Make a Christmas pine cone wreath for less than £5!

I spotted a really cute pine cone wreath the other day but the price tag wasn't so nice at £17.99! Having a little look at it I thought that it would be relatively easy, (and much cheaper) to make my own!

What you’ll need

·         Wire coat hanger

·         Pine cones - I used a combination of shop bought (found a bag in a charity shop for £1) and ones I found in a local forest (just make sure they don’t have bugs or bird poop on them)!

·         Christmas garland (I used the same poundland ones I used in my Make a garland for under £10 post)

·         Wire cutters

·         Pliers

·         Wire

·         Any decorations you want to add (I ended up using LED battery lights in the end from, you’ve guessed it - poundland)!

Step 1

Bend your coat hanger into the shape you want (doesn't have to be too neat as you'll be covering it up)! I decided to go for a heart shape but you could do a traditional round wreath or any shape you fancy!

Step 2

Wrap the garland around the hanger – this gives it a good base and makes it easier to attach the pine cones.

Step 3

Wire the pine cones and then attach them to the wreath. I added the bigger pine cones first then smaller ones. This ensured there was an even coverage

Step 4

Add any further decorations. I’ve only added LED lights but you could keep it plain, add bow, spray with fake snow, or whatever you fancy!

Make a Christmas garland for less than £10

This year I really wanted a Christmas garland to go down our banister.

With Christmas just around the corner though most of my spare cash is being put aside for Christmas presents. A nice shop bought garland can range from £14.99 to £49.99, and the cheaper ones don’t quite have the look I wanted. With that in mind though, I thought I could use the cheaper garlands as a base to make a garland that was just how I wanted.

What I used

(by the way, I didn’t use everything in my pic in the end)!

• Cheap garlands (I found mine in Poundland and used three – most cheap shops will sell a basic, or value garland that could be used instead)
• Wire (I needed thicker wire than the beading wire in my pic)
• Decorations for your garland. I used flowers and holly off some more cheap garlands I found in a local cheapy shop - £1.25, cut up berry napkin rings I found on a charity stall market - 60p and pine cones which you can find for free!
• Handmade felt decorations for the end decoration (felt 30p a square, thread around £1) P.s I’ll show you how I made these in another post!
• Scissors and wire cutters

Total cost – around £7-£8!
Time - about 3hrs

Obviously you can decorate the garland however you want. Baubles, ribbons, maybe even use some sprigs of real holly. Just scour your local shops, charity shops and markets to find what suits your theme and tastes.

Step 1

Measure your garland by wrapping round your banister then cut to size. You’ll be able to see further on in step 4 I didn’t end up wrapping it in the same way as below as once I’d added branches as it was too bushy to wrap like this! I was able to cut about a foot of the end of the length but I’d still advise wrapping as per step 1 to start with as it’s better to have it longer rather than too short!

Step 2

As you can see my garland was only one strand to start with so I needed to make branches. If you have a garland that already has branches you could still add to it to make it a bit bushier or just go straight to the decorating stages!

Making the branches

Take the second and third garland and cut up to make branches.

Cut a length double the size you need as you’ll be wrapping the branch around the main garland. As you’ll be wrapping them round the main garland they will end up shorter than you cut. I cut mine into 30cm lengths then when I wrapped around they ended up about 13cm branches.

Step 3

Bend each length in half and then double wrap around the main garland. As there was wire already in my garland I could just wrap this around without gluing or wiring. If your garland isn't wired you could wrap the branch around wire to give it some structure.

Keep wrapping until you have done the whole garland.

Step 4

Test it on the banister to see if there are any bare spaces (if there are just add a few more branches).

Step 5

Wire your decorations and add onto your garland in even spacing.

I did mine on the floor to give me more space, this also allowed me to rotate the garland as I wired to ensure there is coverage all round.

I started with my pine cones then the flowers, leaves and berries from the napkin rings (and the cat wanted to help too)!

Step 6

Test it again on your banister and add any further decorations where you think necessary!

I’ll upload another picture when I officially put it up for Christmas, I might also add some LED lights and ribbons but here's the finished article!