Make A Wreath: An Easy Twist on a Traditional Favorite

Happy Black Friday! I hope you scored some great bargains…or scored some extra sleep like me. It’s officially the holiday season and the most wonderful time of year and I am so excited! I couldn’t wait to make a wreath so did this one about a month ago and it is now on my front door.  The greenery is a more traditional look but you don’t have to stick with the usual circular shape. Stores also carry various other shapes and I chose this candy cane one. Hobby Lobby had a huge section of embellishments and décor to choose from and I went with red and white themed ornaments, ribbons and embellishments to compliment the candy cane shape.

For this project I used:
Candy Cane Shaped Greenery
Red & White Ornaments
Red & White Wreath Embellishments
Large Red & White Bow
Hot Glue Gun & Glue

Because the bow was the largest decoration to go on the candy cane I did it first so that I could put the smaller decorations in proportion around it.
The bow had ties on the back much like bread bag ties.

I used the ties to attach the bow to the frame of the candy cane wreath.

After tying the bow to the wreath frame, I hot glued the bow to the greenery at a few points on the front of the candy cane to keep it in place. There are a lot of dips and valleys in the greenery so I picked places that the fabric of the bow could be glued to the greenery.
Once the bow was attached I moved to the next largest decoration which was the ornaments. I cut the strings off of the ornaments. There were 4 large peppermint candy ornaments so I spaced them evenly down the candy cane with room for other decorations in between and attached them with a liberal amount of hot glue on the back of each and pressed them into the greenery.

Next I added the lollipop decorations. These are actually for floral arrangements as they have stems (or you can glue them on with the stems) but I separated them as I only wanted to use the candy part. It was a simple twist and pull and the stem came apart from the candy. Once I broke them apart I spaced them evenly in between the larger ornaments on the candy cane. Again applying with a liberal amount of hot glue. The lollipops are foam but they held up well against the hot glue.

Next I finished the wreath off by filling in the gaps with a bag of small foam sparkly red and white balls. I hot glued them randomly across the candy cane to give it a more full and finished look. The balls were small so be careful when gluing so as not to burn your finger. These balls are foam as well but the hot glue did not melt them and you will have to make sure they attach firmly to the greenery as they are small.

I just kept filling in until I liked the look. I recommend getting decorations of various sizes as it makes the flow of the design work better. I used traditional red and white but this tutorial is more about showing what options are available beyond a traditional wreath such as this candy cane and how to go through the process of making it. There are infinite possibilities for color combinations to match your holiday décor or home colors. Once I was satisfied with the decorations I fluffed up the greenery that had been mashed flat while I was gluing. Then it was ready to hang on the door (this candy cane could also work indoors on a large space such as a landing or staircase). Make a wreath- it’s the most wonderful time of year!