Spruce Things Up!

Pine and fir it up actually. Here's a quick DIY for those of you that like to add your own touches to evergreen wreaths. I started with a store bought balsam fir wreath with out any adornment.

You can grab a bundle of pine boughs and a bag of cones from your local flower shop or grocer and that's all you need to get started. The other supplies and tools you'll need are:

- floral wire (just use whatever brand you can find)
- outdoor ribbon or a pre-made bow of your choice
- wire cutters
- pruning shears or heavy duty scissors
 *** see note at the bottom :)

 

Start by adding pine branches to the back of the wreath so they are sticking out just a bit beyond the edges of the fir wreath.

If you can, push the stems into the wire clamps that are attached to the frame. There are twelve on this wreath so that's how many branches I added.

 

If you find it hard to do this you can wire shorter stems of pine and add them to the wreath by attaching the bundles to the fir branches.

Pull the tips of the pine towards the front of the wreath and mix it in with the fir boughs. Once again you can encourage them into place with some of your floral wire if they don't stay where you want them.

Cut 8- 12 inch lengths of wire and start to wire the pine cones. It's up to you how many you use but I wired more than I thought I would use and they all ended up on my wreath.

If you like the style of the one I did start with the larger cones at the centre of the top and keep adding more layers of cones until you are happy!

 

 I spread some of the smaller cones out to the side of the first large ones and then decided where to add the bow.

You could just fill your wreath with cones if you wanted a very rustic look without ribbon. It would look great if you had some different types of cones too.


After I attached the bow I continued to fill in around the top of the wreath with a few more cones and some smaller tips of pine bough. 

That's it. You are done. Hang it up and enjoy!

***One last thing....if your hands are covered with sticky balsam from the pine and the cones rub them with baby oil or cooking oil and  the sap will come off easier when you soap up your hands. It's a really good idea to coat your hands with some lotion or oil before you even start to make restoring your manicure a whole lot faster!