When I decorated my front porch for a Fall Blog Hop, my goal was to use simple and affordable {aka cheap or free} decor. Many of the elements came together easily, except…a wreath. I struck gold when I was thinking through what I had access too, and realized that I could make my own grapevine wreath…for free!
Wait, what? Free? Yup. I know that these can be purchased cheaply at craft stores, but I really wanted to use what I had. So, my daughter and I went around our property and we began pulling grapevines out of bushes and trees. I just kind of made it up as I went, and now I want to teach you. That way, you don’t have to wing it!
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So, here are the {easy} steps to make your own grapevine wreath. And it can be done in only an hour. Simple, natural, free, and quick!
1. Gather grapevines: search your property. And if you don’t have any growing wild, ask around. Trust me, people don’t mind you {asking and then} coming to pull down their grapevine. And if all else fails: drive down a country road with no homes and start pulling some from the trees on the side of the road. True story since I didn’t have enough on my property. (Best part: embarrassing your 12 year old. Yeah, buddy, those oak trees sure are laughing at you. Ha! Literally no one was around, but us.)
This is what they will look like:
2. Remove all of the leaves.
3. Gather the vines, one by one into a circular shape. This is when you will set the height and width of your wreath, so make your circle accordingly.
It is also best to have an extra set of hands in the beginning of this step. Grapevines are a bit unruly and don’t want to cooperate at first. But, you’ve got this.
4. As you are forming these into a circle, start new vines at different parts of the wreath. This will help keep you from having a thick beginning and scraggly ending. It also helps as you will want to tuck some of the ends between other vines. Sometimes, wrapping some of the vines around the entire bunch will control some of the more “rowdy” vines.
5. Stop when you have reached your desired look…or have run out of vines. Tuck in any ends that are protruding and you are done! These are the two wreaths that my daughter and I made:
6. Hang your wreath up! In case you want an easy and natural-looking hanger, you can follow these steps to use burlap to hang the wreath.
- Cut a 4 foot length of burlap into a 4-inch strip.
- Fold the strip over to straighten out your cutting. Wrap this strip through the wreath and adhere it to the back of your door. You can use push pins, a Command Hook, or be like me {or maybe not} and use some clear packing tape! {Yikes! } Trim off any unneeded burlap from the back of the door.
A few final tips:
- Late summer/early fall is the perfect time to gather grapevines. They have grown all summer and are at great lengths.
- Make your wreath as soon as you can after pulling the vines. I have found that letting them dry will create the opposite effect than you want as they will become brittle and break. Green living vines are so pliable and now is the time to form them into a circle.
- The green vines will dry after you have made your wreath and it won’t take long for them to turn brown.
- Don’t pull the little curlies off the vines as they add whimsy to the wreath.
- Have fun and let it be a little wild…just call it character!
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