Laurie’s Cobalt World Blog

 

Grapevine wreaths are as varied as the individuals who make them.  They can take on a Victorian look, a feeling of holidays, a country charm, or even be a little quirky.  The great thing about them is that they aren’t hard to make.  Just follow these few basic steps.

Planning Your Grapevine Wreath

You want to look ahead a bit and decide a few things before you gather your supplies and purchase your materials.  Grapevine wreaths come in sizes ranging from gigantic to tiny.  Or you can twist your own.   Remember that large grapevines are more expensive to decorate and take a large space to display.

You’ll want to decide whether you are going to decorate the entire wreath, decorate an arc on the bottom, or decorate an arc on the side.  You will need many more flowers and much more greenery to decorate an entire wreath than you will to decorate just a portion of it.

Also decide ahead of time whether you are making a spring, summer, fall, or winter (holiday) wreath.  Each season has its own feeling.  Drastically mixing seasons may not be a successful plan.

Give a lot of thought to your color scheme.  Think of where you want to hang the wreath - on or by the door, in a hallway, in your bedroom, in the bathroom.  Make sure your colors will work well in that area.  Or perhaps you will give the grapevine wreath as a gift.  Take the recipient’s color schemes and preferences into consideration.  (The wreath would make a great housewarming gift!)

You can plan a monochromatic color scheme where all of the flowers are the same color (though they may vary in different shades or tints).  Adding white, gray, or black can also be part of a monochromatic color scheme.

Complimentary colors include purple and yellow, blue and orange (or peach), red (or pink) and green.  Or look on any color wheel and choose colors next to each other.  I love blue, lavender, and pink.  Another choice is to select all primary colors (red or pink, blue, and yellow) or secondary colors (purple, orange, and green).  The season you chose will help you to choose your color scheme, too.

You will also want to decide ahead of time whether you will be basing your decoration on a pattern of 3 or a pattern of 4, if you are going all of the way around.  That is, you will be repeating the same basic series of flowers either 3 or 4 times around the circle (or 5 or 6 even).  If you are decorating an arc, then you will want to purchase flowers in even numbers, except perhaps for a large focal point decoration.

Purchasing Materials

You will need the following materials:

• - grapevine wreath
• - floral picks (3 or 4 inches are best)
• - green floral tape (brown if you are making a fall wreath with brown stems)
• - “silk” greenery (it takes more than you think)
• - “silk” flowers, berries, nuts, fruits, butterflies, or other decorations
• - wired ribbon, if you are making a bow (approximately 3 yards, minimum)
• - hot glue gun
• - wire cutters
• - needle-nosed pliers
• - 18- to 22-gauge wire

When choosing your flowers, be sure to choose a variety of sizes.  If you choose to base your decoration on a pattern of four, for example, make sure you have four of the largest flower you wish to use.  You may need 8 of the next size (perhaps 4 of each of two different colors, shapes, or textures).  You will also want to purchase small filler flowers.  It is also a good idea to have some round, dish-shaped flowers such as sunflowers and then some longer, wispy decorations like pussy willow, berries, or wheat stalks.

Make A Hanger

First, make a hanger for your wreath.  Cover 1 piece of wire with floral tape (12 to 18 inches).  Starting at the top, wrap the wire with the tape, and wind down the length of it, stretching and using the warmth of your fingers to make the tape stay in place. 

On the back to of your wreath, thread the covered wire through several strong branches.  Cross the two ends leaving a loop about three inches in diameter.  Twist the ends and cut off the excess.  Turn the twisted part inside the wreath.  Insert something about the size of a fat felt marker into the loop and twist (not too tight - you have to remove the marker!).  Bend the loop upward.  You should have a nice hanger for your wreath.

When To Add Greenery

You may choose to cover your wreath first with greenery or you may decide to add the greenery at the end.  It is your choice.  For the wreath pictured on this post, I put in the greenery afterward, but I think I would have been able to use it more effectively had I placed it first.

Floral Picks

For each item, you will be adding a floral pick to the stem.  You may make a wreath by just inserting the stems of the decorations into the wreath, but they will not be secure.  It is better to pick them.

To add a pick to a stem, overlap the top of the pick (the part with the wire on it) and the stem about the width of two fingers.  Wrap the wire just around the stem once, and then begin wrapping around both the stem and pick, moving down the pick.  Once you reach the end of the stem, wind the wire back up the stem and make sure both ends of the wire are lying flat against the pick or stem.

Using floral tape, begin covering the pick by wrapping the tape around just above the pick and moving down to just below the pick.  As your wrap, use the warmth of your fingers to help the tape stick to the stem and pick, and gently stretch the tape as you go  Tear the tape off when you finish wrapping.  Do not cut the tape ahead of time. 

Use the ring and pinkie fingers of your dominant hand to hold the spool of tape, allowing it to spin freely as you go.

Attaching Floral Picks To Stems

 Assemble Your Grapevine Wreath

If you are decorating the entire wreath, insert all of your stems either clockwise or counter clockwise.  Just be consistent.  If you are decorating just an arc, then the stems will be inserted toward your focal flower or decorations.

Start with your large or focal point decorations and then move to your medium flowers, and finally fill in with the smallest flowers or decorations.

If you planned a design based on threes, place your largest flowers space 1/3 of the circumference apart.  If you planned a design based on fours, then place your largest flowers 1/4 of the circumference apart.

If you planned to use a bow, make sure you save room for it.  It can be placed on the top, on the bottom, or any place that complements your design.  The bow should be attached with wire that has been covered with floral tape.

 Make Your Bow

(Making a bow is the hardest part of this project.  It is perfectly acceptable to make your wreath without a bow, to purchase a bow, or to use a bow maker.)

Cover a piece of 18- to 22-gauge wire with floral tape. 

Make a small loop, with a 1- to 2-inch diameter.  This small loop will hide the wire that attaches it to the wreath.  Holding the bottom of the loop between two fingers, twist the remaining ribbon 180 degrees at the point where the ribbon is held by your fingers.

Make a loop with the ribbon half the size you want your bow to be.  As you bring the ribbon back between your fingers, twist it 180 degrees.

Make a loop in the opposite direction of the same size.  You can pull the loops up together to check their length.  Twist the ribbon as it passes between your fingers again. 

Repeat until the amount of ribbon left is twice the length of any ribbon you want to hang down.  At that point, make a huge loop that goes down and comes around so that just the tail end can be caught between your two fingers with the rest of the bow.

Run the prepared wire through the tiny loop and capture all of the ribbon you have been holding with your two fingers.  Twist to tighten.

Pull out and twist each loop of the bow, alternately pulling one loop in each direction.  Adjust the roundness of the loops.

Cut the huge loop at the bottom to allow two ribbons to hang down.  You may wish to arrange them into ringlets or a gentle curve.

Attach the bow to the wreath with the wire that was twisted around the middle of the bow.  After passing the wire behind some branches, twist them together.  Then roll the ends of the wire, one at a time, around a pen or pencil.  Once you remove your tool, the result should look like vine tendrils.

Finish Your Wreath

If your wreath is to be hung indoors, you are ready to put a hanger on the wall and show off your accomplishment.  If you want to hang it on your front door, you may want to treat it with Scotch Guard first. 

You will be amazed at what you can create in just two or three hours’ time.  The grapevine wreath is a great project with a very satisfying product at the end.

We’re less than two weeks until Mother’s Day and that means less than two weeks until our Mother’s Day tea.  This weekend, my number one goal was to make invitations and get them out. 

I first thought I’d look for ideas on the internet but I really didn’t find anything that I liked.  So I went to the drawing board and created my own design.  I am pleased with how they turned out.  According to my husband, the pictures don’t do them justice.  But I think you can get some ideas of what you can do with the patterns yourself.

And yes, I’m going to give you the free printable patterns for the tea party invitations.  And you don’t have to join anything to sign up to get them, either.

First, gather your supplies.  You will need the following:

- 1 sheet of decorative paper for each pair of teapot invitations, if you want to print two per page

- scraps of decorative paper to trim the teapots (may also use glitter, buttons, lace, etc.)

- 1 sheet of color-coordinating cardstock for each invitation

- color-coordinating solid paper to print the wording on  - 3 fit per page

- 1 sheet of 12 x 12 cardstock for the envelope pattern

- 1 sheet of 12 x 12 colored cardstock paper for each envelope (may also be called cover stock)

- scissors

- glue sticks

- ruler

- pencil

Cut the colored cardstock into rectangles 7-3/4 inches long and 6 inches wide.  One for each invitation.

Use the teapot template and print out as many teapots as you will need for invitations.  I printed mine on the back of the paper so that I didn’t have to worry about partially showing black lines.  Also, I wanted them to have a more handmade look and feel rather than the look of something I just printed out. 

Test print the teapot.  Make sure the teapot is 5-1/8″ tall.  If not, adjust the image size before printing on your fancy paper.

Carefully cut out the teapots and use the glue sticks to attach one to each card.

Cut two small rectangles from coordinating paper (or use other trimmings).  The top band is 3-1/8 inches wide and 1/4 inch tall.  The bottom band is also 3-1/8 inches wide, but is 1/2 inch tall.  Use the glue stick to glue on the decorations.

Print the wording using this template.  It is in MS Word.  If you need a different format, email me.  The image should be around the wording and should be 2-1/2 inches tall and 4-1/2 inches wide.  If you need to adjust it, do so before you change the wording to your own.  Cut out the wording, removing all traces of the black guide.  Glue the wording onto the teapot.

You are not quite done.  You will need to make a coordinating envelope, too.

Start with the white 12 x 12 cardboard and make a template.  That will make the remaining envelopes very easy to make.

The directions may sound complicated, but if you take them one step at a time, it won’t be hard.

Near the bottom left hand corner, along the bottom, write “bottom” so that you can keep the template oriented the same way as you follow the directions.

We will start by drawing a parallelogram on the cardstock.

Starting in the bottom left-hand corner, measure 11-1/8 inches up the left side and place a dot.  Repeat on the right side, measuring up from the bottom right-hand corner.  Connect the dots with a line.  Cut on the line. 

Now measure from the bottom left-hand corner across the bottom of the paper 11-1/8 inches and place a dot.  You will repeat on the top line, but you will be starting on the top right-hand corner and measure measuring to the left 11-1/8 inches.   

Connect the bottom left-hand corner and the top left dot with a line.  Cut off the long, tall triangle that results.  Connect the bottom right dot with the top right corner with a line.  Cut off the long, tall triangle that results.  Your cardstock will look like a square that has been pushed over just slightly.

Starting on the bottom left-hand corner, measure to the right 4-1/2 inches and also 5-1/2 inches and place a dot at each location.  From the bottom right-hand corner, measure up 5-1/2 inches and 6-1/2 inches and place a dot at each location.  From the top right-hand corner, measure left 4-1/2 inches and 5-1/2 inches and place a dot at each location.  From the top left-hand corner, measure down 5-1/2 inches and 6-1/2 inches and place a dot in each location. 

Now here’s the hard part (not to do, for me to explain).  Imagine an unbalanced tic-tac-toe board with a huge center and small outside squares.  Connect the dots to make such a tic-tac-toe pattern, which will create a small triangle near the middle of each side.  Snip out those triangles.

(Alternatively, you can number the dots.  Starting from the bottom left and continuing to the right, 1 & 2. Then turn and go up the right-hand side and number them 3 & 4.  Turn left again and go across the top, and number them 5 & 6.  Turn left again and number the last two 7 & 8.  Connect 1 to 4, 2 to 7, 3 to 6,  and 5 to 8.)

From the top left-hand corner, measure down 1-1/4 inches and then to the right 1-1/4 inches.  Connect the dots, draw a line, and cut off the corner.  That corner is the bottom flap of the envelope.

Use the template to draw the pattern on the 12 x 12 cardstock paper (thinner than cardstock but heavier than typing paper), 1 per invitation.  To assemble, turn the bottom flap up first (the one with the tip cut off).  Fold in the right and left sides at the same times, making sure you match the tips.  Use the glue stick to glue just the outside of the bottom edges of the side flaps.  Dry completely.

If you want to line the envelope, you can line the entire back, but it makes it hard to fold unless you have some very thin paper.  I used the top flat template (down to where the little triangle cut-outs start on each side).  Then glued that triangle to the top flap, aligning the bottom of the triangle with the crease.

Fold the top over.  You may a glue stick or use a seal to close the envelope once the invitation is inside.

While I don’t think that you have to knock yourself out every time you entertain, every now and then it’s nice to pull out all of the stops and attend to every little detail.  For me, this tea party is going to be just that kind of event.