Christmas Decorations - Indoor Wreath

I love Christmas decorations and in an ideal world every room in the house would be festooned to bursting point. In reality though, every year the living room looks beautifully festive but the decoration of the rest of the house is sporadic at best. So I vow to craft up a storm for next Christmas, but it always seems to creep up on me! You know, it's ages away, it's ages away. it's ages away, oh shit it's here! It's like that scene out of Monty Python's The Holy Grail (but without the carnage 😂!) You'd think by now I'd be better prepared...

So in my attempt to boost the decorations stash I have made a few things, including this indoor wreath. I will be attaching one to every internal door in the house.

I cut a ring from Kraft card with a 15cm outer diameter. I then lined it with pine sprigs that I die cut (I don't know the brand) from green paper. I then die cut holly leaves from two shades of green mirror card using the holly dies in the Tattered Lace Holly & Robin set. Finally I cut several poinsettias using two sizes from the Tattered Lace Poinsettia 2016 set to place over the leaves around the frame. The wreath is finished off with a red bow at the top and a loop of red ribbon for hanging glued to the back. As I cut the holly from green mirror card, I went back over all of the berries with red glitter glue.

In our house the decorations go up on the 1st December. That's only a couple of days away so I won't have a full complement of decorations in time for that, BUT technically I've got until Christmas Day so I'll keep making them and adding them up until then.

6x6 Holly Wreath Card

Wow, was it really May when I last posted on this blog?!  Time is racing past at an alarming rate, which means that Christmas will be here in the blink of an eye!  So, it seems like a good time to start sharing some Christmas projects.

This is a card that I made last Christmas, but I think that I will make some more this year too.  It's pretty straightforward to make.

You will need:

• 6x6 card blank
• Gold Mirror card in different shades
• Kraft card
• Flat back pearls or Liquid Pearls
• Embossing folder
• Bow or ribbon
• Foam Pads
• Glue

I used my Silhouette Portrait to cut out the holly leaves, but you could use a die, or a punch, or if you have the patience, do it by hand!  I also used the Portrait to cut out a ring about 3 inches (7.5cm) in diameter to act as a base for the holly wreath.

• Start with a 6x6 (15x15cm) card blank.  
• Cut a piece of mirror card to leave about a 1/2 cm (1/4 inch) border around the outside (so 5.5x5.5 inches or 14x14cm) and affix to the centre of the card blank.
• Cut a piece of Kraft card about 5x5 inches (13x13cm) and emboss using an embossing folder of your choice.  I used Sheena Douglass' 7x5 swirls folder (one of my favourites).
• Affix the embossed Kraft card square to the centre of the mirror card mat.
• Cut about 20 holly leaves out of different shades of gold mirror card.  If necessary emboss the veins onto each leaf using a ball tool or blunt pencil.
• Cut out a ring about 3 inches (7.5cm) diameter and 5/8 inch (1.5cm) wide from card for the wreath base.
• Attach the holly leaves to the ring, alternating shades and layering some to add dimension.
• Attach a bow at the bottom of the ring.
• Place flat-back pearls in groups of three around the wreath for berries.
• Attach the wreath to the card with foam pads. 
• Place a pearl in each corner of the embossed Kraft panel.

You could also add a sentiment to the front if you wanted.  This would also look great with traditional green holly leaves with red berries, but you could also try pink leaves with turquoise berries, or purple leaves with gold berries or any colour combination that you like for an alternative look.  Just be sure to match the colour of the mirror mat with the holly leaves.

Mini Holly Wreaths

I've been having so much fun making mini holly wreaths. They're so adorable and perfectly sized to sit on the front of an A6 card or to make great hanging ornaments for the Christmas tree.

I made the holly in CraftArtist 2 by using the star shape, selecting the number of points and then using the edit nodes function to manipulate the shape.  I then imported the shape (jpeg) into Silhouette software and used the trace function to generate a cut file. Then it was just a matter of filling the page with the holly in a couple of different sizes and cutting them out from lots of different shades of mirror card with my Portrait.  It probably would have been much easier to download the shape from the Silhoutte store, but where's the fun in that?!

I also cut out lots of rings with an outer diameter of 9cm and an inner diameter of 7.5cm to act as the wreath bases.  Before sticking the holly down I hand-embossed each one (using a blunt pencil or scoring tool) with leaf veins. 4mm rhinestones act as berries and the whole thing is finished off with a small bow. 

Various shades of green on the same wreath give the illusion of depth and I also enjoyed playing around with other colours for a more contemporary look. For the hanging ornaments I added a hanging loop and stuck another round of leaves on the backside so that the wreath looks good on both sides.  Made a little bigger they can be used on A5 cards, and a little bigger again they look great as inside door decorations.  I'll definitely be making more wreaths again next year.