bit more “glitz” so I use faux poinsettias with glittered petals, silver poinsettias, white berries, smaller glittered red berries with grasses, and sparkling white plastic snowflake ornaments - all of which came from the dollar store.  Each stem was trimmed to about 4” and wired to the base of the wreath itself.  The snowflake ornaments were also wired to the base.   The bow is made with snowman pattern ribbon which also came from the dollar store.   The total cost for this wreath was about $9.