#club5050 My Handmade Christmas Wreath
Pine, holly and ivy branches were used for indoor decorations around the holidays to symbolise eternity and the promise of life returning in spring. The tradition goes back to at least the 15th century. The Christmas wreath may have well started in Germany which is where we also got the festive tree from. Prince Albert introduced the tradition to Britain when he married Queen Victoria.
Camera: Nikon D5600 Lens: Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ISO: 2,500
Shutter Speed: 1/60 Aperture: f/4
Make a start to your wreath by going out and foraging for a few evergreen branches. The dark green English yew has very elastic branches which also have red berries on so it is my first choice for the base of the wreath. I gave the holly in our garden a little haircut too. Luckily the birds haven’t managed to eat all its berries yet.
Camera: Nikon D5600 Lens: Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ISO: 1,600
Shutter Speed: 1/60 Aperture: f/4.2
If you don’t have any suitable trees or shrubs in your garden, pop in your local park or woodland and forage for some but make sure this is allowed. Have your gardening shears handy and a bag for life for your wreath making materials. You can also buy evergreen branches from your local store or florist.
Camera: iPhone 7 Lens: iPhone 7 Back Camera
ISO: 80 Shutter Speed: 1/17 Focal Length: 3.99mm
I use garden twine to tie the branches together which I twist clockwise. Then I tuck holly branches with lots of shiny red berries on. I have also used gigantic bright orange rose hips and yellow berries. Of course you need to decide first on the colours which your wreath will feature.
Camera: Nikon D5600 Lens: Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ISO: 3,200
Shutter Speed: 1/60 Aperture: f/4.2
You can also purchase a cute ribbon to complete your creation or stick to pure natural materials and improvise a star from orange twigs like I did this year. You can always dehydrate your own orange or lemon slices and add cinnamon sticks to your beautiful creation.
Last but not least hang your wreath on your front door which will give your neighbours, passers by and delivery people something pretty to look at around the holidays.
Camera: Nikon D5600 Lens: Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ISO: 6,400
Shutter Speed: 1/60 Aperture: f/4.8
If you happen to have remaining branches just pop them in a vase with some water. Such a festive bouquet makes a nice table centrepiece.
Camera: Nikon D5600 Lens: Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ISO: 5,600
Shutter Speed: 1/60 Aperture: f/4.1
If you really enjoyed making your own wreath like I did remember that you don’t have to wait till next Christmas to practise again. You can make a wreath any time of the year and decorate it with lavender, any dried flowers and even sprigs of herbs.
Camera: Nikon D5600 Lens: Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ISO: 2,800
Shutter Speed: 1/60 Aperture: f/4
That's amazing. How does it look on your front door?
It looks gorgeous really. It is so much better than my last year’s handmade wreath. This time I used more evergreen branches and I decorated it with just holly berries. I make the wreath on a soggy day which gives me something pleasant to be busy with. It always takes longer than I think though. I usually start making it after lunch and when I finish it is pitch black outside 🙈
It's very impressive and well worth the effort.
Doesn't it get dark at about 3pm these days 🙂
4:30pm at the latest 🕰 Days should start getting noticeably longer the second half of January. What a soggy Christmas this was though. Weather was much better last year, there was even a little bit of snow ❄️
There's still time for the snow... I'm really hoping we get some, we bought the-toddler-gorilla a sleigh this year. My homemade one from last year didn't quite make the grade.
There is actually🤞Hopefully there will be some snow later in January. It is just too warm now. We will be having a barbecue for lunch tomorrow. We will probably even eat outside, at least the starters. We were pleased to get lots of snow last year even in London. It was enough for making big snowmen. There is plenty of snow in the ski resorts in Europe based on the reports which I got yesterday ⛷First time I hear about a handmade sleigh. Maybe you have a workshop and enjoy making things from wood?
I've heard that this is the warmest new year we've ever had - not quite BBQ weather yet though!
Will you be going skiing this year?
Perhaps sleigh was generous although it was quite luxurious. I had a sturdy cardboard box which I attached some guttering to the bottom of so that it would be fairly frictionless. I then put some 100mm insulation in the bottom so that the-toddler wouldn't freeze and attached some string to the front so that I could pull him along. We've got a decent slope on our drive which it slid down very well... the strong broke too quickly though so it made its way into a skip 🙂
I can't seem to find any photos of it though 😟
If I haven't shown you already, I also made this "Pirate Ship and Under The Sea"...
The barbecue was on yesterday, we didn’t eat the starters outside though. We did three types of sausages first: pork and leek, lamb, chorizo and red pepper followed by lamb chops marinated in honey and mustard and then venison steaks. I saw a huge brown spider running away from the barbecue when we just got it started 🤦♀️
I have no skiing trip booked yet, not even a winter work trip. It is all a bit different now. I worked remotely even on the 31st December for a few hours and I kept seeing people booking skiing and snowboarding holidays starting this Sunday.
Oh dear, I am always the opposite if I try to find less than ten photos of something 🙃
😱 You mentioned the pirate 🏴☠️ ship once but that was about it really. It looks awesome, I didn’t even expect it will be this huge, the size of a proper beach bar. Has it got a sea view from the upper deck? The under the sea area makes a fantastic creative space.
Seriously you did it your self??. That’s very beautiful 😍
Thank you ever so much my friend 💁♀️ I certainly did, all by myself. I started making the wreath in the garden and I had a hot drink handy. Then as it gets dark so early this time of the year I had to move indoors.
I am glad to take entire consignment of wreaths on earth,take them along w/ my romantic wife to moon where we use to decorate to the moon using entire consignment of wreaths are hang on the moon, we are going to celebrate our grand honeymoon on the moon in the clouds nine joy style,we are going to celebrate Christmas 1st time on the moon after our marriage inviting Elon Musk and his newly wedded wife to the moon:))) I hope you too celebrate the Christmas on on your own style on this earth looking at the moon
@petface