This dried flower festive wreath is a little bit different to traditional Christmas wreaths. The good news is that it is really easy to make and as it is mostly all dried, it lasts the whole holiday season. In this blog post I’m going to list all the flowers I used to make this wreath, plus the few simple rules you need to follow in order to make it successfully.

To make this wreath you will need:

• A hot glue gun and glue sticks. Just a mini, cheap one will do.

• A pre-made pine wreath base. These are great as the hard work is already done for you. Creating the base is the most difficult part of wreath-making, but at this time of year you can get a simple pine base from floral wholesalers, flower markets, or you can often find them just being sold on the high street in greengrocers or supermarkets. Buying a pre-made base should cost you no more than £5-£8 depending on the size and costs the same as buying loose pine, florist wire and a wreath ring separately. Floral wholesalers make them to sell as they can sell these easier than just selling loose sprigs.

• A thick piece of luxury ribbon. I’ve used velvet ribbon here.

• Dried foliage. Here I used a few sprigs of dried eucalyptus and Ruscus leftover from an old bouquet, plus some foraged dried fern leaves that I cut from the roadside. All your dried foliage can be foraged if you like. I just used a few sprigs to break up the pine base, but the foliage will mostly be covered with the dried flowers.

• A selection of dried flowers. You can buy dried flowers in bunches from floral wholesalers, flower markets, good quality florists or online and they cost around £5 a bunch. In my wreath I used a couple of pampas stems stripped down into smaller pieces, some dried poppy seed heads, Amaranthus Caudatus Green, Statice Suworowii pink, plus some birch sticks sprayed light pink. You always have loads leftover, so you can make some lovely dried bouquets with the remains.

• Decorative items. I used some peacock and pheasant feathers, fir cones, cinnamon sticks, dried oranges and limes and some dried pink peppercorns.

There are only three key rules to creating this wreath successfully. The first is to make sure that you start adding the foliage first, then the flowers and then the decorative items last, so everything is layered correctly.

The second rule is to make sure that you place all flowers and foliage going in one direction. So, if your pine is threaded in a clockwise motion, make sure everything you add to it follows that pattern. If all your flowers and foliage are pointing in different directions, it will not look cohesive. The wreath needs to look like it could ‘spin around’.

Thirdly, keep an eye on your spacing. If you have 5 sprigs of birch, evenly distribute them around the wreath so they are equal distance apart. If you have 3 feathers, make sure there is the same space between them and one isn’t too close to the other.

Take your ribbon and create a loop with it so that you can tie your wreath to your door. This ribboned section will now act as the ‘top’ of your wreath and will be the starting point to your design.

Take your sprigs of foliage such as your eucalyptus and strip any leaves away from the base of the stalk. At this point you should not need your glue gun and you should be able to thread your foliage twigs in under the wire holding your pine in place. Once secure, heat up your glue gun and gently lift up sections of pine. Take your dried fern and glue the base of the leaves in near the wire. Fold the pine back over so the fern appears ‘tucked in’ with the pine.

Repeat this as you start adding your dried flowers. Apply hot glue to the stems and tuck them into the pine so the flowers are ‘bursting’ from the wreath and the base of the stems and glue cannot be seen.

Once your flowers are in and spaced out accordingly, start adding on your decorative pieces. Use them wisely to hide any bare pieces of pine or to hide any flower stems popping out.

For a full video on how I created this wreath, simply head over to my Instagram feed where I have shared a ‘how-to’ on IGTV.

I am now offering a floristry service for seasonal home decor, parties and events. Please click here to find out more.