CHRISTMAS DOORWREATH STEP-BY-STEP
STEP 1
Prepare/protect your work surface using an old towel or sheet, and put on thin gardening gloves or latex gloves if desired to protect from irritation.
STEP 2
Wet your moss frame base by briefly soaking in water, or spraying. This moisture will hepl the longevity of your wreath.
STEP 3
Attach the end of your reel wire to your moss frame, by looping it around and twisting together tightly.
STEP 4
Gather a small bundle of foliages, 2, 3 or 4 pieces, and place onto your base. With one hand holding your bunch in place, use the other hand to take your reel wire and wrap over the stems, pulling tightly, to bind them in place. Be sure to do this fairly low down on your stems, to ensure a nice, loose, design.
STEP 5
Take another small bundle of foliage, and place this, so that it overlaps the previous, covering up the wire binding point. With the reel wire still attached, bring it back over the top to secure these stems in the way.
STEP 6
Continue this process, of adding overlapping bunches of foliage, each time ensuring you cover the previous binding point.
STEP 7
Once you begin to approach the point where you started, continue to add as before. Continue to overlap the previous, whilst at the same time, tucking the ends of the stems underneath the loose ends of the foliage you began with. With the aim of maintaining an organic circular shape, disguising the beginning and end meeting point.
STEP 8
Once all of your moss is covered, loosely loop the reel wire once more, bringing the reel through the loop and pulling tightly to create a knot, and snip to remove the reel.
STEP 9
You can now use any leftover foliages, to perfect your shape. Remove the lower pineneedles, leaving about an inch of bare stem. Using sharp scissors or secateurs, cut the stem at and angle.
Push the stem into the moss and try to slide underneath some of the reel wire.
Continue adding this way to create a nice, full, bushy effect, and fill any bare patches.
STEP 10
Using your strong green stub wires, you will now prepare all of your decoartions.
-Pinecones: Bend your wire like a hair pin, with one end longer than the other, tuck the wire through the lower 'petals', bring the two ends of wire together, and twist together, so that the deocration is supported in a single length of wire
- Orange Slices: Take 3 slices and insert the wire through all three siultaneously, staying close the the rind (to ensure the wire will not be visible).
Again, with one end longer than the other, bring both sides together and twist to secure.
-Lotus heads: Insert the wire through the base. Again, with one end longer than the other, bring both sides together and twist to secure.
-Cinnamon bundles: Slide the wire between the cinnamon and the raffia. Again, with one end longer than the other, bring both sides together and twist to secure.
STEP 11
With your deocations now all wired, attach to your wreath by piercing throught the moss with the wire, being mindful of your hands on the other side. Locate where the wire has come through on the other side, and pull it tightly, so that the decoration is nicely nestled within the pine. Turn the end of the wire back on itself, and push back through the moss to secure.
STEP 12
Once all deocrations are in, you can make your bow. You can do this, using whatever method you are most comfortable with.
This is my technique:
Leaving a long tail at the end (about 12") pinch the ribbon together, this will be your middle point. Using the remainder of the ribbon, create a figure of eight, pinching in the middle eavch time you pass over. Using one of your green stub wires, take it over the pinched centre point, like a hairpin, with one end longer than the other, any twist together to seure. You can then take a small length of ribbon and wrap this around the wire, to hide.
In the same way as you attached your decorations, use this wire to pierce through the moss, turn the wire back on itself and insert back into the back of the frame to secure
STEP 12
Lastly, you will need a loop, from which you can hang up your glorious wreath!
To create this, take one of your green stub wires, and pierce through the wreath and the topmost point, above our bow. Be sure to catch in the strong wire frame which is underneath the moss. Bring the ends together and twist many times to secure, Push the twished ends back into the moss, then twist your wire hoop, close to the moss, to create a neat loop