Fraser Fir Monogram Wreath

Every year I make my own wreath for my front door. The Saturday after Thanksgiving, our family goes out and cuts down their Christmas trees and I scrounge around collecting branches from the bottom layers of the trees. I brought home a garbage bag full of white pine, Fraser fir and scotch pine boughs.

My husband took a few wire dry cleaning hangers and used them to fashion a "C".
Honestly I could have done this myself but it is always fun to put him to work.

Next use garden clippers or pliers to clip sections of your pine tree boughs. Layer the clumps on top of each other until you get a thick enough clump. This is probably about four sections of the boughs. I used a mixture of mostly Fraser fir because I had the most of it and also white pine and Scotch pine.

Use green floral wire and wrap it around the ends of the boughs several times.

Then set the clump at the top edge of the wire letter and wrap the wire several times around the wire. There is no need to clip the wire until you have completed wrapping clumps of pine to the wire letter. Make sure to wrap each new section of pine as close as possible to the section you just wired. This will help to keep the wreath nice and full.

It took me about an hour to finish mine. Since I can rarely resist something shiny and glittery, I picked these up during my weekly visit to my local Target.

At first I used them to do this...

and it bored me to tears. So I broke out some fab new red burlap and re-constructed my wreath.

I like it much better now. In case you are wondering, I used 4 inch pieces of floral wire to attach each bulb to the wreath. First slide the wire through the hook at the end of the bulb. Twist the buld end around the middle of the a few times to hold it on. Then decide where you want the ornament to hang and twist the wire around a section of the wreath.

After I finished this version, I still wasn't totally happy so I went to work on it again. I clustered three bulbs together and hot glued them together. Then I once again used the floral wire to connect the cluster of bulbs to the wreath.

That's it. I've read that you should spritz your wreath with water once a day in order to keep your wreath looking fresh longer. Must. Remember. After viewing my pictures, I also must remember to get a manicure. Working with pine is a little rough on the digits.

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