Making a Floral Swag for the Front Door?

capaky

September 17, 20110 found this helpful

Look for fresh vines and supple branches (like bittersweet and willow. If your branches have berries it makes a great natural treat for birds. Gather them up and make a circle out of them, twisting and weaving loose ends as you go. Tie it north, south east and west with some twine. There you have a great natural wreath without having to buy anything! You could even embellish it further in the winter with peanut butter pinecones or suet shapes. Use cookie cutters for seasonal shapes.

Frugal Sunnie
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September 22, 20110 found this helpful

I used to make sprays with seasonal cuttings from the woods near my house. I would take three cuttings per spray, putting the longest in the center and the two shorter ones on either side. I'd tie them with twist-ties from bin liner bags, then use a piece of twine to make a rustic bow to cover the twist-ties.

Thanksgiving Day afternoon 2009, I made Christmas sprays for the whole neighborhood. The sprays really looked great.

I used cedar cuttings from my front yard, and red yarn from the bargain bin at Wal-Mart, the cuttings kept their colour from Thanksgiving through Epiphany (26 Nov thru 6 Jan), and was a neat neighborhood get-together. Some of the neighbors saw me out on a ladder and stopped to say hi. I sent them off with sprays for their doors, which led to other neighbors stopping. I didn't plan it to happen but I'm very glad it did. Twelve families plus mine had a simple but lovely Mountain Christmas door decoration that year:)

It was a beautiful crisp North Georgia mountain Thanksgiving afternoon that I will never forget. It turned out to be my last one in the US, so it is now a deeply treasured memory.