Brrrr..... It's COLD outside! After spending a day out in the cold creating holiday wreaths, arrangements and outdoor displays with some of my favorite friends from the Pine Lake Garden Club I'm really for something hot and delicious to warm me up.
This was the 8th year I've gathered garden club members at Beaver Lake Park in Sammamish and hosted a wreath making workshop. The setting is so beautiful
you can't help but being inspired. With the temperature hovering about 25 degrees we quickly built a fire in the massive stone fireplace to start warming up the shelter. Each member arrived with armloads of freshly cut greens from their yards. Cedar, fir, pine, holly, evergreen huckleberry, culinary bay, laurel, plus red and yellow twigged dogwood and snowberry among others. Using a wire form available at most craft shops, and some heavy plastic drop cloth, we made easy to decorate wreath forms.

Here's how -

  

      You'll need a wreath form (without wire prongs)

      A 3-4 mil plastic drop cloth

      Scissors and a stapler

    

Open the package of dropcloth but leave it folded. Cut 3 inch strips across the folded plastic. You'll need two or three strips for each wreath. When unfolded each strip will be a long length of plastic sheeting. Staple one end around the outer wire frame. Wrap the frame overlapping each wrap slightly so that the wrapping is offset about an inch or two. When you reach the end of the plastic, staple the end to the frame and begin another length stapled as before and continue wrapping in the same direction. Continue until the entire frame is wrapped.

The overlapping creates pockets (I've got a pencil slid into one in the photo above).

Cut your branches into pieces about a foot long and stuff them into the pockets created by the wrapped plastic. Add the branches so that the inner and outer edges are covered as well as the top. Continue adding branches of your choice all the way around the wreath. You can go back later and add to any areas that seem too skimpy and also add embellishments of decorative or berried branches, as well as ornaments, wired pine cones or a bow.

And look at the results!

Pine Lake Garden Club members with their fresh holiday wreaths and arrangements.

This year besides making a wreath, I also created a little tree made from snips of boxwood, an indoor floral arrangement and a large outdoor arrangement for my front entryway. Hope you have as much fun as we did...