These are upcycled tiles that I’ve decorated with Art Nouveau or Art Deco Christmas scenes.
Here are some of the tiles….
The how to is here, and you can see that this time I’ve added felt in complimentary colours….
You can’t get your free printout here…
As it’s the first day of autumn today I thought I’d share this old how to on an Autumn Wreath from my previous blog.
I started making this wreath out of vines from the garden last year and decorated it differently at that time. However recent Pinterest searches had me inspired by the Autumn or Fall decor that our cousins the Yanks are so good at. I don’t know whether it’s their Thanksgiving tradition, but they’re decorating at this time of year is awesome, I love it. So I thought I’d give it a go.
Making a vine wreath is simple. Just cut some fresh vines, I actually used some kiwi fruit vines, and start to make a circle with them, starting to weave additional pieces in and out. I eventually tied up my wreath with florist wire as you can see here…
So far so (pretty much) free. I’ve got to say that I would have liked to have made the wreath thicker, but I couldn’t hack away at the vines too much as we were in a gîte of our friends at the time. This really affected how I decorated it.
Due to the thinness I wanted to add some density, and I also wanted the wreath to be used each year, so I bought some silk flowers;
Of course you may just want to add sunflowers if you want to attempt this and this will save you money. Or, if you have the thickness from the vines, you may want to buy just berries, or add pine cones for earthy tones.
I then started to weave out the ‘cotton’ branches just like I’d done the real vines, and I did the same with the berry branches, leaving a space at the top for a burlap tie and bow. I used some more florist wire at this stage to tie it in place.
Next, as the sunflowers were in attached bunches, I separated them with secateurs. These were inserted into spaces around the wreath as well and, where needed, I added extra florist wire.
I’d made the decision not to glue the decorations with hot glue at this time as we are planning our final move (yes, we’re looking to buy in France, woohoo!) and I don’t know what our final house will look like. One house we’ve looked at has a double front door as well as a nearby single one. That would suggest two small wreaths and a large one; so I don’t know if this will be deconstructed and the parts used elsewhere to make a three wreath display, a two wreath display etc. However I do think that gluing the flowers, for example, could ensure I could position them how I’d like (some of the flower heads face the wrong way, for example).
As les petites filles birthdays are so close together I decided to make the wreath an alternate birthday wreath with the little flags. So I have ‘happy birthday’ and then I change one daughter’s name for the other when the time is appropriate.
I don’t know if I’ll keep it as a birthday wreath, perhaps next year I’ll use it as an All Saints/Souls wreath next year? Or if we do end up with a three door house perhaps I’ll have one for each feast day and a third as a birthday wreath? Either way I love the wreath, particularly as we approach the drive and are met with beautiful Autumn colours like these that reflect the wreath….
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