Williamsburg inspired Christmas Fruit Wreath diy
- By Joan
- December 3, 2014
- 2 Comments
Just last week my family was spending a fantastic weekend in the Blue Ridge Mountains, chowing down on a mountain of food. There was corn pudding, sweet potatoes, a mountain of mashed potatoes, 2 turkeys, 2 types of cranberry sauce….
I haven’t even finished digesting when the season changed. I don’t even know how it happened. By the time we got home, my scarecrow, fall leaves and pumpkins looked seriously out of date compared to the decorating my neighbor had done while I was out of town. Somehow, the blow up Santa does not belong parked next to Mr. Scarecrow. I guess it’s time to change.
Usually, I put out a wreath as my first sign of decorating. So even if I haven’t touched the inside of my house, everybody passing will think….wow, she’s really on the ball, her whole house must be totally decorated and so beautiful. At least that’s what I tell myself.
While I have had a fresh fruit wreath in the past, I decided to revisit it this year with…gasp…fake fruit. Yes, I decided to do fake this year, because 1, it lasts longer, 2, it’s not as heavy, 3, the fake fruit these days is pretty realistic and 4, I wanted to. And besides, I had 2, 50% off coupons, from Black Friday shopping to both Michaels and Joanns where they had bags of the fake stuff.
Using a piece of scrap wood, with a jigsaw, cut out a circular wreath form. This form was about 18 inches in diameter and the interior hole, about 5 inches. I would suggest using at least 1/2 inch plywood. My wood was only 1/4 inch because I wanted to use that piece of scrap but the staples you’ll use for the leaves need the extra thickness. This is a case of …don’t do as I do, do as I say…
Temporarily position your fruit and mark. This is where you’ll add 3 inch long galvanized nails or screws.
I used deck screws left over from another project.
Note… this is a great time to add a hole and wire for hanging, before having to work around all your leaves.
Time to gather up greenery for the background.
If you don’t have a magnolia tree available, I would suggest using fake. Since these leaves were not treated, they will get brittle really quickly, the fake will last for years. I would also suggest using fake leaves if you get a lot of wind.
Overlapping around the outside of the wreath, staple the leaves into position. When you hit a nail, just puncture the leaf.
Do the same for leaves facing to the inside of your wreath.
Once all the leaves are secure, the fruit can now be added by either screwing onto your screws or just pressing onto the nails.
To fill in my wreath form, went back out to the garden and trimmed off some boxwood. If your fruit is tight, this can be jammed in between, otherwise, it too, can be stapled into place.
Still thought it needed a little something… so one more trip to the backyard , this time to grab some seed pods from the magnolia. These were hot glued into place. If any fruit is jiggly, it too, can be glued into place. Because my wood was only 1/4 inch, I had to add a couple of strips of wood to the back so the staples wouldn’t scratch against the door. Like I said, use the 1/2 inch plywood if you have it.
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That is a beautiful wreath! Thank you for showing the step-by step for this.
I think this is lovely. You captured the beauty of nature in this wonderful wreath. Memories of Williamsburg came flooding back to me. I saw your link at The Handmade Hangout link party.