Our Wreath for The Tweed Festival of Trees

    In Tweed we are very lucky to have a group of volunteers who create a magical Christmas paradise for the people of Tweed.  This group of ladies works all year to produce the Festival of Trees.   We are most fortunate to have the ladies of Beta Sigma Phi in our community to bring such a magical event to life.  We are also most fortunate to have community members who support these ambitious women's visions of the winter wonderland.  One of these community members is my friend Jane Patel.  Every year Jane either sponsors a wreath or donates money.  I really like it when Jane sponsors a wreath, because that means that I get to decorate it.  

    I love decorating the wreath.  Let me tell you it is not an inexpensive venture to do it properly.  Jane spent upwards of $100.00 just for the decorations.  I could never spend that kind of money on a wreath, but I love to decorate it.  I love that feeling of accomplishment watching the pretty greenery transform into something really special.  

    I also enjoy doing the shopping with Jane for our wreath.  Our theme is always a mystery until we find that special theme while shopping.  This year I tried really hard to convince Jane that we should do a girlie wreath. There were the cutest lipstick ornaments.  I could just picture the looks on my girl's faces when they looked at the wreath.  I had planned lots of pink and lots of sparkle.  Jane looked at me like I had two heads "ahhhh no" she said shaking her head.  In the end we went with a snowman theme.  It was no "Pretty in Pink" as I had fantasized about, but it was still fun.

    The first thing that I did to decorate the wreath, although you can't see it in the above picture was to put the lights on the wreath.  We went with bight blue lights.  It took me much longer than you would think.  I ended up running an extension cord and plugging in the lights so that I could really see how they looked.  Once I had the lights the way I wanted, I wired them all in place.  Let me tell you by the wreath was finished, my fingers ached.  

    The next step after I had wired the lights in place was to add a layer of snow spray.  I quickly wiped up the spray on my kitchen table.  I was unsure if the snow spray would pull the finish off of my table (like it even matters, that beautiful table is peeling worse than a bad sunburn).  I discovered the hard way, that you should give the spray a few minutes to dry before continuing on.

    The next thing I did was to make my blue ribbon.  If anyone would like me to, just leave a message and I could do a tutorial on how to make the ribbon.  Wire ribbon is not necessary, but really makes the job easier.  I then cut the stem off of our gorgeous white and sparkly poinsettia flower.  I wired the poinsettia into the middle of the bow, and then wired the whole thing onto the centre top of the wreath.  

    The snowman was the largest thing on the wreath, and so he went next.  I chose to place him on the side, so that it would not look too symmetrical.  I felt a little badly because I essentially garroted frosty.  I wrapped the wire around his neck tightly, under his scarf.  I then wired him onto the wreath.

    Next was the white branches.  They were much bigger bundles, but I cut them down.  I tried to hide them in the under branches.  Wiring, wiring, wiring.... everything had to be wired.  After each layer of decoration I would stand on top of a chair and see where the next ornaments had to go.  I added the glass "Winter Wonderland" ornaments last.  I tried to space them around the wreath.  The last thing I did was to add a more concentrated snow spray along the branches that did not have ornaments.

    There was a certain amount of humble pride when Rowan and Riley searched the Festival of Trees to find the wreath that I had made.  They were really proud of it.  It was a little pat on the back.  They sufficiently ooohed and awwwed over it.  

    I really enjoy doing the wreath.  It's an opportunity to be crafty, and not have to pay for any of it!  It allows me to be crafty, and not take up room in my already overcrowded little house.