I made my own Christmas wreaths!

Back when I was in grad school, I made a wreath for myself. I put chili peppers and all sorts of fun things in it. I still have it and still display it, but it's starting to fall apart. I decided to make a myriad of wreaths this year, for myself and for gifts. This is what I came up with! 

Let's start with this wintery holly wreath. 

First, I took a foam wreath form, and wrapped it in white tinsel garland. 

Then, I hot glued the tinsel to the wreath in several places. 

Next, I placed the branches on the wreath. I tucked the branches underneath the garland and hot glued them. 

I had bought a bunch of holly branches, which I used for the branches and the decorations. Next, I glued the holly leaves around the wreath. 

Woo! This is what I had come up with at this point. I took a few minutes to make sure everything was securely hot glued to the base of the wreath. 

Then, I attached the berries to the wreath as well. 

This is how it looked at this point. 

Finally, I added some "icy" touches to the wreath. 

The photos don't do it justice, but they shimmer and sparkle just like ice. 

I love how the holly berries pop out. I really wanted to keep this for myself, but really, it's perfect for one of my friends for Christmas. It will go with their decor perfectly. 

NEXT, I made a wreath out of that mesh ribbon substance. 

First, I cut clear pipe cleaners into 3 equal pieces and attached them to the wire wreath frame as shown. 

I did this all the way around the wreath. 

The next part is the fun part. Gather the end of your mesh and attach to the wreath with a twist tie/pipe cleaner. Start at the inside. Gather the mesh up a few inches farther up, then attach to the wreath with the next twist tie. Go all the way around the inside of the wreath, then go out to the next layer until you've gone all the way around the wreath. 

Then, I took some wide, wired ribbon and wrapped it around the wreath, weaving it in and out and between the layers of the mesh. 

Then, I put my decorations on it. I had some large pom poms and three sets of HO HO HO letters. 

I hot glued them to the mesh on the wreath. 

It still needed some shimmer and sparkle, so I outlined all of the letters with a silver glitter glue, and then a clear glitter glue. I like the final result and am putting it in an auction as a fundraiser for the school. 

ANOTHER wreath I made was really simple. I didn't even take photos of making it, and now I regret that! I wrapped a small wire wreath frame in tinsel garland and hot glued it to the frame. 

Then, I added a bunch of metallic holly ornaments (I think I found them at Walmart) and some really cute metal red curly things to the wreath and hot glued them all together. This wreath is going to be a gift for one of my preschool/Kinder Bible study helper leaders. 

FINALLY, I have wanted a jingle bell wreath for years, so finally, I bought all the supplies and made one for myself! 

It only required a metal wire wreath form and a bunch of metal jingle bells. 

Just start hot gluing the jingle bells to the frame. 

I turned it over and made sure I securely glued the bells to the frame from the back. 

Just keep going, gluing bells on top of each other and to the frame until you're satisfied with how it looks. 

I made several other wreaths as well, but they're all the same concept... pick your base, wrap/attach the base material, then attach all of your embellishments! I made a few wreaths mostly made of poinsettias, a bird wreath as a gift, a really pretty mesh wreath with poinsettias as another gift, a red and green wreath that I'm not sure what to do with, and a red and white wreath that I keep tinkering with because I'm just not happy with it. I also made a wreath to honor my grandma who passed away... I found all of her favorite pink and blue flowers (fake, of course) and glued them to a wreath base made of sticks. Then, I added butterflies and birds. It pretty much is my grandmother in a wreath. 

What would you put in your wreath?