Decorating Suggestions

Don’t go overboard covering up all your hard work with decorations. All you need is a splash of color here and there. Here are some suggestions:

• Attach a simple paper twist bow. It comes in many colors, is easy to work with, and is weather resistant.

• Spray paint your wreath to match your decor.

• Peel off all the bark and clip off all the tendrils for a smooth, clean, wooden look. Or leave the short twigs in the tendrils and the shaggy bark as is for a rough, rustic, primitive look.

• To achieve a wild look, keep adding pieces of vine with lots of nice tendrils, and pick out or stretch out any tendrils caught up between the vines.

• Turn a full, thick wreath into a unique table centerpiece. Lay it flat and use it to hold hors d’oeuvres on toothpicks with a bowl of dip or sauce in the center. Or place a fat candle in the center with hurricane glass over it.

• Collect bird nests, feathers, reindeer moss, lichens, shells, nuts, pine cones, berries, twigs, bark, seed pods, reeds, and grasses for free, natural decorations.

• Small toys, wooden decorations, Christmas ornaments, and dolls make unique additions to wreaths.

• Using a grapevine wreath as a base, overwrap it with another vine of a different texture and color such as bittersweet or Virginia creeper.

• Use a round or oval wreath to frame a mirror.

• Cut out old greeting cards, photographs or calendar pictures. Glue onto stiff cardboard and frame with a grapevine wreath.

• Add dried herbs from your garden or dried autumn field and meadow flowers such as Queen Anne’s lace, Joe Pye weed, St. John’s wort, yarrow, rabbit’s foot clover, sweet everlasting, tansy, black-eyed Susan, or bee balm.

Make a Fall Bittersweet Wreath

To make a fall bittersweet wreath, use a grapevine wreath as the base. Lay the bittersweet in a circle on top of the grapevine like a crown. Using a long single piece of grapevine, lace it in and out over the bittersweet so it is lashed to the wreath. This way the bittersweet isn’t being moved around, disturbing the beautiful berries. Also, when the season is over or the berries have faded, the bittersweet can easily be taken off by undoing the thin grapevine. Now decorate the wreath for Christmas by tucking in a few pine branches and some holly or winterberry. Wire on a few pine cones and add a red bow.

Now that you have learned to make a variety of wreaths, put your creative wheels into motion. Wreaths and rings of all shapes and sizes can be joined, stacked, lashed, and intertwined to make baskets, trees, and sculptures of all kinds. Countless designs are possible; there is nothing you can’t try!

Just remember to have fun, don’t worry about perfection, and you’ll enjoy your original masterpiece for years to come.