Rustic Western-Inspired Wreaths

I have been having fun the last few days making Western Wreaths. I was given by a family member some hand-dried hydrangeas (absolutely beautiful) and had some wreath forms sitting around waiting for inspiration to come. Here are the three I have currently available (although I have some sentimental attachment to the first):

Beautifully rustic wreath made from stick frame, attached dried blue and purple hydrangeas, small pheasant feathers, my horse Milo's horseshoe, and finished with a burlap bow.

Available for sale: rustic wreath made from a stick frame. Hand dried blue and purple hydrangeas is attached, with three long pheasant feathers and two empty gold shells. A little rustic barn star and a bow from raffia finish it off. $25, local delivery only at this time.

vailable for sale: Super cute deer hunting inspired stick wreath. I used two wreath forms, medium and small attached together with a burlap bow. The hand-painted "welcome" greeting is attached between the two wreaths, as well as hand-dried pink and brown hydrangeas. An authentic empty brass shell is attached as well as a real antler shed piece. Super cute and fun, $35, local delivery only at this time

This post was linked to the SNS Party at Funky Junk Interiors featuring hydrangea projects. 

Pine Wreath - a Little Bit of Twisp

Both mine and my Boyfriend's favorite place to be is Twisp, WA. About four hours from our home, its a sweet little country town tucked into the foothills of the North Cascades, joining up against the Okonogan National Forest. Boyfriend has family members there and at least once a year we make it over there and stay in their quaint cabin for Mule deer season. This last October was when we last visited, and I managed to scoop up many large and beautiful pinecones and black pine greens. They had been sitting in a couple paper shopping bags until I figured out what I wanted to make with them, as well as having the time, and the season.

I finally got the creative knowledge of what I wanted to do with it, or so I thought. On clearance a month or so ago I purchased a twig wreath from Joann's and planned on working with it as a base for the pine greens or pinecones. I grabbed a few supplies and started placing the greens. Then I figured out how I wanted them attached.

I used floral wire (already had on hand) and wrapped it through the "branches" and around the end to secure the pine to the wreath. 

The twig base already had some areas of sturdy wire, most likely to use to attach things to, so I attached the floral wire to the wire on the wreath base. 

 I just repeated this step around the entire wreath until I was satisfied with the fullness and that all of the pine bases were covered up.

'The next step was how to decorate it. I had the pinecones on hand, but with the large size of them, simply attaching them to the wreath didnt seem appropriate. I grabbed three of them, and had an idea. 

So first I wrapped twine around the center and tied at the back. I then made three twine bows, and hot glued them to the tops of the pinecones.

I then attached the pinecones (with their twine ropes) to the base of the wreath, avoiding bunching the pine. I used the excess twine to tie another bow to the top. But it just wasnt enough, so I used some glittery Christmas ribbon to make a more accentuated bow. I liked this ribbon because, although festive, it didnt scream Christmas and the plan was to hang this wreath all year long, and keep of bit of Twisp here at home.

Vintage Paper Wreath

I bought this used up and stained book from GoodWill, planing to use it for some type of wreath. What came first was an inspiration from Martha Stewart.com:

I used the same leaf trace offered from the website, but also formed a maple leaf version of my own. With no other cardstock available for color depth, I gathered some yellow leaves from the yard and pressed them in said book for a week.

The first step was to cut out the many, many leaves from the book pages. Martha's wreath calls for 100 leaves glued back to back. I cut 50 of each leaf type for a total of 100 leaves.

I watched Netflix while doing this.

It took a long time.

I didnt get to come back to the project for another week until my next day off. But throughout the week I stopped by Joann's and purchased a 12" wire floral wreath to attach the leaves to. Next I just started hot gluing leaves onto the wire frame and to each other.

As I glued the leaves in place, I had some pieces of twine wrapped around a pencil to start forming spiral "sprigs" to add onto the wreath.

I got closer to the end and tied a leaf-printed ribbon to the top.

I then removed the pressed (real) leaves from the remains of the book, and glued them into place as well as the twine spirals. I hung up the new wreath and stood back and enjoyed.

This is my favorite leaf with the lack of words on it. :)

I'm pleased with my Martha wreath knock-off!