Holiday handiwork
Group, individual projects add personal touches to festive décorHoliday Wreaths

There are no rules for a wreath-making party except that you must have fun.
Four friends recently did just that. Helen Hansen, Maralee Karwoski, Cinde Johnson and Jane Bitz got together on a weekend afternoon and created stunning holiday wreaths, all while catching up with each other and sharing ideas and techniques for this project.
Throw in some holiday cookies and hot cider on the side, and it was a perfect recipe for a good time.
Holiday wreaths are easy to make, beautiful and economical. A little planning makes things go smoothly.
Each person at the party brought materials like conifer sprays, seed pods and berries from their gardens to share with the others. They also brought wreath forms, ribbon for the bows and other items for embellishing their wreaths.
Wreath forms can be found at local craft stores. Wire forms and grapevine wreaths cost $2 to $4 and can be reused year after year.
About two yards of ribbon is needed to make a large bow. Holiday ribbon usually goes on sale in the fall, which helps keep the costs down.
A paddle of green floral wire, which costs about $1.50, is used to wire the plant materials to the wreath form.
The first thing the women did was set up a staging area for the plant materials to make it easier to see what was available.
“The hardest problem is deciding what materials to use, since we have so many neat things to choose from in our gardens,” Johnson said.
Since Karwoski has floral design experience and has made wreaths in the past, she shared her expertise with the others.
“There are two main methods for creating a wreath,” she said. “You can wire together small bunches of plant material, then wire each bunch onto the wreath frame. Or you can secure one end of the floral wire to the wreath frame first, then wire loose bunches of plant material onto the frame by wrapping the wire around it.
“I’ve used both methods and the second one is much speedier.”
To give the wreaths depth, the ladies layered on different types of greenery as a base first.
“When you’re done putting all the greenery on, you can use pruners later to trim off anything that doesn’t lie right,” Bitz suggested.
Hansen – also an experienced wreath-maker – got right down to business. She started with a grapevine wreath and stuffed plant materials into the loops of the grapevines without having to wire them onto it.
She then offered this useful tip to the group: “When you’re ready to embellish your wreath, I think it’s helpful to hang it up on a railing or somewhere that is near eye level. This frees up both hands and makes it easier to work on.”
Each person selected interesting materials to make their wreaths unique and used a glue gun to secure anything to the wreath that might fall off.
Some of the materials they used included Scarlet Firethorn berries, sprigs of sage leaves from an herb garden, dried Hydrangea flowers, lichen and Snowberries. It was clear that the possibilities were endless.
“I think the hardest part is knowing when the wreath is done, when you’ve put enough plant material on it,” Karwoski said.
She also suggested using an anti-desiccant spray, like Wilt Pruf, to keep the greens from drying out.
The finishing touch for each wreath was a large bow, which the women helped each other make. This underscores what is special about a wreath-making party: Everyone shares their unique skills, which makes each person feel comfortable doing this type of project and delighted with the treasure they’ve created.
This holiday season, a wreath-making party will be one of the nicest gifts you can give your friends and yourself.