The recent storms have created much damage in local communities East Coast and the Midwest areas. Recycling damaged evergreens into wreaths, roping and other decorations is a fun and inexpensive way to add to the Holiday spirit. In Northeast Ohio we had thousands of damaged trees and some of that can be turned into Christmas Joy.
Since my children were young we would take the time to make gifts for our loved ones. Mom, Papa, Nana and neighbors would receive handmade presents such as wreaths, candles, key holders and decorated flower pots. This year my grand- children will help me make some wreaths, sprays and some indoor arrangements.
The first project will be a spray wreath for Great Grandma’s resting place. We must get the materials together before we start. We will use 3’ to 4’ Blue Spruce Branches that were from a beautiful tree blown over in a storm. The grand kids will collect a five gallon bucket of pine cones from our yard. We will search together for some unusual twisted or colorful branches to add to the spray. A good source is the ‘Walking Stick’ or ‘Contorted Filbert ‘that I have in my yard. We will search in our ‘saved’ Christmas Ribbons to see what we have and what we need. We will also dig out the hot glue gun, some old unused tree ornaments, glitter and thin green florist wire.
Place the 3’ to 4’ branches face up on the ground to start your spray. Once you get four to six branches on the ground arrange them like a x and tie them in the middle with the wire. Adjust the branches to fill out the area and then decide if you need more. Once you get the branches set you can start adding pine cones and twisted branches with a hot glue gun. The next step is to add tree decorations. Great Grandma was a teacher so we picked out a tree ornament book, ornament apple, a small ornament black board and attacked some crayons. The children then wanted to attach some small colorful glass bulbs. The last step is to tie the ribbon around the center and make a nice bow.
The grandchildren also wanted to add glitter to the pine cones. They sprayed hair spray on the cones and added the glitter. When we go the cemetery we take four landscaping staples and push them into the ground over some branches so that it does not blow the spray away.
