A broken, freeze-dried branch, thanks to the recent snowstorm, and a little time on a Sunday afternoon. Now we have autumn on our door.
I’m always amazed at the wild beauty created for us to see and appreciate, and then create with ourselves. Free art supplies. With some wire (a coat hanger formed into a circle will work) and brown pipe cleaner stems (twist ties would even work), and a pile of leaf stems cut to 10”-12” in length (these were trimmed off a branch that was plucked from the trash heap), this didn’t cost a thing. Love that.
What’s your favorite, natural way to bring autumn home?
If you’d like to make one too…
Take your pile of cut leaf stems (cut a lot, you’ll need more than you’d think), and lay them in a line on your work surface, overlapping the top leafy end of each one over the stem end of the one before it.
Carefully form the line of overlapping leaf stems into a circle. Move and add stems until it looks best.
Using pipe cleaner stems cut to 3-4” long, and bent in half like a hairpin, bind the stems together at overlapping points from the front side to the back, firmly twisting each pipe cleaner on the back side of the wreath.
Determine the size of the wire circle you’ll need by turning the wreath over, right-side down and looking at the circle of leaf stems that you just created. Cut your wire and bend it into a circle; secure by twisting the wire ends onto the circle.
Lay the wire circle on the back side of the wreath (that’s still facing up), and carefully untwist each pipe cleaner, include the wire in the wrap, and twist-tighten again, all the way around.
Hang the wreath from your door or wall.
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