How to Make a Holiday Wreath

Despite how it may seem, it's easy to create your own holiday wreath. You can make one to fit in any part of your house or on your front door. And holiday wreaths aren't just made out of 'pine' anymore. Here's a guide to making that perfect holiday wreath for your decorum.

Materials

First you must decide what type of wreath you want to make. You can purchase berry forms if you don't want to go with the traditional evergreen. Other options include glitter wreaths that have the appearance of pine, but have gold, red, green, or silver glitter on the needles. For a modern twist, you can use a feather wreath. All of these forms can be found at craft stores in your area. It's best to decide on the sizing before you go, so you won't purchase a wreath form that is too big or too small for the area you would like to display it.

Next, you will need to buy what are called 'picks.' These are decorations that come with a sharp wire piece coming out of the back or bottom of them. When you put together the wreath these wire 'picks' will insert easily into the base of the wreath. These also make it possible to take the decorations off and rearrange them. Picks come in all kinds of plastic or silk decorations from ornamental balls to flowers to fruits and pinecones. Look around for picks that have similar colors or themes as your wreath form. For example, if you have a glitter wreath you might want to use shiny snowflake-type picks or ornamental balls. If you have a berry wreath, it is better to stick with contrasting bows or flowers.

When deciding how many picks you will need to make your wreath you should use the rule of five. Larger picks such as flowers or pinecones are your main theme and you should choose five of the same size and color. While six is too many for a center attraction, you can choose six smaller picks of berries or small fruits and flowers. If you have a dark wreath (evergreen or similar) you should purchase about four picks that feature a light color such as white or gold. If your wreath is lighter, than you should choose the same amount of picks in a dark color. You always want to offset the back form with your accents.

Lastly, it is good to buy a few spools of ribbon. It isn't necessary to decorate your wreath with a huge bow on the bottom, but you might want to use it behind a pick or two. The ribbon you choose should match the colors you are using or it will stand out too much and take away from the rest of the wreath.

Spacing

The assembly of the wreath is much quicker than you would think. Put your larger sized picks evenly spaced around the wreath. If you evenly space them you will see how easy the rest of the assembly can be using these as the guide. Sometimes it is good to angle the picks in one direction rather than just sticking them in straight on. Using the first picks as a guide, place the other decorations in coordinating places. If you have some berry picks, you can cradle them below or to the side of each pinecone on an evergreen wreath. If you have large ornamental balls on a glitter wreath, you will need to cluster different sized balls around the wreath. The final accent should be the light picks for a dark wreath and the dark picks for a light wreath. You generally need less of these as they attract the eye more than any other part of the wreath. Place these in a triangle (if you are using three) with the top point at the top or place them in a diamond shape (if you are using four). And if you don't like the first design you made, you can easily take the picks out and start again. Just have fun!